Hayek can’t hit the action mark
an over-the-top central idea and plot, the writing duo stretch credibility to painstakingly ludicrous levels, not least Everly’s decision to bring her little daughter into this type of carnage.
Lynch and Hannon also can’t seem to settle on a tone. One minute we’re “treated” to a comedic clean-up sequence, the next watching someone being tortured with sulphuric acid.
Fortunately, though, the director uses several creative flourishes to make the most of his limited locations. Tracking and high angle camera shots, CCTV, quick cuts and a firstperson video game shoot ’em-up-style killing spree all point to the potential for bigger and better things for Lynch going forward.
As ludicrous as many of them are, Lynch also has an eye for an inventive kill and bizarre assassins – including a feral caged madman and demented Geishas – as Everly racks up a higher body count than an above average day at the office for Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. It’s a good job, too, because little else would make Hayek’s heroine stand out. She may look the part shooting up a gang of thugs in her nightdress, but Hayek’s attempts at wisecracks fail miserably and beyond her impressive physicality there’s little to make her appeal.
Lynch fails to end things with a bombastic enough bang as well, with the weak climax feeling rather tame compared with what’s gone before.
Too mean-spirited to class as tongue-in cheek and exploitative to the max, Everly takes a promising set-up and bogs it down with stupidity.