Off the Grid Movie Review – Josh Duhamel’s MacGyver-Esque Action Flick Entertains

Johnny Martin’s Off the Grid could be about any Big Tech company nowadays. Josh Duhamel’s Guy, a super-smart scientist, develops a new type of technology that harbors the potential to change the world. However, the company he works for only sees dollars, choosing a route of weaponizing the tech. So, Guy grabs the goods and goes on the run – off the grid to be exact. The evil company locates him and decides it wants the tech back – by any means necessary.

The script, written by James Agnew, chooses simplicity over swerves. There aren’t many surprises hidden in this tale, as it’s exactly as described above: Guy is on the run and the company tries to catch him. That’s it. Of course, there are auxiliary characters who assist Guy, such as María Elisa Camargo’s Josey and Michael Zapesotsky’s Chase, but Off the Grid comes alive when Ricky Russert’s Marcus and Greg Kinnear’s Ranish arrive on the scene and Guy needs to protect himself.

Russert and Kinnear play polar opposite antagonists. Russert’s Marcus is a deliciously bad dude, whose willingness to lick boots and prove himself extend to the realm of murder. There’s no line he won’t cross to win employee of the month, that’s for sure. Kinnear’s Ranish, on the other hand, blurs the line a bit. Yeah, he’s a company man through and through, but he isn’t quite as gung ho as Marcus in his approach. These two characters add a special flavor to the story, since they also clash with each other over their methods and create another layer of conflict.

Duhamel’s Guy establishes himself as a different type of protagonist in the action genre. He’s more MacGyver than John Wick, because he doesn’t have weapons or special combat training, so he needs to use his smarts to keep the baddies at bay. Like an MIT-trained Kevin McCallister, he sets up traps and devices to do the damage for him. He’s in the woods and only has access to whatever’s at the convenience store and the environment around him, so these contraptions are as basic as they come, but it’s fun to see how Guy makes them work to his advantage. Although, some of these bad guys are dumb as rocks here, making Stormtroopers look like accurate marksmen in comparison and walking into traps like lemmings.

Martin affords a good chunk of Off the Grid‘s runtime to the chase/action scenes, and the film is better off because of it. As emphasized, this isn’t a complex nor multilayered tale. Everyone knows what the conflict is about, so there’s no need to hammer home too many subplots. In fact, the entire pseudo-romance between Guy and Josey could have been cut entirely, but then again, this is Martin’s effort at a happy ending for the characters, so there is a reason for this story decision. That said, Off the Grid shines when it sticks to the game plan.

Lionsgate and Grindstone Entertainment Group haven’t had the greatest track record with action films lately. Sylvester Stallone and Scott Eastwood’s Alarum was meh, while Stallone and Jason Patric’s Armor was even worse. Fortunately, it appears like they’re back on the right track with Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror’s martial arts masterpiece Diablo and now Off the Grid. Martin produces a tidy and gripping action flick that keeps the viewers on their toes and delivers exactly what you think the movie is about.

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