Mel Gibson has made some great movies during his decades in the spotlight, ranging from classics like the original Mad Max trilogy and the Lethal Weapon franchise, through to the Best Picture-winning Braveheart, and more recent efforts including Get the Gringo, Blood Father, and Boss Level. However, his recent descent into VOD mediocrity has yielded a severe downturn in quality, with Panama being one of the worst offenders.
In fact, up until last month, it was the worst-reviewed film of Gibson’s entire career on Rotten Tomatoes after landing an awful 8 percent score from critics, but it’s since been overtaken by the big fat zero accrued by Hot Seat. The fact those two titles released less than four months apart is pretty damning, and just goes to show that the fallen A-lister is game for anything these days.
However, despite being resolutely panned into the ground by almost everyone to have seen it, Panama has been making a surge up the streaming ranks. As per FlixPatrol, dire genre flick has been elevated into the HBO Max global Top 20 by way of multiple high placings in numerous countries, who clearly still hold Mad Mel in high regard.
Like most of his recent output, Gibson only plays a supporting part as the brains behind the operation being put into play by star and executive producer Cole Hauser’s ex-soldier, who ventures to the titular nation to engage in a spot of arms dealing, before getting caught up in an intense political situation that could have major repercussions. It’s standard stuff, but that’s par for the course these days.