Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista hit it off in New Zealand-made action flick

Review by

Russell Baillie

Arts & entertainment editor·New Zealand Listener·

6 Feb, 2026 05:04 PM3 mins to read

NZ Listener Arts & Entertainment Editor Russell Baillie has worked at the Listener since 2017 and was previously the editor of the NZ Herald’s TimeOut section.

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Brothers in arms: Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista. Photo / Supplied

The Wrecking Crew, directed by Ángel Manuel Soto, is now streaming on Prime.

The Wrecking Crew might be a throwback to buddy-cop action comedies of yesteryear, but it still contains plenty that surprises. And they aren’t just the familiar faces in the supporting cast of a movie filmed mostly in
New Zealand substituting for Hawai‘i – after one short but memorable scene he features in, we may never look at Josh Thomson in quite the same way again.

The nicest surprise is that it’s genuinely, if stupidly, enjoyable, care of its lead double-act of Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista, which has more going for it than just having two well-known, very large men beating – or shooting or stabbing – the crap out of anyone who gets in their way. Which, of course, they do.

But all that mayhem is grounded in the rocky relationship between these two half-brothers, Jonny (Momoa) and James. The former is an Oklahoma cop who, you’ll be surprised to hear, doesn’t play by the rules. The latter is a hardcore US Marines sergeant and family man.

They are brought back together after the murder of their estranged dad, a Honolulu private detective who wasn’t quite Magnum PI. They must bury their differences, with a brief pause to beat the crap out of each other, bond once more then take on Marcus Robichaux, the villain with the French name, English accent and Thai kickboxing skills played with relish by Danish star Claes Bang. He gets a topknot to twirl rather than a moustache, and a small army of henchmen, supplemented by yakuza thugs fresh from the Kill Bill temp agency.

Other movies that director Ángel Manuel Soto has possibly seen include Old Boy, Bad Boys and various Lethal Weapons.

That the lead characters aren’t actually cops in Hawai‘i doesn’t seem to matter. There’s even the standard scene where the pair are hauled into the police boss’s office for the traditional dressing-down, despite the fact they don’t even work there.

But the fun of Momoa and Bautista’s ying-yang gives The Wrecking Crew a free pass to the logic gaps and possibly its disregard for the lives of civilian bystanders. They’re helped by nice supporting turns from Roimata Fox as James’s wife, Frankie Adams as the brothers’ cousin, and Temuera Morrison as friend and the governor of Hawai‘i.

No, it’s not much of a detective story. But the biggest mystery is why Amazon Prime released this straight-to-streamer on the same day it released First Lady documentary Melania in cinemas. It’s certainly got enough big-screen bang for the multiplex. Then again, Bautista has loudly mocked Trump, a politician who has had plenty of support from the intellectual giants of the wrestling entertainment industrial complex where he first became a star.

Rating out of five: ★★★½

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