ALARUM (HBO MAX) (2025)

SYNOPSIS: Academy Award® nominee* Sylvester Stallone, Scott Eastwood, Mike Colter, and Willa Fitzgerald star in this explosive action-thriller about two married spies caught in the crosshairs of an international intelligence network that will stop at nothing to obtain a critical asset. Joe (Eastwood) and Lara (Fitzgerald) are agents living off the grid whose quiet retreat at a winter resort is blown to shreds when members of the old guard suspect the two may have joined an elite team of rogue spies, known as ALARUM.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Alarum stars a handful of recognisable faces, from Scott Eastwood (Fast X) and Willa Fitzgerald (Reacher season one), to Mike Colter (Luke Cage), and of course, one of Hollywood’s most bankable names, Sylvester Stallone.

Perhaps as a means to pay for his next prestige Patek Philippe, Stallone agrees to appear in this direct-to-video feature, albeit in a fairly small role as Chester, a world-weary, lone-wolf agent.

Since he is not the leading man here, Eastwood gets the bulk of the screen time playing retired agent Joe. Joe has fallen in love with fellow agent Laura (Fitzgerald), and the two are enjoying their honeymoon at a remote resort in Poland. Naturally, things go wrong. Conveniently, a plane mysteriously crashes near the resort, killing two pilots and turning the couple into targets of a rogue agent named Orlin (Colter), who is hunting for a missing flash drive.

Alarum has a script that desperately wants to be smarter than the average spy actioner, but instead becomes a convoluted, thoroughly unexciting mess. Its twists and turns are clichéd and largely unnecessary, while most of the backstory and exposition are awkwardly delivered by desk-bound senior agents stuck in a bunker-like control room.

What exactly is this shadowy organisation called Alarum? What is the deal with the DEA? And why is Laura protecting a money launderer? Nobody seems to know, and worse, nobody seems to care. Chester is eventually assigned to back up Joe in what is meant to be an anticipated team-up, but this results in little more than dull banter, endless double-crossing, and plot developments that exist purely to pad out the runtime.

Thankfully, there are a few action and explosive sequences to keep viewers momentarily awake. Unfortunately, the choreography and digital violence are laughable and often distracting. Whatever happened to good old squibs and practical effects? Even the sound design feels oddly off at key moments.

Aside from the impressive cast, Alarum is a cheap and amateurish effort. The idea of two agents falling in love and walking away from their careers has been done a million times before, but this may be one of the worst versions yet mainly because we barely see Joe and Laura together onscreen. Stallone would be better off buying fewer Patek Philippes and focusing his energy on Tulsa King. In short, Alarum probably should not have been made in the first place.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee