Shadow Force

Revised Critique:

"This film is a staggering disappointment-a haphazard collage of clichés with no discernible vision or originality. From its wooden, over-the-top performances to its lifeless, predictable plot, it reeks of amateurish execution, more akin to a rough draft than a finished product. The story plods along with zero tension or surprises, anchored by dialogue so stilted it borders on self-parody. What a waste of Sy's talent, shackled here to a script devoid of depth or nuance!

Even the antagonist feels lifted from a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon-complete with bald man twirling theatrics and a script so hackneyed you half-expect him to growl "Well, well, well..." before monologuing about worldly revenge. The gratuitous multilingual flourishes add nothing but confusion, further exposing the film's tonal inconsistency.

Releasing this alongside Thunderbolts * (Marvel's New Avengers ) only magnifies its flaws all the way to its PR.

Every element-from the clunky direction to the shockingly inept pacing-screams of a rushed, passionless production. It's a Frankenstein's monster of studio notes and market-driven cynicism, lacking even the charm of a so-bad-it's-good flick.

Some films stumble; this one faceplants. A masterclass in how not to make a movie-shallow, tedious, and utterly forgettable." When its sucks... its sucks.

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Its bad.

Its really bad I didn't like the actors.

The script was bad.

The directing was bad.

Who in this reality would release this to real theatres. It is not even good enough for online.

Most of the action scenes were off camera until that last one.

It had silly scenes, like Kerry Washington getting in a punching/slug match with 2 people, she is 50 years, while 90% of it was off camera, it was still silly. I can only imagine how bad it looked that they only showed the back of her head for a few minutes of it bouncing around.

Even the opening scene, somehow our unarmed main action star takes out a roomful of people with automatic weapons, because he is just that tough. Well I assume he did because they are all dead, and he walks away but it was all off camera so hard to tell.

Former covert assassins on the run, fighting to eliminate those who won't let them live in peace.

I'm all in for a group of villainous assassins, and professional mercs! But here, most of these characters don't even have personalities.. much less memorable quirks. The leads work for their respective roles, but aren't particularly charismatic. I do think there's just too much French (for some reason), and the developments aren't particularly exciting. Nothing jumps out, nor stays with you.

Still, the film is quite competent, and a well acted and executed story of elements already done in the past.. a lot. This time, there's a child involved in the mix.

Kind of hard to recommend, knowing how average it is.

There are some good ideas floating around in SHADOW FORCE, and the film has its laudable moments. However, the plot is a barely-comprehensible mess, and the action scenes are often poorly-staged. Jahleel Kamara is the standout performance of the film, and all scenes with him work better than the others. This film feels like it was sabotaged by a production problem (running out of money, argument over final cut, footage lost, cast member becoming ill, or something similar) that necessitated cobbling together something perhaps different from what was intended. It might also be something cobbled together to fit business needs (Colombian production incentives, career goals of Kerry Washington, Da'Vine, Method Man), but the end result feels compromised and unworthy of an audience's time.

Wow. This is bad. This is really, really bad.

Writing? Bad. Acting? Really bad.

This... movie...has reduced my ability to form complete sentences.

Did I mention this movie is really bad?

Maybe waterboarding is worse? Or an IRS tax audit?

But wait, maybe there's a silver lining. If 60 MILLION dollars can be wasted on a (say it with me, church) really bad movie, maybe I can have a career in Hollywood.

I can't act. But apparently, neither can Kerry Washington.

I didn't notice how bad an actor she was before now. Mainly because she was surrounded by more talented actors in her other projects.

Please don't see this movie.