This week sees the release of a new Netflix action movie, Sweet Girl. Starring Jason Momoa, the film follows a father who is out for revenge against the people he believes had a hand in killing his wife, while also working to protect his young daughter. Isabela Merced co-stars as his daughter, while Amy Brenneman and Justin Bartha have supporting roles. Judging by the trailer, Sweet Girl will be another action movie that fits perfectly within Momoa's wheelhouse.
Looking at Momoa's filmography on Rotten Tomatoes, there are plenty of action and horror movies spread across his resume. Unfortunately, many of those films weren't well received, earning "Rotten" scores with both critics and audiences. In fact, three out of his four movies that are "Fresh" on the website all involve him playing Arthur Curry: Aquaman, Zack Snyder's Justice League, and his brief role in The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. So far, the only exception to that rule is 2018's Braven, which is Momoa's most critically acclaimed live-action movie.
Braven is an action/thriller that centers around Joe (Momoa), a logger who gets mixed up with drug traffickers after discovering cocaine in his family's cabin. This leads to Joe fighting to protect his father and daughter from getting killed by a team of mercenaries. Garret Dillahunt and Zahn McClarnon play the main drug kingpins, Jill Wagner plays Joe's wife Stephanie, and Stephen Lang plays Joe's father Linden. Though no official critics consensus was released on the website, the positive reviews do indicate that the film is a solid action movie that succeeds thanks to Momoa's performance.
One of the more interesting things about Braven is that it isn't the first time Momoa and Lang have shared the screen. Previously, the two appeared in 2011's Conan the Barbarian. Momoa plays the title character, who is seeking vengeance against evil warlord Khalar Zym for burning down his village and killing his father. Lang played Khalar Zym, while Ron Perlman and Rose McGowan co-starred. Unfortunately, Conan The Barbarian was both a critical and commercial failure that didn't lead to the start of a major franchise. Still, this means that Braven is essentially a Conan the Barbarian reunion, a crossover between Momoa's worst and best films.
Conan the Barbarian was quickly forgotten about, but both Momoa and Lang both moved on to better things. Momoa has enjoyed a string of successful roles on film and television, which include the aforementioned DC films and the Apple TV+ series See. In addition to Sweet Girl, Momoa appears in Denis Villeneuve's Dune later in October, and will once again return to the DC Extended Universe in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, set to release in 2022.
As for Lang, he has starred as the Blind Man in both of the Don't Breathe movies and is set to reprise his role as Miles Quaritch for James Cameron's Avatar sequels. When it comes to Lang's TV roles, he had a starring role in Fox's short-lived sci-fi show Terra Nova and later appeared on AMC's Into The Badlands and Paramount+'s The Good Fight.
Coincidentally, Sweet Girl is releasing one day after the 10-year anniversary of Conan the Barbarian. Looking back, it's interesting to see how both Momoa and Lang's careers have evolved over the years, especially from a forgotten franchise starter to an acclaimed thriller.
To see Jason Momoa kick butt in another thrilling action movie, watch Sweet Girl now on Netflix.
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