The 355

The 355 is good old action fun with a well-constructed story and better than all of the bad James Bond movies. That’s right, Octopussy! I’m talking about you. I’m hoping The 355 is the right direction for female-driven action movies.

The chases, fights and fun bits of spy craft are brightly and pacily shot, but the 'twists' are barely surprising. These women, and these characters, deserve more.

Despite a few scattered moments, the team-up action of The 355 never fully comes together.

In a spy thriller, a woman who drinks her whiskey neat—girlbosses never dilute—and kicks men in the face wearing a stacked heel has become as much of a cliché as the womanizing secret agent. And The 355 does nothing to complicate, deconstruct, or refresh that cliché.

The filmmaking deserves credit for refusing to leer as the ladies convincingly kick and punch — all focus is on the stunts, not on sex appeal. Yet there’s a sense that “The 355” felt forced to pick between being sincere or being fun. It chose solemnity. As a result, it’s flat-footed even when the setups yearn to be playful.

“January release” or not, it’s still a shame that all this talent, an epic fight in a fish market and some cool shootouts and chases were wasted this way.

The 355 is the kind of star-packed, glossy adventure that wants to be the launching pad for a franchise; instead, it’s going to be one of the films most mentioned in future discussions regarding January as a studio dumping-ground for misbegotten movies.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

(Mauro Lanari) It's not a female Bond movie. Exactly on the contrary, it is the specific universe of women's values transferred and applied to a spy story, a universe where emotional bonds are both strengths and vulnerabilities. Even if the action suffers, it was time for it to be shown better than an episode of "Charlie's Angels" (angels which, in fact, are not autonomous but subordinate to their boss Charlie Townsend). Do the men underestimate the 5 protagonists leaving them alive every time? Worse for the men.

Average action thriller combines a great cast with a standard d grade plot. The action is decent, the soundtrack good. It's well produced - looks and sounds great 4k HDR / 5.1 etc. Sadly in such an oversaturated genre 355 does little to stand out from the crowd.

bad [ bad ] adjective, worse, worst;(Slang) bad·der, bad·dest for 36. not good in any manner or degree.

'Technology is the new drug.' New? Where have you been the past 30 years? I think The 355 believes that an all-female team-up is also new, it's not and a movie can't stand on that alone.