Is it time to forgive Mel Gibson? John Wick spin off The Continental showcases what he could have been
In new shoot ‘em up series The Continental, Mel Gibson shows what he could have become. It’s a shame he’s only got himself to blame.
Dame Edna, Kylie Minogue, Rolf Harris and Mel Gibson.
Those were the four people who defined Australia in my mind when I was a wee bairn moving here from a cold and distant Glasgow.
Nobody in Scotland knows anything about cricket or league or AFL.
I was way too young to know about more sophisticated movie stars like Blanchett and Kidman. It was those four incredibly famous people in that 12-year-old’s head who made Australia make sense.
Some years later, one’s opinion on those four may have changed somewhat.
Kylie and the late great dame are still goddesses, of course. Harris is so fallen and so dark one tries not to think about it. But then there is Mel.
I thought moving here that Australia would be like the Mad Max movies my grandparents very naughtily let me watch as a 10-year-old – as long as I turned away when I was told to.
Sand dunes and outback monsters and danger. That was Australia to me.
Imagine a boy’s disappointment landing in Perth, and it’s less Mad Max and more Kath and Kim.
But how strange that this American-Aussie hybrid also defines Scottishness.
Just ask any Scotsman who’s been forced to yell “FREEEEDOOOM” for the entertainment of his Antipodean mates.
Imagine being that famous? Being Mel Gibson, a man who acts as a byword for two very different countries on opposite sides of the world.
And then imagine how he threw all that away.
There’s the domestic violence allegations from his ex-partner Oksana Grigorieva and the tapes she put out of his verbal abuse – where he’s caught saying the most vile and racist and misogynistic things.
Gibson has denied the allegations but pleaded “no contest” to a battery charge against him.
Everyone knows that Mel Gibson is these days now a byword for something else – pariah.
Well, a new show on Amazon Prime wants to bring Mel Gibson in from the cold.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick is a three-part serial spin off of Keanu Reeves’s incredibly popular and fun shoot-em up assassin movies.
It’s all about how a younger version of the Ian McShane mentor figure (played by Colin Woodell) becomes the master of the swanky hotel that is the centre of the assassins’ world.
It’s full of sex, shooting, violence, bit more sex, few more guns and explosions.
It’s very entertaining, it’s a bit graphic at times and it’s not very deep at all.
And right in the middle of all the action is Gibson as the big scary baddie.
First up, is he any good? He’s brilliant.
Gibson brings all his wit and his charm and his savagery to this criminal kingpin who forces our hero to find his brother and kill him.
He’s mesmerising as he’s being the perfect gentleman to hotel guests in one moment and then forcing failed henchman to throw themselves out of windows the next.
The Continental is a showcase for what Mel Gibson can do and how – if life hadn’t got in the way – what we could have seen a lot more of.
This is a Gibson who – like John Wayne in The Searchers – shows how a young action hero can mature into something more twisted and dangerous and yet still enchanting.
None of this of course changes the fact that Mel Gibson is an absolute plonker.
Continental director Albert Hughes told this masthead’s sister paper, The New York Post, recently of Gibson’s controversies that “The personal stuff is not my business to talk about.”
Well, up to a point, mate.
Gibson is the first name on the credits of The Continental. Almost every newspaper article – this one included, admittedly – about this show is about him and the damage he brings in his wake.
The Continental is trading not just on Gibson’s talent but on his notoriety too.
It’s very easy to watch The Continental and not think about Gibson or, well, anything at all really.
And it’s not a show that demands a lot of intellectual work.
This is also not the first time Gibson has sought a comeback and it won’t be the last.
His 2016 film Hackshaw Ridge was seen as a bit of a thaw in his exile and got a bunch of Oscar nominations. He’s been in movies with Mark Wahlberg and the like.
But whether you want to forgive Gibson or not, The Continental is going to make you feel a bit icky and a bit sad either way.
This is a great actor on display, showing what he could have become. Shame he’s only got himself to blame that we haven’t seen more of it.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
