The Misfits (2021 film)

The Misfits is a 2021 American heist action film directed by Renny Harlin and written by Robert Henny and Kurt Wimmer. The film stars Pierce Brosnan, Rami Jaber, Hermione Corfield, Jamie Chung, Mike Angelo, Tim Roth, Nick Cannon, and Qais Qandil. It was released in South Korea on June 3, 2021, and was released in the United States on June 11, 2021, by The Avenue Entertainment. The film was a box-office bomb and received negative reviews.

Plot
Richard Pace is a professional thief, as well as a prison escapee. Schultz, who owns several private prisons (3 of which Pace has escaped from), learns that Pace is about to be released from one of his prisons, but escapes the day before, when Schultz comes to visit. It's revealed that Pace only stayed in the prison so he could get information from his roommate about a wealthy man known as The Prince, who is currently in Los Angeles. Pace goes to a hotel where the Prince is staying, trying to steal the Prince's valuable watch collection, with Schultz & the FBI behind. However, he realizes too late that it's a trap set by The Prince. Forced to choose between The Prince and the FBI, Pace chooses the former, who takes him to his private plane. There, he meets three other members: Ringo - a locksmith and master of disguise, Wick - an explosives expert, and Violet - a deadly martial artist. Together, they make up The Misfits.

On The Prince's private plane, en route to Abu Dhabi, the Misfits learn that Schultz has taken money from a Brotherhood & has laundered it, converting it into gold. Schultz has kept the gold in a safe hidden in another prison of his, located in the fictional country of Jazeristan. The Misfits want to steal the gold to prevent the Brotherhood from using it to fund terrorist attacks, but they need Pace's help. Pace initially refuses to help, but after a chance meeting with his daughter, Hope, Pace decides to help. However, Pace wants 50% of the gold they steal. After the Misfits tell them that they are not keeping the gold at all, Pace decides to leave, but is stopped when he learns Hope brought them all together.

While preparing to infiltrate the Jazeristan prison, the Misfits learn that the leader of the Brotherhood, Abu Hirawa, has sent his right-hand man, Jason Quick, to pick up a case of gold bars from Schultz. However, the Misfits decide to swap the case. Enraged, Hirawa kills Quick, then lets Schultz know that he's coming directly to Jazeristan to pick up the gold bars from him, on the same day as the heist. Once in Jazeristan, Ringo disguises himself to convince the prison warden that the kitchen ovens need to be replaced. On the day the ovens are replaced, Pace & Wick switch places with The Prince's contacts, disguising themselves as prisoners. While moving the ovens, Pace sees a statue that's meant to honor Schultz. In anger, he damages the statue.

The next day, they poison the cafeteria food, causing major vomiting and diarrhea in all of the prisoners, resulting in multiple prisoners being relocated to a nearby hospital via ambulances. Suspicious, Schultz believes that Pace is in Jazeristan trying to steal his gold, and asks his men to locate him. Meanwhile, Ringo comes to the prison disguised as the owner of a sanitation company, telling the warden he’ll need to bring people in with hazmat suits. Pace & Wick go into one of the prisoners’ bathrooms directly above the safe, under the guise of cleaning it, while Hope parks a car outside. After drilling through the safe, Wick fills it with gas, then lights a fire, causing the safe door to explode open. At the same time, Hope’s car explodes, convincing the guards that the explosion only came from the car. After the explosion, Pace & Wick go to the safe room to remove the gold. Before they do so, Wick takes a photo of the gold with his phone, and attaches it to a security camera in the safe. Meanwhile, Schultz, believing that the car’s explosion was only a diversion, asks the prison security to check the safe’s camera. At first, they only see Wick’s photo, but when Schultz asks to zoom in, the camera doesn’t move. Schultz goes to the safe room only to see that all the gold has been removed. As Schultz tells the guards to lock down the prison, a gurney moves past him, dropping a gold bar. Believing that Pace has used the gurneys and ambulances to move the gold, he orders his men to check the ambulances. However, they find nothing.

Back at the prison, Schultz sees an unfamiliar sanitation truck drive past. He gets in his car and orders his men to follow it through the desert, before the truck stops in front of a military plane belonging to The Prince. Schultz opens the truck’s trunk, expecting to the find the gold, but is surprised when it is empty. At this time, The Prince, Ringo, and two others (with their faces masked) exit the truck. Schultz is angry, but is calmed when he receives a phone call from his men, claiming they have found Hope. Schultz tells them to kill her, then hangs up. However, one of the masked people is revealed to be Hope, and introduces herself to Schultz. The person Schultz’s men had tied up was actually Violet, who attacks them all and leaves. Schultz, angry, pulls out a gun, but is then held at gunpoint himself by military forces from The Prince’s country. The military forces then escort Schultz towards a car belonging to Hirawa. While Hirawa understands that Schultz is not at fault, he tells him that justice must be delivered.

It's revealed that Ringo, Wick, and two of the Prince’s men (who had already infiltrated the prison), had used Schultz’s statue to create a mold, and melted the gold so it was in the shape of the damaged statue. After painting it, Ringo then left the prison as someone coming to take the statue for repairs. After reuniting in Abu Dhabi, Hope & Pace decide to officially join the Misfits, as a news report mentions how a large donation was given to charity, and that the price of gold is on the rise.

Cast

 * Pierce Brosnan as Richard Pace
 * Nick Cannon as Ringo
 * Rami Jaber as The Prince
 * Hermione Corfield as Hope Pace
 * Jamie Chung as Violet
 * Mike Angelo as Wick
 * Tim Roth as Schultz
 * Qais Qandil as Jason Quick
 * Mansoor al-Feeli as Hirawa
 * Samer al-Masry as Hassan

Production
According to Harlin, he and Brosnan had "been looking for a project to collaborate on for some time".

The project was first announced on February 12, 2019 at the Berlin International Film Festival's European Film Market. Filming locations include Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Los Angeles. Principal photography commenced a week later.

Release
The Misfits had its world premiere in South Korea on June 3, 2021. The Avenue Entertainment in association with Highland Film Group distributed the film on June 11, 2021.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval score of 17% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 3.70/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 25 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Controversy
The film has been controversial in Qatar due to some real life negative references to Qatar to "terror" financing and explicit references to the Muslim Brotherhood as "terrorists" with Yusuf al-Qaradawi as their mastermind. The film is financed as well as co-produced by an Emirati production company, and given the involvement of Emirati media in propagating this narrative against Qatar at least since the first Qatar diplomatic crisis combined with Doha News reporting anti-Qatar plot elements in the film's content. Initially announced as "Coming Soon" in the Qatari subsidiary of Dubai-headquartered Vox Cinemas, the one half of film exhibition duopoly in Qatar, with the other half being Novo Cinemas which is also Dubai-headquartered but wholly owned indirectly by Doha-based Elan Group (through their ownership of its parent Gulf Film, a regional film distributor across West Asia and North Africa dealing mostly in foreign films, including but not limited to Hollywood releases) lending to this being the speculated factor behind them not picking this film up for exhibition not just in Qatar, but across all of the national markets they operated in, including UAE. As the backlash grew with leaked stills from South Korean release leading credence to discord over anti-Qatar "propaganda" embedded in the film, Emirati-owned Vox Cinemas ultimately shelved the film's planned release in Qatar, with press release confirming the move by 1 July 2021, the previously announced release date.