Thank God it was Viola Davis because I honestly believe that no other black female actress could have pulled it off.
Now, let’s get something straight: G20 could’ve easily fallen into the messy pit where most “political thrillers” go to die — you know, the pit where exaggerated dialogue and high-strung car chases fight to see who can bore you to death first. And unfortunately…sometimes G20 jumps right in with both feet.
I didn’t think it was possible to make a film about world leaders — notoriously known for their 8-hour meetings and diplomatic double-speak , feel like a high-stakes survival thriller and a masterclass in tension. G20 tries. Hard. And when it works — mostly thanks to Viola Davis’s sheer force of will — it really works.
In fact, halfway through G20, I almost forgot it was supposed to be about geopolitics at all — it plays out more like a hostage survival movie stitched together with the spirit of Die Hard and a Call of Duty campaign mission. And somewhere in there, Viola Davis (as President Danielle Sutton) absolutely owns every scene she’s in. She’s fierce, magnetic, and carries the weight of the free world on her back like it’s just another Tuesday.
But, let’s be honest — even Davis can only do so much.
Two things stood out: one, hats off to her for grounding a movie that otherwise feels like a collection of action-movie clichés duct-taped together. Two, and here’s the jarring part — the movie’s attempt at being “serious” about crypto-terrorists, deepfakes, and world domination ends up being so cartoonishly convoluted, it feels like the writers googled “current buzzwords” and rolled a dice to see whose choice gets picked.
Terrorists attack the G20 summit in South Africa — a cool setup, right? Except the villains, led by Antony Starr’s Rutledge, are so generically “bad guy 101” it’s almost hilarious. The film leans heavily into stereotypes, with international leaders who feel less like real people and more like well-decorated mannequins content to be relegated to the background.
The action sequences? Choppy. Half-baked. The emotional moments? Surface-level at best. Some scenes try so hard to make Davis’s President into an untouchable action hero that you never really feel the emotional stakes you’re supposed to care about. And don’t even get me started on the dialogue — let’s just say you’ll hear more believable lines at a Secondary school debate tournament.
That being said, G20 is still a half-decent pressure cooker of a narrative. If you squint past the clichés and forgive the choppy editing, there’s a heartbeat there — mostly thanks to Davis, who somehow makes you believe the world is worth saving, even when the movie around her is trying its best to prove otherwise.
The best part about G20, in my opinion? No annoying flashbacks, no last minute bomb explosion save, and no convenient satellite laser strikes to clean up the mess. Just a desperate human fight for survival — and the sobering realization that our leaders, even the good ones, are just as scared and vulnerable as the rest of us.
The final act hits you with an ending so wild it made me sit up and re-evaluate every political thriller I’ve ever watched. So if you haven’t already, go check out G20 — just don’t expect a flawless ride. And if you’ve seen it, hit the comments — because we seriously need to talk about that rooftop scene.
