Exterritorial

Since several years now, the movie industry is literally invaded by a gigantic, huge, strong female characters spree. Long, long after the DNA of this kind of movies, I mean NIKITA, in 1990. Of course there were the seventies exploitation, grindhouse flicks - women in jail or vigilante rape and revenge plots. Tons of them, but it was the glorious and forever lost seventies, a period when everything was permitted. That said this German tv movie is not that bad, a bit lame yes, but not that lousy. The characters rather convincing and the directing honest, straight. I was rather satisfied, but unfortunately the ending is so predictable and forgettable too. I expected something a bit more original, more unpredictable.

This looked good until it wasn't. Just a hodge lodge of plot. The fight scenes were pretty lame and the acting was certainly suspect. The fight scenes seemed like they were in slo Mo and choreographed so loosely. It felt like a video game. I wasted about an hour and half of my life watching this hot mess. If you want to be bored, confused and full of "why did I pick this movie" then this all for you. Sorry to be harsh but the previews give a glimpse of something that it really isn't. If you don't have anything better to do on the most boring night of your life, please endulge but I warn you it's pretty lame. Gave it 5 to be nice but it's on the south side of that to be honest.

I cannot accept this movie's premise as it is. We know that this single-parent mom, a German white woman, a former Special Forces soldier, loves her son so much after her husband died. We can understand how she loves her son. But at the very beginning of this movie, this supposedly well-trained, very lethal Special Forces soldier proves herself not to be a careless person. She is not as good as an ordinary housewife and mother. She almost lost her kid in the subway when she was talking on the phone. Then she commited a more ser serious and unforgivable mistake in the American Embassy. She allowed her little kid to play in the playroom, alone, and left to go checking out her appointment. There's no other parents in that playroom when she left. How possible? It's like you leave a child in an unattended vehicle, or leave a kid in a nobody around playground in a park.

In order to create the leading role losing her child in a security-tight American Embassy, the screenplay writer and director, Christian Zübert, has decided to give us such a ridiculous scenario, a highly unlikely and impossible premise.

Casting-Acting 3/10: Probably shopped around for actors at a Walmart parking lot, cause they struggle to convey believable joy, sorrow, or even anger-leaving key moments feeling hollow. Can't really decide who was the worst, cause they were all pretty bad.

Realism 3/10: Borderline stupid. Nothing makes sense throughout the movie. For example, do you remember when someone broke into your room, pinned you down and you got a clean chance to leave and call for help, but you decided... what the heck.. lets stay with the stranger and help her for no apparent reason.

Plot 4/10: Could be interesting, but it's not. It has so many holes and unrealistic events that makes it hard to keep it interesting.

Dialogues 2/10: I could probably give it a go, and write better lines than what the movie writers managed to come up with.

Choreography 3/10: Well... it's bad. Unwatchable really... just skip through to the next idiotic scene.

The plot has a basic missing child desperation and rage basis. Good fodder for the action junkie who doesn't care about authenticity or realism. If you wait for cinematography that contains outdoor adventure or sweeping scenery, it doesn't happen. Most of the story happens in the same building, much of which consists of windowless walls. The English dubbing over foreign actors lack of lip sync is easy to get past and better than subtitles. U. S. Marines with full beards and 70 year old medals makes it kind of a joke early on for those of us who scrutinize such things. The protocol at a US foreign embassy was a bit ridiculous and at this point I was losing my enthusiasm. The new release hype draws you in with higher hopes than they deliver.