Alarum (2025) - Film Review

      **Alarum, 2025.**

      Directed by Michael Polish.

      Featuring Scott Eastwood, Sylvester Stallone, Willa Fitzgerald, Mike Colter, D.W. Moffett, Isis Valverde, Anton Narinskiy, Patrick Millin, Joel Cohen, Bailey Edwards, Abigail Spear, Patrick Millin, Ken Strunk, and La Monde Byrd.

      **SYNOPSIS:**

      Following the CIA's discovery of two rogue spies who have gone off the grid and married, chaos erupts at their winter honeymoon cabin in the woods. A coalition of international spy organizations descends upon them, seeking a ‘flight pill’—a hard drive—and suspecting the couple of joining a network of rogue spies called the Alarum.

      In the midst of an ill-defined assassination mission, spies Joe Travers (Scott Eastwood) and Laura (Willa Fitzgerald) encounter each other in the target’s hotel room and, amidst the confusion, develop feelings for one another while working for opposing intelligence agencies. The film fails to deliver an enjoyable, charming, or believable experience. Expectations for Alarum are certainly low.

      From director Michael Polish, once seen as a promising filmmaker with intriguing concepts and often supported by Sony Pictures Classics, the film now settles for low-budget action aimed at streaming services, following the poorly received Gina Carano-starring Terror on the Prairie. The narrative flashes forward to the married couple on their snowy honeymoon, simultaneously working on another target.

      Writing about Alarum's plot is challenging due to its convoluted nature as it shifts between government and global factions, introducing various contract killers, including a lethargic Sylvester Stallone and a thick-accented, murderous Mike Colter, who portrays a character that kills his own henchmen in frustration to illustrate his relentless pursuit of his goals. Alongside this, there is a MacGuffin thumb drive that everyone desires and murky motives surrounding the current target, leading to a disorganized narrative that makes it difficult to understand the specific motivations of the characters.

      While Joe is gathering information on the current target, Roland Rousseau (Joel Cohen), he has effectively left this life behind and only participates in these missions to support his wife at the Alarum agency (where they apparently have more say in their job selection to act as a force for good independent of any single country). He is directed to join Roland's wife (Isis Valverde) on a resort tour.

      What should have been a simple couple of hours turns perilous when a helicopter crashes on the snowy ground, soon followed by an armed militia led by Mike Colter's fixer, Orlin, vying for a flash drive found in the wreckage that contains national secrets. The CIA’s Ronald Burbridge (D.W. Moffett) enlists the help of the infamous killer Chester (Sylvester Stallone, who seems disinterested in his performance) to locate the drive and determine if Joe has defected to Alarum before eliminating him.

      It is futile to explain what these intelligence agencies represent, what the flash drive contains, how it might affect the CIA or America, or what the agents aim to achieve even before the drive's discovery. Nonetheless, Alarum offers an abundance of action featuring various weapons (including some heavy shotguns that create entertaining ragdoll physics) and gives younger actors like Scott Eastwood and Willa Fitzgerald a chance to audition for more serious action roles. While the shootouts appear chaotic, just as the narrative is, the sheer volume of gunfire and hand-to-hand combat provides a slight degree of entertainment.

      Still, the film presents a messy, disorganized, and perplexing narrative lacking any thrilling set pieces to justify the numerous action scenes, failing to make even the cliché of married spies fun. Alarum may also represent a low point in Sylvester Stallone’s career.

      **Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★**

      Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He serves as the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd.