Published on
We’re barely halfway through 2025, and I’ve already stumbled across two “Die Hard” knock-offs. First up: the dreadful “Cleaner“, starring Star Wars’ own Daisy Ridley. Then there’s “G20”, featuring Academy Award winner Viola Davis as the first Black female president of the United States—armed to the teeth and taking down men twice her size. If that sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is… just not quite ridiculous enough to be fun.
In “G20”, an international summit is thrown into chaos when a group of heavily armed mercenaries storms the venue and takes world leaders hostage, triggering a crisis that thrusts U.S. President Taylor Sutton (Viola Davis) into survival mode. With her top Secret Service agent critically injured, the president is forced to go on the run and fight back, relying on her wits, resilience, and eventually, a whole lot of firepower. As the situation escalates, she transforms from diplomat to action hero, battling her way through a gauntlet of enemies led by a ruthless Australian mercenary (Antony Starr), all while trying to protect her family and prevent a global catastrophe.
In the endless stream of “Die Hard” knock-offs we’ve been getting ever since Bruce Willis jumped off a skyscraper in the original, a few have recycled the same general premise—namely, “Die Hard” but with the President of the United States. When Gary Oldman hijacked Air Force One, it was up to Harrison Ford’s President James Marshall to take him down. Other entries, like the twin “Die Hard in the White House” movies—”White House Down” and “Olympus Has Fallen“—put the focus on a Secret Service agent protecting the president.
“G20” tries to have it both ways. Viola Davis plays the president, but at first, she’s taking a back seat to a Secret Service agent who’s trying to get her to safety. When he’s seriously wounded, though, she picks up the slack—and the guns—and takes matters into her own hands.
The villain is an Australian mercenary played by Homelander himself: Antony Starr. By now, Starr can play this type of character in his sleep, and many of the same mannerisms from “The Boys” sneak into his performance here. That’s not too surprising—he is one of TV’s most iconic villains. But in “G20”, his character is disappointingly generic. He could’ve taken a cue from Tommy Lee Jones in “Under Siege” and cranked the crazy up to eleven. Instead, all he brings to the table is a thick Aussie accent, which at times makes it feel like the president is up against Crocodile Dundee.
Both leads actually play it fairly straight, and Viola Davis brings her usual gravitas to the role—perhaps too much for a film that’s essentially the gazillionth spin on the “Die Hard” formula. There are a few laughs scattered throughout, but ultimately, we’re still watching a 59-year-old woman wielding heavy artillery and mowing down waves of mercenaries, which we are supposed to take serious. It takes a while to get there, though. In an effort to keep things grounded, her early encounters are tough and tense. But as the movie progresses, she seems to level up like a video game character—by the third act, she’s clearing out rooms of bad guys with ease.
The First Man is played by Anthony Anderson, whom I mostly remember as the comic relief in early-2000s action flicks like “Cradle 2 The Grave” and “Exit Wounds“. Even he keeps things relatively straight-faced, despite being saddled with a daughter who not only loves sneaking away from the Secret Service, but also happens to be a tech prodigy—a type of character that only ever seems to exist in movies like this.
In all its goofiness, “G20” is surprisingly enjoyable. It’s miles ahead of those low-budget “geezer teasers” starring Bruce Willis that have flooded the market over the past decade. And for anyone looking for 100 minutes of goofy, over-the-top escapism, it more than delivers. It’s certainly better than “Cleaner“—though, of course, it doesn’t come close to touching the original “Die Hard” or even its first two sequels.
