ReelBob: ‘The 355’ ★½

By Bob Bloom

“The 355” is a series of spy-action cliches that tries to make a female-power statement by grouping five women from various agencies uniting against a common foe.

Admirable, except that the story is nothing but formulaic situations used dozens of times before in dozens of films. The movie is so predictable that, from the outset, you are two or three steps ahead of the game.

The centerpiece of “The 355” is one of those multi-algorithms devices that, in the wrong hands, can cause worldwide havoc and destruction — it’s something ripped from the James Bond playbook.

Sent to retrieve the dingus is CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Jessica Chastain) and her partner, Nick (Sebastian Stan). When their operation goes fatally wrong, Mace turns to an old friend, former MI6 agent and computer specialist Khadijah (Lupita Nyong’o) for help.

(And why do women in these sorts of movies all have masculine-sounding names? Why not Mary, Helen, Jane, Nancy or Edith?)

Also wanting the item is Marie (Diane Kruger), a lone wolf German operative short on patience and quick on the trigger.

Reluctantly dragged into the affair is Graciela (Penelope Cruz), a Colombian psychologist who works for her nation’s intelligence agency.

After much fighting, shooting and running around — in which the weaponized device is just out of their reach — the women realize they must work together to achieve their end game.

Chastain, Nyong’o, Kruger and Cruz are superb actresses who try to add some life to these poorly written, one-dimensional characters who are mostly defined by their nationalities. They later are joined by Bingbing Fan (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) as Lin Mi Sheng, a Chinese agent, who basically is defined by her ethnicity.

The action sequences, in which — at first — the women fight each other before taking on scores of stooges whom they easily defeat, add a bit of zest to the proceedings, but it is not enough to save this overlong two hour-plus disappointment.

The global locales, which include Paris, Morocco and Taipei are eye candy, but not enough to cover the movie’s many shortcomings.

The major problem with “The 355” is that you really don’t care about anyone involved. The closest you get is Cruz’s Graciela because she is married and has a family.

The title, by the way, refers to an unidentified female spy who fought for the American cause during the Revolutionary War.

She sounds like a spy who could be the centerpiece of an interesting movie instead of her stereotypical modern descendants.

I am a founding member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association. I review movies, 4K UHD, Blu-rays and DVDs for ReelBob (ReelBob.com), The Film Yap substack and other print and online publications. I can be reached by email at bobbloomjc@gmail.com. You also can follow me on Twitter @ReelBobBloom and on Facebook at ReelBob.com or the Indiana Film Journalists Association. My movie reviews also can be found at Rotten Tomatoes: www.rottentomatoes.com.

THE 355
1½ stars out of 4
(PG-13), bloody and action violence, language, suggestive material