After a less-than-impressive theatrical and VOD debut earlier this year, Alarum, the spy-action flick starring Sylvester Stallone and Scott Eastwood, is suddenly punching above its weight on streaming. The film, which arrived in select U.S. theaters and on demand on January 17, 2025, failed to ignite any buzz during its initial run. Against all odds, it has fired its way into Amazon Prime’s Top Ten charts, currently sitting at number nine, alongside heavy-hitters like Interstellar, and the James Bond films Casino Royale, No Time to Die, and Skyfall.
Directed by Michael Polish, Alarum boasts the kind of ensemble that usually guarantees box-office traction. In addition to the legendary Stallone, it also stars Willa Fitzgerald, fresh off several acclaimed TV roles, and Mike Colter, best known for his work in Luke Cage. With a cast like that, this should’ve been a moderate success at the very least. Instead, Alarum failed to live up to expectations. The film’s reception was brutal, with 0% on Rotten Tomatoes from 22 critics, and audiences weren’t much kinder, rating it 15%.
Alarum’s plot reads like a turbocharged remix of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s blockbuster, Mr. & Mrs. Smith. It follows Joe (Eastwood) and Lara (Fitzgerald), a married pair of off-the-grid spies whose winter retreat becomes a war zone when they’re hunted by their former employers. Throw in Stallone as the mentor figure and Mike Colter as a mean-faced operative on their trail, and you’ve got what should ordinarily make for decent viewing. Unfortunately, critics labeled it everything from “visually confused” to “narratively incoherent,” with one reviewer calling it “a masterclass in how not to edit a chase sequence.”
How then is this shooting up the charts? Star power, perhaps. The Stallone name alone carries international gravity, and Eastwood’s fanbase pulling its weight shouldn’t be surprising. A Prime Video thumbnail with these heavyweights, some bit of algorithmic luck, and a weekend audience in search of something to binge on, and Alarum is back in the groove.
Sylvester Stallone’s No Stranger to Critically Panned Flicks
Stallone’s greatness has never been in question. He is arguably one of the most celebrated actors of his generation, but every once in a while, he drops a stinker. In 2006, he self-deprecatingly told AICN readers that his buddy cop action-comedy, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is “maybe one of the worst films in the entire solar system, including alien productions we’ve never seen. The comedy, released in 1992, has a 14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Stallone also played the lead role in the 2024 action thriller Armor, which also failed to hit the heights. He plays a villainous bank robber attempting to steal the contents of an armored truck, which has been trapped under a bridge. Just like Alarum, Armor bagged a 0% score from 25 critics on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
You can stream Alarum now on Prime Video.
Release Date
January 17, 2025
Runtime
95 Minutes
Director
Michael Polish
Writers
Alexander Vesha