OLGA KURYLENKO is a Ukrainian model who moved to Paris and found success as an actress, first in the action film “Hitman” in 2007 with Timothy Olyphant then in 2008, opposite Daniel Craig in the 007 movie “Quantum of Solace”.
She got to do more films in Hollywood, including “Johnny English” with Mr. Bean and “Oblivion” with Tom Cruise in 2013. She’s still around but she now does mostly B movies.
We just saw three of them, two action flicks “The Courier” and “Sentinelle”, and a horror film, “Mara”. We'll review the first two films here.
In “The Courier”, she plays the title role, an unnamed woman who acts as a delivery girl on a motorcycle (but we don’t know if it’s Lalamove or Grab). When asked about her identity, she replies: “No names. I’m just the courier.”
She is tasked to deliver a package to a building, not knowing it’s for the witness, Nick (Amit Shah), who will testify online in London against a notorious crime lord in New York, Ezekiel Mannings (Gary Oldman.)
On her way to the room where the witness is, she discovers that several assassins were sent to execute him. Even the Interpol enforcers assigned to protect him are in cahoots.
So what’s a poor courier supposed to do but act on her conscience, kill them and rescue the witness? The two of them then try to escape from the assassins, but as they’re running away, they are trapped in the building’s basement parking.
The major part of the movie happens in there while the courier and her ward are being attacked by a crew of big, muscled henchmen with high-powered weapons.
Olga has to use all her wits and expertise as a former special operative in Syria to fight their aggressors. The film works as the stunts and action sequences are all excitingly executed andOlga is believable as a fearless, go-for-broke action hero.
Gary Oldman just won an Oscar for “Darkest Hour” when he did this B movie and it’s obvious he did it only for his paycheck as his role as the bad guy imprisoned in his own Manhattan penthouse doesn't require anything substantial from him except his usual bad guy acting.
In “Sentinelle”, a French production, Olga once again plays a soldier in Syria, Klara, who sees a young terrorist boy blowing himself up with explosives hidden in his body.
This gives her post traumatic stress disorder, so she goes home to her mother and sister in Nice, France. One night, she goes with her sister Tania to a club.
She hooks up with a pretty woman and they have a lesbian love scene.
The next morning, she’s notified that Tania was raped and severely mauled and is now in coma in the hospital.
Klara takes matter into her own hands, does her own sleuthing and learns that the culprit is Yvan, the son of a Russian magnate, Leonid. He’s now hiding in his dad’s villa and they are untouchable.
But it turns out that Yvan is gay and it’s actually his dad who raped Tania.
Of course, this leads to a final showdown after Leonid also tried to kill Tania while she’s still in the hospital.
As we might expect, Klara massacres all of Leonid’s bodyguards. He survives, but Klara still tracks him down and confronts him later in his hotel room in Dubai for their last confrontation.
“Sentinelle” succeeds as a revenge thriller with Olga excelling in the action scenes as a ferocious badass avenger with some deep-seated trauma she has yet to fully confront.
It’s quick and to the point when it comes to violence, cracking skulls with relish that will surely scratch the itch of all action lovers.
The execution of some scenes can be uninspired and dull but overall, Olga’s intensity and enthusiasm more than just redeem the generic fight sequences.
