A Decent Southern Noir! Fast Charlie (2023) || Movie Review

For a long time now, I have been waiting for a proper action movie written just for Mr. Pierce Brosnan. Now, I got it and I was satisfied with it. I can't say I was excessively impressed but I was not disappointed either.

Since 1995 when I saw the James Bond movie series, I have liked Pierce Brosnan's works and I always look out for his movies. So when I saw the trailer of this movie a few months back, I was already excited to see it.

This movie wants to be a controversial film because of how a lot of people were expecting to see Pierce Brosnan of 1995 to reappear in this movie. Nowadays, we have so many high expectations for movies because we have seen it all, but then we forget to praise movies that don't have a grand idea but begin in an honest space and maintain it all through from beginning till the end. Fast Charlie is a decent thriller that doesn't have the exploding thrilling energy but has solid pacing to be amazing and a well written Southern Noir.

’Fast Charlie (2023)” is an action thriller that is based on a novel titled ’Gun Monkeys’ which was written by Victor Gischler. It was directed by Phillip Noyce and screenplay written by Richard Wenk. It starred Pierce Brosnan, Morena Baccarin, James Caan, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Jared Bankens, Kevin Wayne, Christopher Matthew Cook and David Kallaway.

The movie started with introducing us to Charlie, who is a concierge that has worked for his boss, Stan for 33 years. They are not just work buddies but are also close friends. Charlie got a job from Stan to take care of a person named Rollos but this mission did go well as the assassin that was employed, Donut to take out Rollos did it in a messy way that made the victim's body unrecognizable. This created a big problem for Charlie. With Rollos’ body recognition there won't be pay for Charlie.

However, Charlie finds another way to make Rollos body recognition problem go away. He located his ex-wife, Marcie, for another means of recognizing Rollos’ body. Charlie succeeded in convincing Rollos ex-wife to help him. On the other hand, naughty Donut was planning to take Rollos body to Beggar, the money maker for mafia boss Sal. He almost succeeded but because he was silly, he shot himself in the head and crashed into a tree trunk and destroyed Rollos’ body.

This became another problem for Charlie, but then he convinced Marcie to help him again which she did even though she never wanted to go back into her past life. With her help he was able to solve Rollos’ body recognition problem but something else happened when he discovered that he was the last man standing after seeing all the lifeless bodies of his close friends and boss at their casino. Will Charlie get to the bottom of this? Who murdered his friends and boss?

My Review And Rating.

This movie started at a decent pace from the beginning and continued with the pace till the end. It felt like I was taking an old whiskey. It was decent all through and at the same time gory with its kills.

’Fast Charlie’ will be the last movie of Pierce Brosnan. It has been an amazing journey with him. He started well and went out of action with an interesting Southern Noir action film which was satisfying for me.

The plot was well written with an amazing flow, perfect scene arrangements, characters built strongly, and beautiful film locations. Storyline was fully packed with dark humor from each character, it was packed with good action scenes/stunts,good and unexpected mystery, coupled with some touching scenes. I can say that this movie is leaning toward the dark comedy side but it was still able to maintain the thriller vibe. I love that the combination of dark comedy, thriller and action were blended well and respectively showcased.

One thing that also made my experience with this movie worth the time was the location and scenery. I love that this movie isn't restricted to one location. It was spreaded through Mississippi, New Orleans, and Italy. All the locations added more excitement to the plot, mood and setting of the movie.

The Cast were exceptional especially Pierce Brosnan and Morena Baccarin. Their chemistry was fantastic. Pierce also displayed his role in an amazing and he spiced it up with his southern accent. His character was fun and interesting to watch. We also get to see Pierce develop a romantic relationship that was mutual and mature on both ends but we don't get to see how it all ends (I loved that).

The music was excellent and well selected. It was a mixture of orchestral, classical, jazz, and a little bit of funk. I also like the fact that it is a 1hr 30mins film. All the events in the movie were arranged well to cover the run time properly, so it didn't give room for boredom.

Rating this movie, I will give it 8.9 out of 10 stars. It was an interesting watch. I enjoyed it and it was very engaging and filled with good dark humor that made me giggle many times. It was a fun watch for me. I would recommend this movie to Pierce Brosnan's fans and lovers of action/thriller films.