Canary Black (streaming now on Amazon Prime Video) Teams, general action film director Pierre Morel (Taken, peppermint, Freelance) starring the star of a few too many generic action movies, Kate Beckinsale (Jerkalmost all UnderworldS). The latter plays a CIA agent who infiltrates a secret terrorist gang to rescue her kidnapped husband – a scenario in which she – you won't be shocked to learn that she operates outside the agency's borders. You know you're watching a high-tech thriller when this film contains absolutely GLAZING shots of progress bars slowly increasing to 100 percent and cameras peering over the shoulder, capturing the glowing intensity of an email being typed and is sent. The question is whether Morel and Beckinsale can overcome such genre boundaries by giving the film a bit of style or substance.

The essentials: Beckinsale's character's name in this movie is Avery Graves, which I think is a little sillier than if her name were Canary Black. I mean, her CIA codename isn't even Canary Black. No, Canary Black is the name of a computer file that can destroy anything, but only if the progress bar slowly increases to 100 percent and the computer is connected to good Wi-Fi. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Avery Graves walks in the door and says: Honey, I'm back from my business trip, smoochyand her husband David (Rupert Friend) is unaware that she wasn't selling shower curtain rings or whatever, but was actually wearing a silly blonde wig and running Batman along the side of a building, murdering people and doing all sorts of high-ranking CIA things agents do.

It's the anniversary of David and Avery Graves. Avery Graves gives David some fun underwear and David gives Avery Graves a really nice leather jacket that could look great if she ever has to run around town shooting people and jumping out of cars or whatever. David wants a puppy. Life is good for the happy couple. Surely it would be hard if things caught up with them all, like in Avery Graves' very dangerous secret CIA things, wouldn't it?

Oh. Keep up with them, things are definitely working out. If not, then what kind of boring movie could this be, I wonder? One day, Avery Graves goes into the kitchen and finds that everything is destroyed and David is nowhere to be found. He was kidnapped from a husband. She gets a call on a burner phone from a gentleman making demands in a distorted voice: Find the CIA's Black Canary file and hand it over, or David will get it, and by “it” I mean “killed to death.” Now Avery Graves has no one but David. No family, no nothing. So she has to save him. Is he the only good thing in her world? In any case, he seems to be the only good thing in her world, unless living a life where she kills people and a second life where she doesn't kill people is a good thing for her. It's a dirty job, but someone has to be a sociopath and do it.

Avery Graves' search isn't easy. At least she has an ally in her CIA superior Jarvis Hedlund (Ray Stevenson, RIP) to cover for her as she risks becoming a traitor to her entire damn country by infiltrating her own employer's system. I believe this requires her to email tech support in a scene that will leave you glued to your seat and your hair flying back like you're sitting in a wind tunnel. Equally exciting are the parts where she blasts her way through the bad guys with bullets and knives while evading big CIA boss Nathan Evans (Ben Miles), who always says things like, “This will happen to every office of the president and everyone below “it!” and sets out to find the sniveling villain (Goran Kostic) who is behind this diabolical plan to take the entire world hostage for a trillion dollars. Will Avery Graves save the world and its centers? Seems like a fair bet, but playing out all the outstanding twists could be difficult.

What films will it remind you of?: This film wants to be John Wick meets Tom Clancy thriller (Patriot games, The sum of all fearsetc.) meets Mission: Impossiblebut it doesn't seem to be able to pinpoint what makes all of these films good.

Performance worth seeing: The selection here is slim considering how many standard characters this model includes. Seems silly not to let Beckinsale do much except wear a frown with crinkled lips so tight that it almost seems to insist that we forget that she also excels at light comedy and thoughtful drama.

Memorable dialogue: Canary Black is filled to the brim with STONE COLD dialogs, e.g. E.g. the following:

Evans: It's a digital nuclear weapon in the cyber arms race… not even the president knows about it!

Hedlund: Cold War, digital war – only the assholes change.

Gender and skin: None.

Our opinion: So is it at least fun to watch Avery Graves bravely put people in their graves? Almost. Morel seems content to stick with the genre's baseline – a twisted, overcomplicated MacGuffin plot interspersed with shootouts, fisticuffs, car chases and the occasional tiny dash of emotional character development – without innovating. Something fresh and new seems like too much of a creative burden Canary Blackwhich humorlessly goes through the motions like a Liam Neeson dad movie vehicle that's barely worth a theatrical release (we can all look forward to that). The Ice Road 2coming in 2025!), a genre Morel knows all too well considering he pretty much invented it.

If you're looking for a lone, dry root of subtext and interpreting it loosely and generously, you can, in this standard chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga-chuck, through a reasonably expert thread about “Is she married to David or married to the CIA?” turn up? Action sequences and a whole host of exposition. But honestly, searching for a theme or deeper meaning is a waste of time. The lame twists, sloppy nonsense plotting and clunky, declarative dialogue (“(INSERT NAME HERE) – this is an unpleasant surprise!”; “It will be my pleasure to bring you down, traitor!”) invite us with an open arm to roll in our eyes. Kostic is asked to do nothing other than be a diluted Bond villain, Stevenson remains stern and stern, and Beckinsale is asked to do nothing other than pose as a tough woman. She's convincing enough as Avery Graves bravely and earnestly puts people to the grave, but she can't save this boring film.

Our call: SKIP IT. Let's wave to Avery Graves as she boldly and seriously places people in her grave: Bye!

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.