Title – Project Power (2020)

Directors – Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman (Catfish)

Cast – Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, Rodrigo Santoro, Courtney B. Vance

Plot – A pill that allows those that take it a short period of unknown superpowers hits the streets of New Orleans as Art (Foxx) and Frank (Levitt) are united in their fight against the dangerous new drug thanks to their joint acquaintance Robin (Fishback).

“There are no laws on this drug”

Review by Eddie on 19/08/2020

Oh Netflix, why have you done this to us again?

How do you keep throwing money to the wind on original high-concept projects that seem on paper like a perfect opportunity to create popcorn/guilty pleasure good times but end up being mind-numbingly bad/downright boring outings that seriously make the viewer question where the money and sense went in the final product.

Continuing on an horrifically bad trend of recent original Netflix outings that may rate highly in viewership figures but low in the minds of anyone that would care to remember them past a few minutes post credits (here’s looking at you Extraction and The Old Guard), Henry Joost’s and Ariel Schulman’s great sounding Project Power is a complete waste of talent, time and the $85 million dollar plus budget it was allocated to be born into existence.

Cutting their teeth with the wonderfully marketed documentary (that is highly likely to be a narrative film in disguise) Catfish and getting some box office runs on the board with a couple of forgettable Paranormal Activity entries, Joost and Schulman seem like capable enough directors and their cast includes the endlessly charismatic Jamie Foxx and the always likable Joseph Gordon-Levitt but Project Power is a seriously dull affair without an ounce of magic.

With the bare bones nature of the story centering around an illegal street drug that gives those that take it a few minutes of powerful abilities (inc. flaming body, bullet resistance, Hulk like transformations) and Foxx’s Art and Levitt’s cop Frank trying to stop it from reaching the wrong hands as well as deal with the feisty street smart tag-along Robin (played by upcoming star Dominique Fishback), there’s a sense that Project Power could be a new over the top riot but thanks to a dire script from upcoming Batman writer Mattson Tomlin, some nausea inducing camerawork from Michael Simmonds (swinging your camera around every chance you get doesn’t make the film you’re shooting anymore awesome) and a plot line that fails to utilize its idea or colorful setting of New Orleans to great effect, this is a film that you wish would hurry up and conclude well before its yawn-fest of a finale takes place.

Another huge failure from the film is keeping Foxx and Levitt apart for a large portion of the films runtime, if anyone was able to potentially make this film seem better than it in fact is it was up to these two performers who have proven to be capable of elevating projects they’re a part of but with bare bones backstories or barely an ounce of character growth or depth to their characters, not even these proven commodities could save this latest streaming bomb.

Final Say – 

Sure to appease those easy to please Netflix viewers looking for some mindless distractions whilst browsing their mobile phones, but for anyone else, Project Power is the newest Netflix stinker that like usual wastes a talented cast, a significant budget and a great idea on a final product that is both instantly forgettable and highly disappointing.

1 Gleason guernsey out of 5