Stratton (2017)

Stratton is the kind of lean, no-nonsense action thriller that doesn’t pretend to be anything else: it’s built to move, hit hard, and keep you locked onto the next tactical problem. Director Simon West brings a crisp, old-school momentum to the set pieces—speedboats, gunfire, and a London-set race against time—while Dominic Cooper anchors it with a grounded, steel-eyed intensity that makes the missions feel personal rather than cartoonish. The vibe is gritty and efficient, with just enough spy-paranoia and team friction to give the bullets some bite, and strong support from Gemma Chan and Connie Nielsen to keep the world feeling staffed by capable professionals. It’s not for viewers looking for deep character study or a twisty prestige espionage saga, but if you want a tough, R-rated, straight-ahead ride with muscular pacing, Stratton delivers.

Stratton is clearly aiming to be a no-nonsense British counter-terror action thriller in the old-school, mission-to-mission mold, with Dominic Cooper doing his best to sell a tough, capable lead. The problem is it feels like a patchwork of better films: the plot is painfully familiar, the “mole” angle never really crackles, and the whole thing has a TV-movie sheen that makes the stakes feel smaller than the script insists. Simon West can still stage movement, so there are a couple of serviceable chases and bursts of violence, but the set pieces rarely build into anything memorable and the supporting cast is underused. If you want slick, tense modern espionage or characters you’ll actually care about, skip it; if you’re fine with generic, loud action as background noise, it might just about do the job.