London Has Fallen

For F*** Magazine

LONDON HAS FALLEN

Director : Babak Najafi
Cast : Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Charlotte Riley, Morgan Freeman, Robert Forster, Melissa Leo, Alon Moni Aboutboul, Angela Bassett, Radha Mitchell
Genre : Action/Thriller
Run Time : 99 mins
Opens : 3 March 2016
Rating : NC-16 (Violence And Some Coarse Language)

The city of London: between being decimated by a tungsten rod fired from orbit in G.I. Joe: Retaliation and having Dubai’s Burj Khalifa plonked down on it by aliens in the upcoming Independence Day: Resurgence, it seems Hollywood’s been saying “screw Britannia!” Another round of U.K. landmark destruction is preceded by the untimely death of the British Prime Minister. World leaders, including U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Eckhart), arrive for the state funeral. In the lead-up to the funeral, a brutal, intricately-planned terrorist attack cripples London, and Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Butler) is the only thing keeping Asher alive. Back in Washington D.C., Vice President Alan Trumbull (Freeman) receives a video message from terrorist mastermind Aamir Barkawi (Aboutboul), claiming responsibility for the attacks. Asher and Banning have to rendezvous with MI6 agent Jacquelin Marshal (Riley) as the chaos escalates and terrorists overrun London.

            London Has Fallen is the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, a film that was generally regarded as taking itself way too seriously, hilariously jingoistic, containing slipshod visual effects work but boasting a decent amount of brutal action. London Has Fallen contains all those traits and kicks them up to 11. There’s an increased sense of scale and the location shooting in London itself means the production values here are an improvement on those of its predecessor. However, in scenes including the destruction of Chelsea Bridge and a sequence in which the presidential helicopters Marines One, Two and Three are evading terrorists’ rockets, the visual effects work is nigh laughable.  

The over-the-top bombast is supposed to be thrilling, but there will be many audiences who will have a difficult time deriving entertainment from seeing terrorists blow up a city, particularly given the tragic frequency with which such incidents occur in real life. Paris, Beirut, Tunis, Istanbul, San Bernadino and Jakarta amongst others were all recently attacked and furthermore, the trailer for London Has Fallen was released during the week of the tenth anniversary of the 2005 7/7 London bombings. We don’t mean to get all self-righteous and this reviewer is a big action movie junkie, but the way London Has Fallen presents itself as topical while revelling in dated action movie tropes, with a one-man army stabbing bad guys and dispensing one-liners, is a little uncomfortable.

It’s pretty funny that this flag-waving, chest-thumping celebration of American jingoism is directed by a Swedish director of Iranian descent and stars an actor who is completely incapable of disguising his unmistakably Scottish brogue. As far as London Has Fallen is concerned, all world leaders are entirely expendable – ersatz versions of Angela Merkel, Silvio Berlusconi and François Hollande bite the dust in quick succession – all except for the American president, of course. The primary villain, a Middle-Eastern arms dealer, seems like a C-grade reject from the TV series Homeland. And yes, drone strikes are a plot point, because total predictability is the name of the game here. At the very least, the villainous scheme is an order of magnitude more plausible than that of the North Korean baddies in Olympus Has Fallen, though that’s still not saying much.

Butler and Eckhart lead a good number of actors who reprise their roles from Olympus Has Fallen. Sure, Butler is completely unbelievable as an American, but he and Eckhart develop a watchable buddy chemistry and Butler’s rough-around-the-edges quality makes him easier to buy as an old-school action hero than other actors out there. Many attempts at badass quips simply come off as silly, but the guy looks like he knows what he’s doing when he’s firing a gun. Bassett isn’t in much of the film and Freeman, Forster and Leo simply sit around the Situation Room back at the White House; their scenes looking like they were all filmed in one day. Jackie Earle Haley as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff is puzzling casting, since the actor isn’t allowed to display any of the quirky energy he’s known for. Riley’s MI6 agent could’ve been a scene stealing character, but God forbid anyone other than Butler kick a significant amount of ass.

Is London Has Fallen enjoyable at all? Yes. It’s fun to guffaw at the clunky lines of dialogue, to appreciate some of the action sequences for being well-executed and others for looking hilariously phony and to pretend that it’s still the 80s-90s, cheering on the clench-jawed hero who charges in guns a-blazing. The clichés are so on-the-nose – for example, Banning’s wife Leah (Mitchell) is pregnant with their first child, pining for the safe return of her husband – it’s impossible to assume the filmmakers didn’t go into this with at least the slightest modicum of self-awareness. Most of all, it’s enjoyable in its thunderous stupidity and those 99 minutes go by fairly quickly.

Summary: This action thriller is often breathtakingly dumb and the “terrorist attacks in the name of entertainment” angle is problematic in this day and age, but the sheer lack of subtlety is enjoyable in its own right. U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!

RATING: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong 

The Equalizer

For F*** Magazine

THE EQUALIZER

Director : Antoine Fuqua

Cast : Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, Haley Bennett, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Johnny Skortis

Genre : Crime/Thriller

Opens : 25 September 2014

Rating : M18 (Violence and Coarse Language) 

Running time: 132 mins

Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer. Robert McCall (Washington) is a former Special Forces operative who has forged a new, quiet life as an unassuming worker at the Home Mart. During his regular stops at a diner after work, he meets underage prostitute Alina, working under the name “Teri” (Moretz), and is moved by her plight to take on the Russian gangster pimps she is forced to work for. McCall’s actions attract the attention of Spetsnaz-trained Russian Mafia enforcer Nicolai, who goes by “Teddy”. Teddy’s innocuous nickname belies his cold, psychopathic nature. Teddy and his men begin relentlessly pursuing McCall, but little do they know that they’re dealing with a bona fide one man army. 

            The Equalizer is based on the 80s TV show starring Edward Woodward and re-teams Denzel Washington with his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua. One thing is abundantly clear after watching The Equalizer: Fuqua knows how to make Washington look very cool. Washington’s Robert McCall is a stone-cold badass, collected, unflappable and supremely deadly. This is a guy who sets a stopwatch to time his fights to make sure he’s still got it. The graphically violent efficiency with which he dispatches his opponents stands in contrast with how nurturing a mentor figure he is to his co-workers at the Home Mart. A subplot has him helping the overweight Ralphie (Skortis) get into shape so he can pass the security guard test. This is the same guy who streamlines the Russian Mafia’s payroll with the help of guns, hedge trimmers, barb wire, nail guns, canisters of oxygen in the microwave and of course his own bare hands. All that’s missing from scenes in which Washington performs that “cool guys don’t look at explosions” strut is a choir in the background singing “he’s a badass! He’s a badass!” to the tune of “Gonna Fly Now”.

            Here’s the problem – as assuredly-directed as it all is, one can’t help but feel that The Equalizer’s protagonist is a nigh-invincible superhuman who is never really in any palpable danger from the film’s villains. He’s cool, sure, but he’s far from a unique, memorable action hero. There are no depths for Washington to plumb here, even given how the character is supposed to come off as sage-like in addition to tough. What helps mitigate this somewhat is Marton Csokas’ turn as the villain. The bad guys in this movie are old-school – evil and uncomplicated. Csokas is a charismatic, commanding presence without going overboard with the scenery chewing or affecting too-ridiculous an accent. A scene in which Teddy confronts another prostitute about Teri’s whereabouts is chillingly played. Chloë Moretz isn’t in this as much as the trailers would lead one to believe but her portrayal of shattered innocence and world-weariness is pretty moving, recalling Jodie Foster’s turn in Taxi Driver.

            The Equalizer is stylish and atmospheric, reminding this reviewer of Jack Reacher. Before he strikes, McCall sizes up and analyses each of his opponents, shown in the form of a dramatic Sherlock Holmes-style breakdown. There is very little in the way of shaky-cam and hyper-kinetic editing, allowing the mood and suspense to sink it. The action does get rather grisly, so if you’re squeamish about sharp implements, be forewarned. The Equalizer looks polished but it isn’t sophisticated, and this won’t lead to a Best Actor Oscar for Washington like his earlier collaboration with Fuqua did. But we get Denzel Washington going all lone-wolf guardian avenger in a slightly different mode from in Man on Fire, and we can’t complain about that.

Summary: It’s formulaic, but with action sequences that are equal parts slick and visceral and a cooler-than-cool lead performance from Denzel Washington, The Equalizer offers up a decent amount of genre thrills.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Charlie Countryman

For F** Magazine

CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN

Director: Fredrik Bond
Cast:  Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Rupert Grint, James Buckley, Ion Caramitu, Til Schweiger, Vincent D’Onofrio, Melissa Leo
Genre: Action, Thriller
Run Time: 108 mins
Opens: 6 March 2014
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scenes)

Ah, Shia “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE” LaBeouf. The former Even Stevens star is best known to most movie-goers as the insufferable protagonist of Michael Bay’s Transformers trilogy and has made a name for himself as the embodiment of pretentious Hollywood unlikeability. Between the plagiarism of cartoonist Daniel Clowes (plus the apology via skywriting), lashing out at Jim Carrey for taking a playful jab at him at the Golden Globes and the too-enthusiastic manner in which he discusses going full-frontal, he’s not exactly “the nicest guy in Hollywood”. The arthouse-tinged romantic action comedy-drama Charlie Countryman appears to be part of his endeavour to carve out a career as a “serious actor”.



Chicagoan Charlie Countryman (LaBeouf) is in the midst of a quarter-life crisis and takes the advice of his dying mother Kate (Leo) to travel to Bucharest to get away from it all. On the flight there, he chats with the guy in the seat next to him, Romanian Victor Ibanescu (Caramitu) and upon arriving at the airport, meets Victor’s daughter Gabi (Wood). He is immediately taken with the mesmerizing cellist and sets about romancing her, only to discover Gabi’s dangerous ex Nigel (Mikkelsen) standing in the way. Charlie befriends (and shares drugs with) his roommates at the hostel, Luc (Buckley) and Karl (Grint), who eventually get in trouble with Darko (Schweiger), a thug in cahoots with Nigel. Charlie finds himself in an exotic foreign land, out of his depth and caught between love and death.

Charlie Countryman is the feature film debut of Fredrik Bond, director of television commercials and Moby music videos (Moby provides several songs for the film’s soundtrack). The script is written by Matt Drake, who also penned the detestable Project X. It may seem like an odd comparison to draw, but it reminded this reviewer of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty – albeit a flailing, violent, drug-addled The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty. Both films feature protagonists travelling to faraway lands to find themselves, embarking on the “adventure of a lifetime”, meeting colourful characters on their travels and frequently daydreaming/hallucinating. Both films, while visually captivating in their different ways, are also aimless and self-indulgent, Charlie Countryman actually coming off as the worse of the two.



Charlie Countryman is at its core a more conventional film than it fancies itself to be, attempting to put a spin on the “an everyman aboard” genre by flinging disparate ingredients into the pot. Cinematographer Roman Vasyanov gives the entire film a hazy, dreamlike feel, but the end result is inscrutable rather than seductive and fascinating. Charlie Countryman himself is also a difficult protagonist to empathise with, a bland victim of circumstance dragged through the Romanian capital by the coincidence-heavy plot. LaBeouf seems to be playing himself, but you can’t say he phoned it in seeing as LaBeouf actually took LSD to film the drug sequence, a move that’s either dedicated method acting or yet another cry for attention from an unlikeable actor. It’s also more than a little dumb considering it’s not even the right drug (the film features ecstasy).

There’s an interesting supporting cast here, with Mikkelsen getting some amusing lines as a psychotic criminal of some kind and Buckley and Grint playing the archetypical “those two guys”. Wood, affecting an iffy Romanian accent, is certainly a more interesting female lead than LaBeouf is a male lead. Til Schweiger is, just as he is in every other Hollywood film he does, “the henchman”.



If you’re not a Shia LaBeouf fan (and let’s face it, who still is?), Charlie Countryman won’t make a convert out of you. But the film should be judged separately from its lead actor’s public blunders and even then, there’s very little to recommend. Sure, it’s frequently pretty to look at and the soundtrack with contributions from the likes of Christophe Beck, DeadMono, M83 and the afore-mentioned Moby is hypnotic. But ultimately, Charlie Countryman annoys rather than entrances, its unpalatable potpourri of risky romance, buddy comedy and magical realist travelogue hard to get into.

Summary: The film’s earlier title was The Necessary Death Of Charlie Countryman and while it’s stylish to a degree, this is very far from necessary viewing – whether you’re a friend, a Roman or a countryman.

RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Prisoners

For F*** Magazine

PRISONERS

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Run Time: 152 mins
Opens: 19 September 2013
Rating: NC-16 (Coarse Language)

We’ve seen many examples of the “Papa Wolf” archetype in cinema over the years, a character who transforms into an unstoppable force of nature after his child is hurt, kidnapped or otherwise threatened, making the offenders wish they’d never crossed him. In films such as Ransom, John Q, the recent Snitch and of course Taken, fathers have leapt into the fire in the name of ensuring the well-being of their kids. Hugh Jackman now joins the ranks in this mystery thriller.

Jackman plays Keller Dover, a carpenter and repairman in the small town of Conyers, Pennsylvania. On Thanksgiving, Keller, his wife Grace (Bello), son Ralph (Dylan Minnette) and daughter Anna (Erin Gerasimovich) go over the house of Franklin Birch (Howard) and family for dinner. Afterwards, they discover that Anna, along with Franklin’s daughter Joy (Kyla Drew Simmons) is missing. Police detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) leads the investigation; a mentally handicapped young man named Alex Jones (Dano), cared for by his aunt Holly (Leo), seemingly involved. Keller is convinced of Alex’s guilt and takes matters into his own hands, repeatedly clashing with Loki as the days tick past with no sign of Anna or Joy in sight.



If the synopsis makes Prisoners sound like Taken but with Hugh Jackman, be informed that it really isn’t. While Taken was a straight-up action flick with Liam Neeson blasting a path of vengeance through Paris as the audience cheers him on, Prisoners is a thriller of the “glued to your seat with shivers down your spine” variety. The film marks the English-language debut of Québécoise director Denis Villeneuve, whose film Incendies was a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar contender. Prisoners is a tightly directed piece, a sense of foreboding established early on.



The film plays out in a realistic small town setting; bleak, dreary and constantly raining. Multiple Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins of The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, True Grit (2010) and Skyfall fame, delivers some nail-biting moments with nothing more than a slow push-in. The eerie, cello-driven score by Jóhann Jóhannsson endeavours to redefine the word “ominous” and is very effective, if heavy-handed and obvious at times.



Hugh Jackman has established himself as one of the best-liked leading men in Hollywood over the past decade, and it’s easy to see why: he can dance, sing, do comedy, do drama, do action and is very personable in interviews. In Prisoners, we truly get a chance to see a side of the actor we haven’t before. As a father driven to the brink, he is remarkably believable. Keller lashes out, gets mad and does some pretty unpleasant things, but Jackman’s conviction ensures the audience is always rooting for him even as he trudges past moral boundaries and we question his methods. He also never flies into histrionics or goes laughably over the top; the flashes of raw fury behind his eyes conveying a primal anger even Wolverine might respect.



He’s backed up by a supporting cast that’s very strong by any standards; for what might be seen as a smaller movie, it sure has roped in some top-drawer talent. Jake Gyllenhaal previously investigated child kidnappings as real-life true crime author Robert Graysmith in Zodiac. His character here is less obsessive and not so much consumed by his job as dutifully going about it. Detective Loki, possibly snicker-inducing name notwithstanding, is a character we want to see succeed as much as we want to see Keller find his daughter.



Paul Dano is very good as Alex and is an actor who deserves to hit the big time very soon. Is he just feigning a disability and is really the devious mastermind, or is he a victim himself? Dano plays it such that we’re not so sure one way or the other. Melissa Leo at her suburban grandmother-iest also ensures we’re never quite certain if Keller should be trusting her. David Dastmalchian is fantastically creepy as the other prime suspect, while Viola Davis and Maria Bello both make for convincingly distraught mothers. If there’s a weak link, it might be Terrence Howard, who struggles to match up to Jackman’s skill level. Dylan Minnette and Zoe Borde as the older kids of the Dover and Birch households also deliver rather stilted performances.



However, this far from cripples this absorbing film that manages to be feverishly suspenseful without being emotionally manipulative. There are several “plants and payoffs” that might be too blatant to some viewers; points of plot which are laid down in full view so they can be picked up on again later. The masterful construction of the piece isn’t undermined and from its haunting atmospherics to its powerhouse lead performances, Prisoners is the kind of film that doesn’t loosen its grip for a second.

SUMMARY: Its premise may sound straight out of any number of police procedural TV shows, but tight direction and a firing-on-all-cylinders turn from Hugh Jackman ensure that this will be lurking around the corners of your mind for a fair bit after leaving the theatre.

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Oblivion

Movie Review                                                                                                                 15/4/13

OBLIVION

2013

Starring: Tom Cruise, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

            Joseph Kosinski was the man who took us back to the grid with 2010’s Tron: Legacy. While remaining in the sci-fi realm, he heads in another direction, bringing audiences a post-apocalyptic vision of Earth where the last man left is Tom Cruise.

            Cruise plays Jack Harper, a technician in charge of maintaining the drones that patrol Earth, the planet having been nearly destroyed by an alien invasion 60 years earlier. Jack lives and works with Victoria (Riseborough), but is mostly occupied with dreams of a mysterious woman he has never met but somehow remembers. In the wreck of a crash-landed spaceship, Harper discovers Julia Rusakova (Kurylenko), whom he identifies as the woman in his dreams. Jack also comes across a rag-tag gang of survivors led by Malcolm Beech (Freeman), who helps him realise that there’s a massive conspiracy afoot and that the life he and Victoria have been living isn’t all it seems.

            Oblivion is ostensibly an adaptation of a graphic novel Kosinksi and writer Arvid Nelson worked on that has been delayed and is yet to be published. The film is, first and foremost, quite the visual experience. Claudio Miranda, recent Oscar winner for Life of Pi, is the director of photography and manages to find the beautiful in the desolate. A lot of contemporary sci-fi films tend to be hyper-kinetic, stuffed to the gills with quick cuts and stylistic flourishes. Oblivion is thus very refreshing, possessing a rare, quiet grandeur and a look that combines sleek and shiny futuristic designs with the vastness of a ravaged earth. We do get some cool action sequences on top of that, most notably an intense dogfight in which Jack in his “bubbleship” craft is pursued by a pack of vicious drones.

            This is very much the Tom Cruise show, the Jack Harper character receiving the lion’s share of storytelling attention. Here, Cruise shows yet again why he’s managed to maintain considerable longevity as a big-name movie star – he’s an actor who can command attention. At the hands of a lesser performer, it’s likely that Jack Harper might blend into his bleak surroundings. Olga Kurylenko does the “mysterious exotic figure” thing well and Andrea Riseborough has a sexy/playful scene in which she takes a night swim all siren-like. What’s nice about the characterisation is that neither female lead is a guns-blazing Ellen Ripley-esque cliché. However, nobody really gets much development beyond Harper himself; this reviewer wishes that we learnt more about Beech and his gang of survivors, who tend to feel a bit Mad Max-ish at times.

            The film’s central plot twist is pretty much par for the course when it comes to science fiction storytelling devices and it also wraps up a little too neatly when a degree of ambiguity might have done it some good. There are a few interesting elements that spice up the ending and in the end, it doesn’t feel like a cop-out, nor does it undermine anything that went before (as twist endings often can).

            Oblivion is the sort of film that’s probably a lot less contemplative than it seems, and while it isn’t particularly engaging on a story or character level, the world that Kosinki and his team have constructed is a masterpiece (enhanced by M83’s atmospheric techno score) and it just pulls the viewer in. While it may not be as deep or thought-provoking as it could have been and might come off feeling too clinical for some, it is still far from superficial and empty and has a fair bit for genre fans to like.

SUMMARY: Wonderful to look at and soak in, Oblivion has a calmness about it that’s hard to find in mainstream sci-fi, but it’s bogged down a tad by narrative loopholes and a less-than-compelling human element.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong 

Olympus Has Fallen

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN 

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Cast:         Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Rick Yune
Genre: Action, Drama
Run Time: 119 mins
Opens: 11 April 2013
Rating: NC16

Terrorists have overtaken the White House and held the President hostage?

“This is blasphemy! This is madness!”

“Madness? THIS! IS! WASHINGTON!”

Gerard Butler plays Mike Banning, formerly the head of the security detail for United States President Benjamin Asher (Eckhart). An incident in the film’s opening minutes forces Banning to leave the President’s side, but his more mundane existence working at the Treasury Department is rocked by a vicious surprise attack on 1600 Penn. The attack is spearheaded by the ruthless terrorist Kang Yeonsak (Yune), who has disguised himself as a member of the South Korean delegation to Washington. With the President and Vice-President indisposed, Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Freeman) takes on the mantle of acting Commander in Chief, and Banning is the only man he and the others in the Pentagon can trust. It’s Secret Service Agent Leonidas to the rescue.

It’s the general consensus among genre fans that action films aren’t quite what they used to be. Well, if you’re nostalgic for the likes of Under Siege, Executive Decision and of course Air Force One, Olympus Has Fallen will probably sate that appetite. Director Antoine Fuqua has delivered an old-school action thriller that isn’t restrained by a “PG-13” rating and can let loose with the gunfire, the bloodshed and some swearing for good measure. The “Die Hard on an X” formula seems to have fallen out of favour with the Hollywood powers that be – even the last three Die Hard films themselves didn’t have John McClane stuck in a confined space. But here, the trope is in full effect, with the one-man Special Forces team that is Mike Banning trapped in the besieged White House.

However, there’s probably good reason that filmmakers have edged away from such plotlines, mainly because we’ve seen it all before. Replace the North Korean villains with Middle-Eastern ones and you just might believe this was released in 1994. Unfortunately, the sub-par visual effects, especially in the opening aerial assault, make it look that way too, hurting that potentially harrowing sequence. The action flicks of the 90s may have been more subdued than those of the preceding decade, but they were often cliché-riddled and had their fair share of implausibilities to get around – as is the case here. Apparently, wanted terrorists can infiltrate the higher echelons of South Korean government, thus gaining access to one of the most-protected buildings in the world, evading every last background check along the way. There’s also a Secret Service agent who has turned traitor with the flimsiest excuse.

It is to Fuqua’s credit then that this reviewer was more often than not willing to overlook such contrivances. The director manages to keep the tension at a consistently high ebb, and in spite of the odd silly moment and the afore-mentioned bad visual effects work, the movie never falls into abject silliness. This is also thanks to Butler, in his element as the protagonist with a gun in his hand, a chip on his shoulder and clad in “plot armour” (enemy armies can fire endlessly at him but he’ll still live) like the action heroes of yore. He clearly should be doing more of this and less playing for keeps and dispensing ugly truths.

While there isn’t much in the way of characterisation to keep the action going, the supporting cast is top-notch. An action flick like this may not be the best use of their talents, but it benefits from their presence anyway. Freeman is not required to do much other than take charge and have terse conversations with Banning over the radio, but darn if he isn’t cool as always doing it. With his lantern jaw, gritted teeth and blue eyes, Eckhart embodies the archetypical “all-American Prez” image. As the supervillain, Rick Yune is nowhere near the likes of Gary Oldman or Tommy Lee Jones, but gets the job done as our two-dimensional force of evil.

Yes, Olympus Has Fallen is brutal, exciting and has its share of white-knuckle moments, but its old-school 90s action flick pedigree is often a double-edged sword, as audiences have come to expect something with perhaps a little more sophistication. Still, the film is enjoyably earnest, a throwback without the smart-alecky winks and nudges and there’s Gerard Butler taking names and kicking ass. Just not down bottomless wells.

SUMMARY: An action thriller right out the 90s. Straightforward, rough around the edges and it isn’t the pinnacle (or Mount Olympus, as it were) of action flicks, but it’s entertaining and intense where it counts.

RATING: 3 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong