‘G20’ Review: President Viola Davis Beats Up Economy-Crashing Baddies in Ramshackle ‘Die Hard’ Riff

Viola Davis is one of the most accomplished actors of her generation. Come to think of it, she’s one of the most accomplished actors of any generation. Respected, beloved, she’s given her heart and soul to powerful dramas that enrich the human spirit. But sometimes she also wants to beat the crap out of bad guys, and gosh danged it, good for her. Every great actor should get their own “Die Hard” knockoff at least once. I’d pay good money to watch Glenn Close kick the crap out of mercenaries on a zeppelin, wouldn’t you?

“G20” isn’t remotely as powerful, thrilling, or groundbreaking as “The Woman King,” but that’s a tall order. It stars Viola Davis as President Danielle Sutton, a war hero about to introduce a new plan at the international G20 summit to save impoverished people the world over by some-something-something cryptocurrency. It’s not entirely clear and it doesn’t matter much. She’s the president, she wants to help people, the film has weird and contradictory attitudes about cryptocurrency — that’s all you need to know about that.

President Sutton has a loving husband named Derek (Anthony Anderson), a cool rebellious hacker daughter named Serena (Marsai Martin, “Black-ish”), and a son who I’m pretty sure was named “I’m in the Movie Too” (Christopher Farrar, “Kindred”), since the script doesn’t give him much. She also has a Hillary Clinton-esque Treasury Secretary (Elizabeth Marvel) and a Secret Service agent who doubles as her best friend, and triples as her fighting instructor (Ramón Rodríguez, “Will Trent”).

They all travel to South Africa for the G20 summit, and that’s when the bad guys do their bad guy thing, taking over the joint and holding all the world leaders hostage. President Sutton escapes with her bodyguard and a handful of other attendees, and proceeds to kick their butts six ways from Sunday. Meanwhile Derek tries to sneak their children to safety. And because “Die Hard” did it, we soon learn that the villains — led by Antony Starr (“The Boys”), whose eyes keep darting around like he’s tracking a mosquito — are actually just in this for the money. Their scheme that will crash the world’s economy while they make billions in, you guessed it, cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency has a lot to answer for, but one of its smaller sins is making characters in movies sound unintentionally hilarious. Every time someone in “G20” talks about blockchains or crypto wallets or claims crypto is the best economic system in the world, they sound like little kids making up words in their backyard while they play make believe. It doesn’t sound like these actors know what they’re talking about, or if they do, it doesn’t sound like they have any idea how to make it sound like it isn’t a scam. Which, to be fair, yeah, good point, but I’m not sure that’s the tone “G20” is going for.

Then again, maybe it is. “G20” is all over the place, all of the time. President Sutton’s family drama is treated with all the whimsical family friendliness of a Disney Channel Original Movie, and then people get brutally murdered. The British Prime Minister (Douglas Hodge, “We Live in Time”) spends half the movie second-guessing President Sutton, making a complete comic relief ass out of himself and proving to the audience that his opinion means nothing. Then one of the most emotional scenes in the film is all about Sutton earning his approval, as if that’s suddenly supposed to mean something. What are we doing here, movie? What are we even doing?

“G20” is an oddly cheap-looking production, like a straight-to-video b-movie that accidentally wound up with an A+ cast. The action isn’t terribly convincing, with Viola Davis swirling around in a vacuum, firing off-camera, while bad guys fall over in a confusing jumble of vague coverage. There’s a car chase with “The Beast,” the presidential limo with armor plating and weapons to spare, that looks like it cost some real money, but it’s competing with the scene from “White House Down” where The Beast was spinning donuts on the White House lawn while the President shot rocket launchers out the window while bad guys shot back at him with a vehicle-mounted minigun. “G20” just can’t compete with that.

But we don’t go to “Die Hard” knockoffs for their ingenuity. We go to see “Die Hard” all over again with a few minor differences. The plot and supporting characters of “G20” are nothing to write home about, but Viola Davis deserves all the fan mail. She gives this otherwise mediocre movie all she’s got, and she’s got gravitas and humanity and a vicious punch. It’s impossible not to root for President Viola Davis as she takes down incompetent, mediocre white guys who want to crash the world economy. She stares down this generic production and walks away with another victory under her belt. When she fights, she wins.

“G20” premieres on Prime Video on April 10.

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