The Violent Jason Momoa Thriller That's Dominating Netflix Right Now

The people want mo' Momoa! That's why Braven, a 2018 action thriller starring Jason Momoa, is making some noise on the Netflix Top 10 chart.

In the film, the big guy also known as Aquaman plays Joe Braven (which sounds like a portmanteau of "Brave" and "Raven"), a Canadian logging company owner who inadvertently gets caught up in a drug-smuggling plot, and has to protect his family from a drug lord and his goons while they attack his remote mountain cabin, which they've been using as a cocaine stash spot. The film has a great cast that also includes Garret Dillahunt as drug kingpin Kassen, Zahn McClarnon as Kassen's right-hand man Hallet, and Stephen Lang as Braven's father Linden. 

It's essentially a home invasion thriller set in the wilderness, which means Braven's killing tools are stuff you'd find in a hunting cabin, including a bow and arrow, a hatchet, and a pair of red-hot fireplace tongs. It's basically the role Jason Momoa was put on this planet to play, and he carries the film on his ample shoulders.

In addition to starring, Momoa produced the film through his Pride of Gypsies production company. It was the feature directorial debut of Lin Oeding, a veteran stunt performer and coordinator who worked on movies including Olympus Has Fallen and The Dark Knight Rises, and has also directed episodes of TV shows including Blindspot, Warrior, and Cobra Kai. The man knows stunts, is what we're trying to say. The screenplay was written by Mike Nilon and Thomas Pa'a Sibbett, and the filming was done on location in Newfoundland (Jason Momoa seems to love making action content in Canada, as demonstrated by his participation in the Netflix series Frontier and the Apple TV+ series See, in which he gives one of the worst performances of 2019).

Braven was better received by critics than you might expect, with a 77% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Variety's Joe Leydon called it "the sort of unpretentious yet thoroughly professional popcorn entertainment that brings out the best in everybody involved."

If you're in the mood for a knock-down, drag-out thriller where an ordinary man (who happens to be Jason Momoa) brutally kills a bunch of bad guys who are threatening his home and family, you could do a lot worse than Braven.