London Calling

Like its handsome anti-hero, this movie sometimes misfires, but it is easy on the eyes.

Josh Duhamel, always excellent, plays Tommy Ward, a hitman for some British gangsters. He’s reached that age when he should have his eyes checked, but he is too stubborn and perhaps too vain, so he just squints a bit more when he points his gun. In the opening scene, at a masquerade ball, he is directed to kill a guy in a horse mask. Because of his poor vision, he mistakenly kills someone in a donkey mask. This sets the dark comic tone for the film, but it doesn’t have the unabashed, slightly sociopathic brio of “Pulp Fiction,” so if a lethal “oops” doesn’t strike your funny bone, this film may not be for you.

To make it worse, the man Tommy killed is a distant relative of the crime boss, Freddy Darby (Aiden Gillan), who is known, as we are repeatedly told, for taking family very seriously. So after a quick farewell to his young son, now living with his ex-wife and her new husband, Tommy escapes to Los Angeles, as far from London as he can.

Some time later, we see Tommy driving a beater car and working for an LA crime boss named Benson (Rick Hoffman). Freddy discovers where Tommy is and comes after him. The only way for Tommy to get away is to train Benson’s doughy, LARP-ing teenage son in the ways of the assassin.

That whole tough guy forced to spend time with LARP kid thing was handled much better in “Role Models.” On the other hand, the whole tough guy tenderized by kid thing is better here than “Cop and a Half,” “My Spy,” and so many other interchangeable, forgettable others, not to mention Christoph Waltz’s “Old Guy,” which came out seven months ago.

In this case, Tommy’s charge is not exactly a kid. Julian (Jeremy Ray Taylor) is 18. Benson is alternately horrified and disgusted with him. He describes him to Tommy as “kind of like Rain Man but he really sucks at math.” Does he really think going out on a job with a hitman is going to make him into a model of toxic masculinity so he can take over the family business? This is not the kind of movie that ponders that question. We’ve got the set-up. What matters is how it is going to play out.

And that part, if you think of the carnage as a well-choreographed cartoon, is pretty good. Duhamel, amusingly but accurately described as having “oddly perfect bone structure,” also has oddly perfect and almost always overlooked timing. The done of this movie never quite settles, but Duhamel has a lock on Tommy’s character, and every minute he’s on screen is better than this movie has a right to be. It’s funny that just as Tommy’s aim is off due to his unwillingness to have his eyes checked, but Julian’s house of playing Fortnite have given him deadly accuracy with a gun.

The grudging teamwork that builds up between them is as plausible as it needs to be, as Tommy taps into the part of him that misses being a father to his son. It sags toward the end with that “Role Model” type veer into LARP and an oddly sour final moment. But it’s worth watching for Duhamel and the fight scenes.

Parents should know that this is an extremely violent story with the main character a hitman and many murders and injuries. There are some graphic and disturbing images and sounds, a brief non-explicit scene with porn, very strong language, drinking, and drugs.

Family discussion: Why wouldn’t Tommy get glasses? How did spending time with Tommy change Julian’s relationship with his father? How did their time together make Tommy think differently about his relationship with his son? Does a man have to solve his own problems? Why?

If you like this, try: “Shoot Em Up” and “Mr. Right”