Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 was very short on gifts, let alone the kind that keeps giving. One of the rare exceptions was a surprise action-thriller film called Becky, directed by Jonathan Milott & Cary Murnion, and starring a young actress by the name of Lulu Wilson. In this film, Wilson plays the titular Becky, who finds herself fighting off neo-Nazis led by Kevin James. When they descend upon her home looking for a pivotal key, at great personal loss, she overcomes the threat and secures the key herself.
A few years later, Becky returned to screens with The Wrath of Becky (2023). Slightly older and irrevocably changed from her ordeal, we find Becky as a survivor tuned to war by her experiences. When a band of nationalists calling themselves The Noble Men, led by Seann William Scott, cross paths with this ticking time bomb, Becky springs back into action and fights off this new threat. At the end of that film, the heroine is inexplicably recruited by the CIA. Now armed with her anger and literal agency, Becky is more dangerous than ever before.
Returning for a third chapter, Lulu Wilson is once again Becky in The Last Temptation of Becky. This time she’s sent by the CIA to investigate an old Nazi stronghold in Poland under the eye of Wilhelm Reuss (Neil Patrick Harris). Now the table is set for a Becky fable: our heroine, stunt casting for the villain, and the opportunity for ludicrous kills. The screenwriters of The Wrath of Becky have penned this outing with franchise newcomer Jenn Wexler directing. Even composer Nima Fakhrara is back on board.
Discussion
The Last Temptation of Becky is a confident entry in a breakout film franchise of the past few years. However, the film suffers from the pitfalls of heroism that often plague its siblings. “Becky,” the name has outgrown “Becky” the character. Making her a CIA agent, even one so frequently bemoaned by her superiors, gives our plucky little survivor too much agency. This strips her of the humble beginnings that made her remarkable. The film notably has a “gearing up for the mission” scene wherein Becky is outfitted with all manner of government tech to aid in her assignment. It’s a fun nod to the James Bond films before it. Yet, it feels out of place in comparison to 2020’s Becky.
None of this is to say that The Last Temptation of Becky isn’t fun. It’s exactly what one wants from a Becky film. The kills are brutal, the humor is dialed up to eleven, and the characters are all designed to entertain. Neil Patrick Harris is having a blast chewing up the scenery as villain Wilhelm. Further, the inclusion of noted voice and character actor James Ubraniak as his mad scientist, Dr. Friedrich Metzger, makes their scenes unforgettable. The stunt casting pays off as it has in the past two films, and the stakes are much larger in this film than in previous installments.
Further Analysis
Perhaps too large is the rub. In the first installment, Becky had to stand up to danger on her front lawn. In the second, it was down the street, and she could have been reasonably forgiven for letting it pass. Now, in this one, she’s sent into the Wolf’s Lair (quite literally) to stop a potentially global-altering threat, almost single-handedly. To borrow a comparison I made when I measured the second film against the first, this is the Rambo III of plucky teen girl boss films. I admit that our heroes must evolve. However, we also have to acknowledge that some evolutions, say Alice’s from Resident Evil to Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, stretch our tolerance for incredulity. Becky may be doing the same.
Conclusion
All that said, The Last Temptation of Becky does retain a lot of the whimsy and brutality of the series thus far. Lulu Wilson is typically captivating as the title character. It’s easy to make the comparison of John McClane fighting with his grit and environment versus James Bond tackling terrorism with a tricked-out Aston Martin. But Becky remains the plucky heroine she has been since the first film. She’s fighting on the right side of history, even if she seems a bit too giddy and deranged doing so. If this is, in fact, her last temptation to enact our revenge fantasies, we could easily be satisfied with what we’re given.
