La trampa del asesino

Wesley Snipes is an ex-killer for the CIA, living contentedly on a ranch. He's asked to come back to kill a bad, bad man.... and realizes it's a set-up to get him killed. He also needs to take care of 15-year-old Eliza Bennett because the writers must have seen THE PROFESSIONAL and said "I can do that!"

No they can't. It's a decently acted movie -- it's got Charles Dance and Lena Headley -- but it's so derivative that you'll watch it and wonder as it plods self-importantly through its plot points, why they stole this particular twist from that movie, instead of a different plot twist from another. Or any of ten others.

It went straight to video. Now it's on the higher-numbered cable channels.

Having just seen Hit-man, another film of the type "good hit-man fights bad hit men", but incredibly stupid, The Contractor seemed to me of incredibly unexpected good nature. The main character is human, fallible, vulnerable. He does his job as well as possible given the circumstances, he tries to save his skin as well as possible and when a stern "Moscow rules: if the mission fails you're already dead" assignment comes his way he feels no confusion when deciding he should stay very much alive, no matter the mission.

Of course, in all this gem of a script idea there is also bad screen play, occasional bad acting and things that make no sense. It's like a good machine without oil, everything is well made but not really working. The action scenes are shaky and amateurish for a Snipes movie, but then again, the point was not the action or the technical prowess of the hit men, but the fact that they are human beings.

At first I thought it was going to be another Nikita/Leon ripoff, but the girl story arch was sensible and reasonably original. The ending was a little bit forced, too.

Bottom line: in the abysmal hell of bad written hit-man action movies, this obscure film is a real gem in the mud and a reminder that the budget is not really important, nor the genre of the film, but the very real effort of actually trying to make a movie, not just money.

It was clearly meant for UK market, incorporating two popular British actors that ended up working on Game of Thrones together just 4 years later. But ill tell you who else loves this stuff.... Latinos. My Latina wife barely speaks English and loves tf outta these types of story and action.

A non-stop thriller with intrigue , twists , turns and routine interpretation make up for the charming presence of the little girl Eliza Bennett and her sensitive relation with Wesley Snipes. Here Wesley Snipes performs an ex-C. I. A. Operative , Agent James Dial, whose career took a turn south with one botched mission . He is asked to take out terrorist Ali Mahmud Jahar (Nikolai Sotirov), but things go wrong . On the run and bleeding profusely, James makes his way to the safe house,mand along the way , he meets curious twelve-year-old neighbor Emily Day (Eliza Bennett) . Dial to realize he's been set up by his former employer , Jeremy Collins (Ralph Brown). Snipes' role manages to keep low profile long enough to clear their name . With the official authorities (Charles Dance , Lena Headey, playing father and daughter , the same as Game of Thrones) and his betrayer chasing him, and in spite of being a black man travelling alone in England , he must fight to survive against the nasty undercover agents and save his little friend . The world's greatest marksman is now a marked man...!

The movie displays suspense , thriller , unstopped action , high body-count and lots of violence when the killings happen . It's an average actioner movie with some entertaining moments but also with no sense scenes . The thrilling plot is plain and simple , dealing with a trained operative , subject to an intense manhunt who makes no real attempt to disguise himself ; however, the picture is made up for the agreeable presence of the sympathetic little girl Eliza Bennett to be followed an interesting TV/cinematic career . Both , Wesley Snipes and Eliza Bennett will depelop an enjoyable friendship , including a feeling finale. Wesley is nice as action hero , his early performances were as a serious actor in dramas , later turning as tough action man in films with big budget like¨Money train¨,¨Murder at 1600¨, ¨US Marshall¨ and ¨Blade trilogy¨, among others . Nowadays , he only plays movies in middling and low budget , such as ¨Unstoppable¨,¨7 seconds¨, ¨Chaos¨,¨The marksman¨, ¨The Hunter¨, ¨Armed Response¨ , ¨Gallow walkers¨, and ¨Cut Throat City¨. The movie benefits itself from a veteran Brit cast , such as : Lena Headey, Ralph Brown , Charles Dance , Gemma Jones and John Standing .

The motion picture shot in London was professionally directed by the German Josef Rusnak , though with no originality, because we had seen these kinds of stories before and much better. Josef began working as a director in his native country with enough success up to U. S. co-productions filmed in English . Rusnak has developed his career mainly in the genres of suspense and terror as 'It's alive' , but also has his touches of science fiction as 'Level 13' at his best , drama as 'Valerie' , 'Quiet days in Hollywood' , 'Beyond' and action with two Wesley Snipes vehicles as 'The contractor' and 'Art of war 2' . Rating : 5 .5/10. Average but acceptable and passable . Well worth watching . The flick will appeal to Wesley Snipes and Eliza Bennett fans.

Not your typical Wesley Snipes kind of movie.(not really anyway) The acting isn't horrible. It was movie I watched it at mid evening with some popcorn, and it kept me entertained most of the time. It had a few good action scenes, but mostly it was a drama movie. The plot is by no means original either, but it plays out OK I guess. Snipes definitely wasn't at his best here. I haven't seen the other movie that is the same story, so I can't say which is better. Although I didn't feel the need to pause it for refills and pit-stops, So I gave it a 5/10. I wouldn't go to a theater to see it, but its good for a movie night when/if it gets released on cable/satellite. -P.F.