An unexpectedly adored and thoroughly unoriginal actioner dodges a hail of streaming bullets

Underwhelming action movies are the bread and butter of streaming services everywhere, with the majority of B-tier shoot ’em ups always capable of enjoying a resurgence regardless of what platform they end up on, but it turns out that this year’s Snag has a surprisingly passionate fanbase.

Ignoring the tepid 4.1/10 rating on IMDb and middling 20 percent critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the lo-fi runner and gunner appears to have satisfied its intended audience to a surprising degree based on its 80 percent user score on the aggregation site.

A self-created showcase for British-born Australian actor Ben Milliken – who co-writes, directs, produces, and plays the lead role – the story finds the title hero (yep, his name is Snag) discovering the woman he loved isn’t quite as dead as he thought she was, but very much alive and being held prisoner by a cabal of ruthless gangsters.

Descending into a seedy underworld of violence, shaky alliances, and old friends calling in favors, the narrative isn’t unlike that of a fairy tale in a bizarre way, with the dogged and determined Snag setting out to rescue his princess and damsel in distress from the castle keeping her captive.

It’s clearly ticked a box on streaming, anyway, seeing as FlixPatrol has named Snag as one of the most-watched titles on Paramount Plus, although it isn’t really much of a towering achievement to see a poorly-received actioner fare so well on-demand when you can basically set your watch to it these days.