Who didn’t see this coming?
When it comes to Mel Gibson, it seems very hard for critics to separate the art from the artist. Case in point, the reviews for the John Wick spin-off, “The Continental.”
Mel Gibson co-stars in the series as Cormac, a gangster and father figure to young Winston, played by Colin Woodell. Yes, they decided to cast Gibson as a violent psychopath and that’s been rubbing reviewers the wrong way.
So far, the reviews are pretty bad, with only 47% of critics liking it. The fact that Mel Gibson is in it does not help this series’ cause at all. Critics are not even hiding their disdain for Gibson in their reviews:
The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han writes:
It’s being released into a reality where Gibson’s history of racist, misogynistic, antisemitic, abusive behavior has been well documented. In that reality, the sight of Gibson hurling cruel insults or unleashing his violent temper is hardly the stuff of escapist action fantasy. His presence lends a sour note that many viewers will find outright intolerable — which defeats the purpose of casting such a recognizable face to begin with. The Continental is otherwise a decent start to John Wick’s expansion plans.
Alan Sepinwall at Rolling Stone:
Yes, Mel Gibson was once one of the biggest stars in the world. But that was a long time ago, before he exposed himself as a virulent hater of women, Black people, and Jews.
The Verge also made a similar point:
For the most part, McShane has been able to get by playing Winston as essentially a heightened, more melodramatic version of himself. But Gibson’s attempt at taking the same approach to Cormac consistently falls flat both because of the actor’s personal scandals and because of how The Continental frames Cormac as the kind of villain who sees other people — particularly people of color — as beneath him or things to be owned and traded
Variety’s Alison Herman throwing some shade:
Let’s also throw in the casting of Gibson, whose rehabilitation after a history of racism, antisemitism and alleged domestic violence has been as dispiriting as it is inevitable.
The Daily Beast‘s Nick Schager calls the series “borderline unwatchable”, echoing some of the aforementioned concerns about Gibson:
And did I mention that, on top of all its mistakes, it co-stars famously intolerant Mel Gibson as a villain who, at one point, viciously murders a gay man to keep him from his beloved?
Gibson staged a soft comeback in 2016 with “Hacksaw Ridge”, a war movie that nabbed multiple Oscar nominations, including for Picture and Director.
In the years since his highly publicized 2006 DUI arrest —during which he was recorded making antisemitic remarks— and the 2010 court proceedings regarding former partner Oksana Grigorieva (during which audio leaked of Gibson making racist remarks), Gibson has been mostly relegated to VOD dramas.
However, the actor does have two directorial efforts in the pipeline: “Flight Risk,” starring Mark Wahlberg, and “Passion of the Christ: Resurrection.”