Working in a top secret underground bunker, new spy Fool (Joe Anderson) gets caught up in a battle to the death on his first day. When the head of their organisation gets murdered, the two rival Alpha and Omega teams start to murder one another to find a way out of the facility and uncover the truth behind who they work for. It's like Get Smart gets violent.
Operation: Endgame features a lot of notable supporting actors/comics from the last five years, chiefly among them Hot Tub Time Machine's Rob Corrdry and The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis. There's also Adam Scott, Jeffrey Tambor, Brandon T Jackson, Bob Odenkirk, Beth Grant, Ving Rhames... there's so many people that are scene stealers in other films, that for some reason barely even register as existing here.Rob Corddry is obnoxious, crass and clearly improvising. Not that he's got any choice really, as there doesn't appear to be much of a script. He tries his best to inject as much vulgarity to his role as possible, but most of the other cast aren't even willing to try. Once again Ving Rhames shows up to pick up another easy paycheck, as all that's asked of him is to look big and menacing.
And so to the appearance of Zach Galifianakis, a man I've seen reduce people to fits of laughter, just from the sight of his beard. Despite his fairly prominent position in the trailer and on the cover, his screen time reaches four minutes maximum. Of course the filmmakers are going to make the most of the appearance by the human Chewbacca, but it's clear he was on set for less than a day, perhaps less than an hour.It's like all these actors have wandered onto the set during their lunch breaks from better films. The basic rule of thumb is, the better your career is going the less time you have to spend in this humourless comedy. The bland lead actor Joe Anderson was good in both Control and The Crazies, but here has unfortunately been struck down with a poor character. The setting isn't particularly nice to look at either, as the labyrinthine maze of concrete makes for a joyless and dull environment to set a film in.
Poorly executed and bitterly unfunny, it's baffling as to why would they go to the lengths of casting so many comedic actors and then only ask them to perform in endless fight scenes which fail to engage. Added to that, not enough attention is given to distinguishing which sides people are on, making the fights an unthrilling thing to watch. It's impossible to care about any of them, and most make for unconvincing hand to hand combatants.There's some Bush government bollocks that's thrown in to try and tie it all together at the end, but by that point you'll have stopped caring. Don't be swayed by the cast list on the DVD cover, avoid this at all costs.
Verdict
Sounds really terrible, I will avoid it, thanks for the warning and the well written review!
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