TRIGGER Happy sees Jessica Alba get her Rambo on in a drab action-thriller, now streaming on Netflix.
Alba plays the role of Parker, a skilled Special Forces commando called home to her honky-tonk hometown after tragedy strikes.
A deadly US servicewoman, putting manners on terrorists overseas, she returns to find the town of Creation overrun by shady arms dealers engaged in domestic terrorism.
Parker, faced with the tragic news of the death of her father, now the finds herself the new owner of the family bar, as she tries to uncover the truth of his unexplained demise.
The further she digs, the bigger hole she makes for herself, and with the help of former boyfriend Jess (Mark Webber), his trouble-making brother Elvis (Jake Weary), and their corrupt father Senator Swann (Anthony Michael Hall), she pokes around in all the wrong places to seek the truth.
But there’s more to this dusty backwater than rolling tumbleweed and Parker finds herself caught in the crossfire of a treacherous political conspiracy and dodgy arms dealing shenanigans connected to her father’s death.
Not sure who she can trust, she must rely on her kick-ass commando training as she goes about settling scores and putting her hometown back on the right track.
Her covert ops partner and hacker Spider (Tone Bell) and local dealer Mike (Gabriel Basso) are her only backup as she delves out her own brand of hard justice using knives and hand-to-hand combat.
Brought to us by the production team behind the John Wick franchise, this film proves a rather pedestrian and by-the-numbers action thriller. Sin City star Alba is poorly cast in the leading role as this female Rambo as she’s just too glum and joyless to be convincing.
Despite explosions and fight scenes aplenty, Trigger Happy is underwhelming and surprisingly downbeat with it. In truth, I have seen better choreographed fights at local authority meetings.
(2/5)
