Joey Magidson
When I first saw Becky back in 2020, I had no sense that I was watching a trilogy (at least) in the making. The film was entertaining, to be sure, but the sequel, The Wrath of Becky (reviewed here) improved on things in almost every regard. So, another movie in the franchise actually intrigued me. Well, The Last Temptation of Becky isn’t as good as the prior flick, but it does take things in a very new, if overly silly, direction, and I respect it for that bold swing. Long live Becky.
The Last Temptation of Becky is a spy action comedy, as opposed to the action thriller that the prior two installments were. The broader set up, as well as the obvious budgetary limitations, keep the film from reaching its full potential, but if you like the central character, or even just watching Nazis get fucked up, there’s plenty here.
Becky (Lulu Wilson) has now become a CIA field agent, one who constantly ends up doing things her own, extraordinarily violent, way. She’s a pain in the ass for her handlers, yet gets the job done. Her latest mission sends her undercover in Poland with the task of infiltrating a family running an inn. The inn in question happens to be at The Wolf’s Lair, one of Adolf Hitler’s World War II bunkers.
When Becky learns that the father running the inn, Wilhelm Reuss (Neil Patrick Harris), has plans to bring back the Fourth Reich, she jumps into action. Soon, Becky has her cover blown and is captured, putting the whole operation into jeopardy. While being held, she sees just what General Reuss, alongside Dr. Friedrich Metzger (James Urbaniak), has cooked up, and it spurs her to get to Nazi killing.
Lulu Wilson continues to be a real badass here. The character has become not just a superhero killing machine, but a super spy too, and that’s fun. There’s no real expansion of Becky the character, which is a shame, but Wilson is quite the action hero. Neil Patrick Harris is enjoying being a vile villain, while James Urbaniak hams it up. These aren’t brilliant performances, as you might imagine, but they’re broadly enjoyable bad guys. Supporting performances here include Brandon Flynn, Fiona Marr, Kate Siegel, and more.
Director/co-writer Jenn Wexler, alongside co-writer Matt Angel (Suzanne Coote has a story credit), goes big here. Now, Wexler doesn’t have the budget for some of the bigger ideas she and Angel have, and it shows, but there’s a brashness here that fuels the whole movie. You can never go too far in dispatching Nazis, which The Last Temptation of Becky knows, and utilizes. I would have liked a bit more character development in the film, but in lieu of that, we get more Becky ass kicking, which is supremely entertaining.
The Last Temptation of Becky isn’t a complicated flick. It wants to turn the title character into a CIA Nazi killer, and does so rather efficiently. If you’ve been in on the series so far, this is not going to lose you. If you’re new to it, the basic set up is more than enough to hook you. As long as Becky is dispatching Nazis, I’ll be watching.
SCORE: ★★★
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