LOS ANGELES, April 9 (UPI) -- G20, on Prime Video Thursday, is a fun and silly throwback to Die Hard and other action movies of its like. With so many classics in the genre already, nostalgia carries G20 through its familiar beats.
Viola Davis stars as Danielle Sutton, a U.S. president presenting a plan to combat world hunger at a G20 summit. The gathering is interrupted by a terrorist takeover led by Eddie Rutledge (Antony Starr), but President Sutton escapes with her Secret Service agent Manny (Ramon Rodriguez), British Prime Minister Everett (Douglas Hodge), and two Asian dignitaries.
Sutton being a woman and the lone hero against a gang of terrorists is a progressive step 37 years after Die Hard. The male presidents in previous films Air Force One, White House Down and Independence Day also took action against invading forces, human or otherwise.
G20 is a bit more of a group effort, as Sutton's leadership empowers other hostages, giving her some good presidential catchphrases. She has a strong partnership with Manny, who is shown training her in martial arts earlier in the film. This, along with her past service in the Iraq War, establishes her physical capabilities.
Since the G20 summit is being held at a hotel, the action hits many of the beats Die Hard established in its office building setting. Sutton at one point climbs into an elevator shaft, and the climax also involves a helicopter.
These set pieces are well crafted, in particular a kitchen fight building up to an overflowing sink and frayed wire paying off in a satisfying way. The action is filmed with somewhat shaky handheld cameras but not egregiously so like the Bourne movies.
Prime Minister Everett is the coward who complains the whole time and even dismisses Danielle's war heroics. Unlike the corresponding Die Hard character, the cokehead yuppie Harry Ellis, Everett eventually finds inspiration in Sutton's leadership.
The villains lack the imagination of more memorable action movie bad guys, as they are just generic terrorists extorting world governments for financial gain. Their plan uses AI to deep fake statements from the hostages, but fails to imagine AI fears that haven't previously been expressed.
Rutledge's plan also involves inflating the value of Bitcoin against the failing U.S. dollar to get rich. The idea is as preposterous as navigating the actual cryptocurrency market sounds.
The politics of the film are not much deeper -- Rutledge is a military veteran bitter over the battles at Fallujah during the Iraq War. Sutton also proposes giving world farmers Bitcoin to buy seeds, drawing criticism from political opponents who argue she is putting African farmers over Americans. Though, it's hard to argue real-life politics aren't just as one-dimensional.
In another parallel to Die Hard, Sutton's spouse is one of the hostages, First Gentleman Derek Sutton (Anthony Anderson). The couple also have kids, and it is established their teenage daughter, Serena (Marsai Martin), is adept at evading Secret Service and their security systems. Serena ultimately puts her tech skills to use for her mother and helps heal their family tensions too.
The age of films doing "Die Hard in a ____" largely ended in the '90s, with a few exceptions this century. It is a thrilling formula that deserves to come back, and setting it amongst world leaders is a fun twist.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
