G20 Review: Committed Performances Elevate this Content
Streaming Movie Review - Prime Video - Action
The more off the rails an action movie goes, the more likely I am to enjoy it. The new Prime Video film, G20, from director Patricia Riggen, doesn’t quite go all in on the absurdity, but there is enough to make this Viola Davis movie a fun weekend watch.
President Danielle Sutton (Viola Davis), an Iraq veteran, is heading to the G20 Summit, hoping to lay out a plan to combat world hunger. While there, the event is overtaken by a terrorist group led by Corporal Rutledge (Antony Starr) who hope to crash the world economy and turn everything into cryptocurrency, since that isn’t controlled by any government. Using deep fakes of the world leaders, he begins to see his plan take form. President Sutton escapes with Secret Service Agent Manny Ruiz (Ramón RodrÃguez) and Prime Minister Oliver Everett (Douglas Hodge). She must find a way to stop the terrorist takeover and protect her children and husband.
G20 plays right at the edge of a number of poorly understood fears that are very specific to 2025. There is an overwhelming distrust of the media due to the pervasiveness of AI and deep fakes. Many are wary of world governments and how they impact lives. And few fully understand economics in general and cryptocurrency specifically. All of those cultural misgivings are the perfect backdrop for Viola Davis to strap up and take out some bad guys.
What makes G20 work is the strength of its performances. Davis treats this film with as much seriousness as any of her roles, and as such, she’s able to deliver some ham-fisted dialogue with a sense of authenticity that a lesser actor might miss. Davis and Rodriguez also have a strong friendship chemistry, and they are equally good in their roles, with their banter feeling incredibly authentic. Starr brings the same energy that he gives to his role as Homelander in The Boys to this one, making him a blast to watch as this cartoonishly evil villain.
As mentioned above, there is some awkward dialogue in this movie. It also leans into some pretty intense action movie tropes, which sometimes feel stale and out of place in this film. Also, as a movie that has something to say, the script bungles that to some degree, never fully committing to some of the more interesting social commentary that it wants to make. And while it is fairly absurd, it certainly could have leaned into that a bit harder.
But even with some fairly glaring defects, the action is solid, the pacing feels good, and the performances sing. So many straight-to-streaming action movies feel like they are firmly in the category of content: something to put on while you’re doing anything more important than watching a movie. G20 doesn’t thoroughly beat the content label, but there is enough entertainment value in this movie that it will likely hold your attention when you look up from your phone to watch it.
Rating: 3/5
This review originally appeared in The Dominion Post on April 19, 2025.
This ain't my kind of movie but between you review and Viola Davis, who grew up in my home state I just sat through it as I want to support my fellow RI native. THe movie itself is questionable but with the gang that we have in office right now, it's far from fantasy. The actors are what save it: From the president through to the surprized at the end, the script to put it plainly sux but I totally agree it's the actors that save it. To misquote the late Roger Ebert, I give it a tentative thumbs up because the acring kept me wathcing. Thank you