El contratista

We've watched movies about black ops gone awry. What's different in this movie is how the subject is treated. It's commendable. It's well-executed and well-edited. Thus, it's immersive.

The viewer is glued to his seat as he watches how James extricates himself from a life-threatening situation.

While the focus is on the action, the film doesn't ignore human interest. The drama is heartfelt like the scene with James and the scientist in his lab. Or how Mike dotes on his crippled son. Or the all-too-brief scene with James and Virgil at the safehouse. Or the encounter between James and Mike in the parking lot.

The movie also shines a soft light on the situation of ex-military men when they are discharged from the service.

Chris Pine is great here. Praise has to be given to director Tarik Saleh and writer JP Davies.

Aside from being nothing we haven't seen already tons of times and much better, even the great leads couldn't save this hollow, dull, slow, convoluted and plot-hole riddled writing and directing. Was this even edited? Who cares about the flashbacks or the daddy issues? None of that was needed, as there was already lots of other filler for the little substance there was, in the dragged out and slowly paced 103 min runtime. The entire story was cliched and predictable. I feel bad for Pine, Foster and Sutherland having this mess on their resumes. It's a 6/10 from me.

This is a decent movie with a decent story and decent action. Chris Pine gives a great performance. Unfortunately this movie is also fairly slow, fully predictable and very regular. It doesn't stand out in any way, but at the same time I didn't mind watching it. (1 viewing, 4/5/2022)

Chris Pine performs admirably for his part... Unfortunately, the story doesn't have much to say. Nothing about it is memorable. It seems like a script more suited to Stallone, Arnold, or Bruce Willis in their youth. Pine, you are too young for this mediocrity. Leave these kinds of scripts for the older guys. By the way, I hated the Steve Trevor of Wonder Woman 1984. That was worse than this.

In conclusion, I am left with the question what was the point of this film? I think younger people might like it for the gun fights.

Rated as 5.8 here. It's not a blockbuster 10 for sure, but I thought it was better than a 5 or a 6, Sutherland just really walked through a couple of times and that was it. Chris Pine carried this movie. Had he not done that this movie wouldn't have made it.

The main character's discharge was not realistic as it doesn't happen that fast. If he was discharged honorably he still receives his pension and benefits since he didn't face a court martial . And a shoot out on the streets of Berlin?!?! That just wouldn't happen as the German police would be all over it.

No, Chris Pine carried this movie in spite of some unrealistic parts in the script.