Complot meurtrier

Action movie with average cast, good photography, great stunts, unusual location (Thessaloniki, Greece), good music and some nice dialogue (here and there).

Script, alas, had some really annoying aspects... for example: who would like to watch a man in his 50s, alone, defeating with his bare hands 30 thugs, most of them armed, one after the other, in a same scene?

Movie reality is cinematic, ok... but there are rules nonetheless: I'd say that 2 thugs should be the edge of 'realism', up to 5 you must be funny, plausible and it remains however debatable, 6 is reserved for James Bond and higher figures definitely require superheroes.

Another (violated) rule of mine says that a thug easily defeated in a previous scene cannot have such a come back and beat you to a pulp in a following sequence... anyway... that said, it was not boring: I reached the end titles in good spirits and it made me kill some time.

And I always liked Aaron Eckhart.

Enjoy.

I went to see it because of the name of the great actor Aaron Eckhart on the bill. Contrary to many others, I do still really appreciate many of his latest movies, but this is definitely not one of them...

The bad: Aaron Eckhart does a good job at acting, it's not his fault this movie flopped, but his opposing leading actress has got ZERO charisma or chemistry. Who decided to cast her? She acts like she walked straight of the set of a cheap television soap series. A total nobody.

This whole movie has got a cheap look and feel. But let's forget about all that for a moment, the only crucial question left is: has it got riveting action or suspenseful plot turns. NO!

Aaron Eckhart fans be warned, he does still act well, but this movie is quite a tedious dread to watch.

I don't understand who green-lights these movies. Did no one read the script before they started shooting? This is just so freaking mediocre.

Writing: the story is derivative as hell and dumb AF, there is no character development at all, and the dialogue is uncomfortably cringeworthy.

Acting: Aaron Eckhart is a good actor, but in this movie, no one delivers a remotely decent performance. Especially Nina Dobrev, who at least in this film, brings no range whatsoever, no chemistry with the lead actor and a truly amateur performance. The support cast is no better.

Directing: a disjointed and incoherent mess with nothing but a few passable action sequences to pacify the tedium.

I strongly encourage the writers to hang up the gloves. When ChatGPT can do a better job than you do, it's time to look into a different line of work.

If the beta of chat gpt wrote a spy movie where the person inputting prompts really wanted bricks to be part of the plot this would be the outcome.

My wife and I began to enjoy it for its silliness about midway through. The plot makes no sense. The dialogue is clunky. The most enjoyable thing about watching this movie is scratching your head at why they force meaningless plot line after meaningless plot line only to immediately burn it and move to the next one.

Some of the action sequences are decent. Lots of smashing various glassware over each others faces. The main characters take a lot of damage and are always beautiful the next day.

Good for background noise or a laugh.

Former CIA operative Victor Radek (Clifton Collins Jr.) is killing European civilians opposed to America with incriminating evidence on the CIA. The publicity is destroying America's reputation. CIA analyst Kate Bannon (Nina Dobrev) uncovers Radek's identity and tells CIA Director O'Malley (Tim Blake Nelson). With so much possible blow-back, he assigns veteran operative Steve Vail (Aaron Eckhart) and Kate to take down Radek in an off-the-books operation.

In the old days, this is a mid-tier action thriller with some mid-tier actors. The story is basic at best. Quite frankly, I don't like Radek's scheme. There has to be a better way to get his revenge. There isn't much in terms of twists and turns. There is one shock reveal, but nobody cares about that by then. The production value is passable with some functional action. There are some minor plot holes and inconsistencies. For example, Vail takes down a dozen thugs in a club, but the next night, he struggles to take down one of those thugs in a fair fight. The movie doesn't seem to know what it is. This is a marginal film that will be lost in the stream.