If you live in America, you’ll probably find All the Devil’s Men in Walmart’s Bargain Bin. If you live in the UK, you might find it on the shelves of Poundland come 2020. And to an extent, I think Matthew Hope (the film’s writer and director) was aiming for that market: there’s nothing in the film designed to provide commentary on current affairs, or to deconstruct or reinvent the Espionage Thriller genre.
The plot is as follows: Collins (played by Milo, son of Mel, Gibson), is an ex-soldier who now works for a government agency that tracks down and intercepts terrorists. He is damaged, we’re told, and refuses to stop working despite the fact that his wife has recently given birth. Sylvia Hoeks (who you might recognise as Luv from Blade Runner 2049) is the boss of said organisation, and her colleagues are a couple of wise-cracking agents, one of whom seems to have some kind of past platonic relationship with Collins.
There are also some terrorists, who are in touch with “The Russians,” who seem to have become the go-to adversaries in this kind of film. “The Russians” apparently want to sell their US colleagues a warhead which fits onto a missile for a tidy couple of million. Collins and co are tasked with intercepting them. The film starts with a shot of Collins doing pull-ups in a Marrakesh hotel room, and later hi-jacking the computer systems of expensive cars and bringing people to justice. Then he gets into a plane and the plot kicks in.
The Good Stuff
It’s easy to dismiss films like this, but the fact of the matter is that, when you consider what’s on offer in this genre, All The Devil’s Men isn’t that bad. It’s a low budget film, and the plot stretches the limits of believability, but although there is a certain level of incompetence—the script is extremely clunky, and some of the acting is extremely Razzie-worthy—there was effort involved, and it shows.
Writer/director Matthew Hope has stripped away all of the extraneous scenes (which, I suspect, he might have considered boring), and the only ones left behind are the ones in which the characters deliver quips, move the plot forward, and shoot each-other. There’s even a scene in which one of the antagonists drops his weapon and suggests they have a knife-fight after his assailant runs of bullets.
The Bad Stuff
And that’s the sort of film All The Devil’s Men is. It’s essentially a parade of the greatest hits of the Espionage Thriller genre, all done on a B-Movie budget. The lack of funding does show pretty much consistently throughout the film, and there were times during which I started to zone out and get bored, which is ultimately the film’s downfall. The minute the credits start rolling on this one, you’ll have forgotten what happened during the previous one hundred minutes or so. All it’ll seem like is a montage of cheap jokes and even cheaper action scenes.
For me, the acting in this film is a real problem. Even Sylvia Hoeks, who I thought was great in Blade Runner 2049, seems to be phoning it in here, and it’s not hard to understand why. She’s given very little to do in the film, and most of her scenes involve her delivering lines which can only be described as expository. Yet somehow, the film has very little story to speak of; the twists and turns of the plot don’t really make sense, and the result is a lacklustre film that most likely won’t connect with fans of the genre.
All The Devil’s Men: Conclusion
You can never prove these things, but it seems like All the Devil’s Men is more of a product than a film, rushed out for home release so they can cash in on the result as quickly as possible. The script is very meat-and-potatoes and there isn’t really any semblance of subtext or an attempt to make the characters seem three-dimensional, and it’s all filmed with the verve of a day-time soap opera.
Often, I wondered why some of the people in this (particularly Sylvia Hoeks) signed onto the film in the first place. It’s a film which will end up being something which is watched in a late-night blur, possibly while the viewer is under the influence of alcohol, and maybe that’s how this film was intended to be viewed. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s very poor fare.
What do you think of All The Devil’s Men? Have you seen it? Let us know in the comments below.
All The Devil’s Men is available on several streaming platforms.
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