At two hours twenty-two minutes, “The Fix” (2026) will do no such thing for anyone within the movie’s universe, in the theater or at home once it streams. Do not believe the hype. Liam Neeson is featured more in the marketing than the movie. It is a bait and switch with Zachary Levi (which is his stage name, but his birth last name is Pugh, no relation to Florence, #themoreyouknow), who is a strong comedic action actor from the two “Shazam” movies, the “Thor” franchise and “Chuck,” deciding to shed half his talent and pretend that he is a super serious actor, but ends up making Chris Pratt seem like a comparative thespian in “Mercy” (2026). Levi plays the head of a CIA team, Tucker, who winds up in hot water when a mission goes south. When his former boss, Larry (Neeson), tells him about $25 million stashed in Tehran during the Eighties, Tucker decides to get the team together for a good old-fashioned heist. Well, there are quite a few side quests which seem to add up to anti-Iran propaganda with the biggest surprise being a heavy dose of grim nudity and glib violence against women. As an action movie, it is mainly gunfire and awkward running possibly in front of a green screen.
While watching “The Fix,” I found myself comparing it to two recent action movies that I saw: “Onslaught” (2026), which I loved and am in the minority, and “Mutiny” (2026), which was not my favorite Jason Statham vehicle, but a masterpiece compared to this one. Before we get into the acting, let’s talk about the treatment of women in each movie before digging into the acting, characters, character dynamics and overall story, which are all flawed, but the women are the cleanest example of this movie’s failures. I went into “The Fix” expecting a sausage fest, no women, which would have been preferable. It gets ugly pretty fast. Preston’s mission is to retrieve someone in Afghanistan before the American troops pull out in 2021. The asset’s wife is screaming, and Preston is cold, says that “she’ll get a new man,” then in the rescue mission, she appears to either be shot in the groin or bloody in that general area. Um, sexual violence possibly implied. Ok, let’s give them some grace, and treat it like a Rorschach test that I failed. Fine! I’m seeing things that are not there. My bad.
The next one shows a dead naked woman in a brothel with presumably other naked women nearby with Larry weeping over her body. Though killing sex workers in movies is generally considered low hanging fruit that could have harmful real-world effects, in a super violent movie like “MaXXXine” (2024), it is expected if the premise is a serial killer killing sex workers; thus, not alarming. In a movie about CIA operatives fighting in Afghanistan, it is gratuitous, unexpected and ugly in spirit. One dead woman with a suggestive gunshot wound can be dismissed, but a whole boat load is a choice. In “Onslaught,” titties are treated more appropriately. They are sexualized like movies intended (that is a joke because breasts are not inherently sexual, but in Western culture context they are, and to pretend otherwise is nonsense.) When a woman barely has lines and dies a brutal death, she is fully clothed and somewhat humanized in her brief screentime. Bare breasts are for fun and associated with the living albeit completely exploitative and deviant. “Mutiny” has zero nudity, plenty of damsels in distress, but the women had dignity even if they needed saving or did not get names. There is the constant threat of sexual violence. Still the movie never wanders into ugly territory. Also, no love interests for Statham and trust that with the number of women seeing his movies, a love interest would not be gratuitous or unnecessary. It is not that hard to show nudity, kill women characters and have love interests without making it feel like a hate crime. It is actually harder to make it feel icky because the bar is rolling on the ground. “The Fix” treats women like killjoys, objects and suspects. This film makes slasher movies seem sex positive. Sex equals death or danger. It could be a nod to the early Bond movies, but there is no mirth, no joy, no ecstasy. Sex is not sexy in “The Fix.”
It is the entire problem with “The Fix.” The heist and the action, which are the movies selling points, are an afterthought. Instead, the writers Guy Moshe, who also directs, Mark Bacci and Ron Hutchinson put things in presumably because they wanted to, not to attract moviegoers, otherwise those plot points would be selling points. The story gets bogged down with the personal lives of a team of men whose names and unique characteristics are almost impossible to remember. They are cardboard cutouts of someone’s idea of CIA agents. Tucker rides a motorcycle (sometimes it looks like a green screen, not the outdoors), remains close to Larry after they get fired and neglects his son. Clay (Quincy Isaiah) was the newest member of the team, so he got to keep his job. Alex (Wes Chatham) is still married with kids and seemingly letting his wife do all the heavy lifting thus why he is available for a mission. Charlie (Jake Choi) and Bruce (Augusto Aguilera) are flush as entrepreneurs leveraging their language skills in the private sector but leap at the chance to hang with their former coworkers and fund the heist, which bears the question whether the heist is a MLM. Ha! There is another man, but he cannot physically join the band.
Oh and “We’re going to need a woman” (not kidding actual line) because women CIA agents are not a thing, or at least, they do not know any disgraced ones so they put ads out and hire Zara (Elnaaz Norouzi), who was born in Iran and quickly gets the hots for Tucker, who is less appealing than you can imagine. Soon she is whipping her top off for some generous side boob which Tucker reacts to as if he is Job and just lost a kid. If we must watch some woman pretend that Tucker is a catch, at least pretend that he is happy about it for two seconds instead of going through a gauntlet. Is this the effect of Red Pill content that sex is now an obligation to prove that you are a man but still weak? Do they know that they are not obligated to sleep with women? There is abstinence or other alternatives.
That’s not all. “The Fix” decides to throw in a rescue of a political activist, Maryam (Lara Wolf), initially to further fund the endeavor but expands as repentance for their actions in Afghanistan. It is very puzzling and confusing to follow the thread of logic behind the mission expansion so my explanation may not be right, but hey, it does not matter. This storyline results in briefly passing the Bechdel test, which is the next big surprise, but it is quantity over quality so do not get excited. Turns out that violence against women is actually bad. Major plot twist as a moral of the story. There is a takedown of some Iranian officials, which reveals the hypocrisy of the Iranian leadership. There are some random double-crossing moments with some of the characters that feel like afterthoughts to keep the movie going though one is obvious from a mile away. Maybe it is brilliant. Normally I watch a movie two times if it feels as if I missed something or was too dismissive, but even a multitasking watch felt more like punishment than a fulfillment of duty. Once was more than enough. Life and time are precious, and I wasted too much of both on this movie.
More importantly, Levi has/had talent. Comedy is hard, and while the man does appear to be insufferable, some of his work is genuinely enjoyable. “Shazam!” (2019) put him in the young Tom Hanks neighborhood if it relocated to the comic book world. It is a genuinely fun, entertaining movie. Someone needs to shake some sense into Levi, who is not a bankable star like Pratt, and admonish him not to sacrifice his comedic chops for an action stardom that is not in the cards. If Pratt’s acting is weak, he has a boatload of franchises and connections to keep the gravy train going. Maybe he is also really fun to work with, and when he decides to get high and tight with no cheeseburgers, people seem to eat that up even if he is not my cup of tea. Levi has generally looked the same and arguably looks better with the facial hair but never stood out from the crowd or was memorable. Be honest. Do you remember him in the “Thor” franchise? It is the comedy combined with the action and an innocent vibe. Levi is not a good enough of an actor or stunt guy to make drama or action into his bread and butter. It is likely too late for him to take advice from anyone. His best hope is begging the Christian film industry to let him in, but the fact that he has not broken into that market yet is not auspicious for him. Maybe they do not want those problems. So “The Fix” feels like Levi doing an impression of his idea of a tough guy, but of the film noir variety without a detective’s gift for gab, style or intelligence. Tucker is a dour, glum guy, and it is frankly a chore to spend any time with him. Neeson gives his all, but the dialogue is so bad that it is a little embarrassing to watch.
Think about any reasons that you may want to see “The Fix,” and you can find better alternatives anywhere. Just watch “The Unit.” Neeson and Levi have made better action movies in the past. If you do not want a “woke agenda” and action with guns, then you may love the “John Wick” franchise. If that gun violence is too stylized, the neo-Western genre has a ton of options to choose from like “Redux Redux” (2025). The promise of no politics is a false narrative. If fulfilled, the promise of “just action” would mean a way shorter movie, and it would not have even hit feature length. Literally the time before it was released, Levi fans were marketing it in that vein. If you want to support a likely Presidon’t supporter, there are better actors like Kelsey Grammer, and if you really want action, Gina Carino should be your pick. There are probably even more reasons to see anything else, but the point is that there are better options to suit any and all tastes, but as a movie, this is not it. It is not the worst movie ever because even that would be more of a draw.
