By: Trevor Chartrand

The Channel, directed and co-written by William Kaufman, is a sub-par action-thriller that lacks charisma and crowd-pleasing charm.  A typical B-Movie in almost every way, the film feels completely unoriginal and uninspired, borrowing many tropes and concepts from much more successful films.

The film stars Max Martini (SGT. Will Gardner) and Clayne Crawford (of TV’s Lethal Weapon), who play two bank-robbing brothers hell-bent on leaving New Orleans after their latest caper goes wrong.  They’re up against Nicoye Banks, who plays the cool, smooth-talking Special Agent Frank Ross, who has been tasked with tracking them down.  Now, if all that sounds familiar, it’s because The Channel is essentially a watered-down, much poorer version of 1995’s Heat.

Kaufman and co-writer Paul Reichelt’s script is painfully bland, and most notably fails to establish and develop characters properly before rushing into the action sequences.  It’s hard to gauge who these people are, what they’re fighting for, and what’s at stake for them during the initial bank heist.  Going into the bulk of the story, all we know about our two protagonists is that one ‘has baby’ and the other ‘tells jokes’.  Sadly, the characters don’t get much deeper than that. 

These character failings may be excusable in a ‘mindless action flick’ if the action sequences were at least compelling and memorable but, unfortunately, that’s not the case here.  The Channel’s action scenes are clunky at best, and truly fail to get the adrenaline pumping.  The fight sequences feel unoriginal and tired from the start, especially with an opening scene staged to resemble an FPS video game (Hardcore Henry was released eight years ago, folks). 

If that execution doesn’t make the viewer’s eyes roll, here’s an exposition scene that will draw that reaction out them: following the bank heist, Agent Ross commends the tactical skill and military precision that the robbers had used to escape – which hilariously contradicts the chase sequence we’d just seen on-screen, featuring the so-called ‘hardened marines’ hiding behind a dumpster while a team member stands unprotected in an empty parking lot providing cover fire.  The choreography of the action scenes is awkward, unconvincing, and poorly paced.  Fights and chases also go on for far too long, especially considering we don’t know the characters well enough to understand any of their choices.  

With sloppy action and underdeveloped characters, The Channel feels messy and rushed – a victim of the ‘quick and cheap’ filmmaking mindset.  The film doesn’t have anything new to say, and will leave bored movie goers unsatisfied.

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Trevor Chartrand: @OhHaiTrebor