Nome in codice: Banshee

I came across this movie totally by accident, and although the cast looked impressive (particularly with Banderas) the recent stream of appalling movies with actors like Willis, Cage and a handful of others meant I was guarded (at best) on its prospects for being decent... and as it turns out my scepticism was completely warranted.

Banderas is as always accomplished, and! Puts his heart into his work delivering a solid performance as you'd expect, but he can't carry this one (no single actor could) since on the whole the movie just fails to deliver on so many fronts.

It's really a pale shadow of the story it should be offering an insufficient level of suspense, dialogue, story, action and overall engagement to pull off a film of this genre. In fact, the overall experience is a little like the title, underwhelming and somewhat misleading.

One of the major problems is with the lead played by Jamie King. She is seriously miscast here and hasn't the on-screen presence, the physical dexterity, or the acting capability to pull this one off, and what she lacks she does in some considerable measure.

I love strong female characters, but if you're selling me one, make it authentic and not some Poundland or Wallmart alternative. Her inability to hold a gun steady is a glaringly obvious disaster even for a casual observer, but the choreography she delivers in the fight scenes had me doubting if she could successfully even take on my eighty three year old grandmother, who is a specialist in her own right with a wooden spoon. That said, she isn't the sole cause of the films failure to deliver, just another aspect of one of the many facets that wasn't addressed sufficiently.

There is no excitement here, just another mediocre delivery to pass time or have on in the background and even though I made it to the end, I don't recommend it.

Who selected these actors, and why does Banderas do this garbage? He can clearly do that better.

The main actress should consider whether she wants to continue playing at the level, or should rather take on easier roles. She holds the weapon like a beginner and embodies the assassin very badly. The close combat scenes were hidden in the dark. Were you so bad that this was necessary?

D-level movie. Something a bunch of high schoolers could have made on VHS in the 90's. The guns have zero recoil. The acting is below par. The story makes little sense. Just awful.

What happened to Banderas? He used to be awesome.

Usual revenge story but not very well done. Macho woman verses big hard Scottish man, predictable result in a poor thriller. Usual cliche's for this genre. Give it a miss, get's a three because there is a lot of action in it, albeit predictable and poorly staged.

Tiresome dialogue, weak action performed by underprepared actors. If you can't hold an automatic at arms length without shaking, you may not want to portray a seasoned assassin. Just saying. Antonio Banderas should have passed on this one. His part in Stallone's "Expendables" was 10 times better than his character in this one. Just sad.

I gave it 2 stars only because it did have Banderas in it and the short preview I saw looked promising. Fool me once and all that... I'll never get the time or my $9 back on this one. Wish I'd checked these reviews first.

And why do they require a minimum of 600 characters in these reviews? In this case I'm forced to ramble on much longer than needed.