As an avid action film enthusiast, I was beyond excited for Netflix’s new film “Restless,” which was released Feb. 25. Despite being on Netflix’s top 10 most popular shows and movies, all I saw were acting void of emotion, a fast-paced story that couldn’t keep up with the plot holes and an underwhelming compilation of fight scenes. 

The French film follows corrupt police officer Thomas Blin (Franck Gastambide) who takes bribes from drug dealers to compensate for his meager salary until Internal Affairs gets involved. Thomas rushes to the station to hide his stash of drug money from Internal Affairs. On his way, he accidently hits and kills a wanted drug smuggler. He finds a way to hide the smuggler’s body, but the head of narcotics, Marelli (Simon Abkarian), starts blackmailing Thomas. Somehow, Marelli was able to witness Thomas’ cover-up. What ensues is a tense standoff between two bad cops. 

This storyline had so much potential. Each scene is tense, but the fast pace doesn’t give the audience enough time to process the plot. Instead, every scene is tossed aside, including some of the most emotional ones. For example, an important character dies, and the film just moves on. It was almost as if the director just wanted to get the film over with. Moreover, the distorted momentum simultaneously resulted in shallow characters. Thomas’ character lacked depth, and he only had a total of two different facial expressions throughout the entire film. 

Toward the end, I was rooting for the villain. He was the only one with any comedic timing and was much smarter than our protagonist. The film was so dark (figuratively and literally) that it completely forgot to tell a joke. Instead, I was laughing at the ridiculousness of all the unrealistic twists and turns. The film does its best to make a cat and mouse chase as disappointing as possible, and the storyline is no different than any other basic action film. I would recommend skipping this film.