Zona prohibida

I watched Black Site because of the cast (Michelle Monaghan, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke) - yes, in the end I was a little disappointed but nevertheless entertained to a certain degree too. The cast works well, the production is solid, but sadly the plot and story not: too generic the plot is and there are some really head scratching moments (like how the guards get overwhelmed by the bad guy). Anyway, you may try this one if you are interested in the cast and if you like that kind of special op movies - just don't expect too much.

A generic, one-location thriller, cheap to make but difficult to excel, this has so many clichés mashed together it hurts to watch.

Twenty minutes are used to build up the big-bad in absentia. Phase two is lock-in with a psychopath, an artificially generated time constraint with no way out. This comes complete with power struggles, traitors in our midst and running around shirtless carrying a gun à la Ripley.

Michelle Monaghan is a decent actress, but Sigourney Weaver she is not, we get an abundance of doubting, shouting and pouting, running through nondescript corridors as the body count rises.

This all plays out to a heavily telegraphed ending, so obvious a blind ten-year old could see it coming. Most disturbingly, the makers naïvely included a massive hook for a sequel that nobody wants or needs.

I dunno why some quite good actors (maybe not the absolute first league but decent ones) take part in this endeavour. This movie is not terribly bad, but it is not good also, some very average, generic action/thriller with some bad looking CGI/FX (shooting gun without recoil looks terribly lame for example).

Long story short, if you are abandoned on some desert island and you have absolutely nothing to do - you can try it, otherwise please do anything else.

I got about half way through then turned it off. Unfortunately, it looks like Jason Clarke is following Bruce Willis and Liam Neeson's career path and starring in terrible low budget action films. This is definitely not a movie I'd recommend. 4 stars.

One of those very low budget thrillers shot on dark and repetitive sets. They make a lot of these lately and a lot of them have starred Bruce Willis, but this one's a bit different. The setting is a Middle Eastern prison site, where some special ops are struggling to contain a violent escaped prisoner. Monaghan looks the part but isn't particularly impressive as the lead, although Jason Clarke is better and Jai Courtney surprisingly good too. As with usual with such films, the script is underwhelming and the story non-existent, but the various fight sequences are quite physical and have semi-decent choreography too.