Cleanskin

A rough, tough and extremely violent movie that sees Game of Thrones star Sean Bean swap doublet and sword for civvies and gun to play a British secret service agent who's ordered to going under cover to track down some missing Semtex explosive and the home-grown Islamist suicide cell possessing it. The title is spy-speak for terrorists with no criminal record, so unknown to the secret services that they're almost impossible to trace. Sean Bean is his usual tough minimalist self, but keeping into account he's the star of the show, he's not on screen a lot - a case of too much terrorist, not enough secret agent. The story certainly has ambition and there are some memorable fight scenes, but it also lacks the extra boost that could have pushed much more Bean's action-movie career.

If you're expecting James Bond, or even Jason Bourne, you've come to the wrong place. This is a brutally realistic film about how both sides in the so-called 'War on Terror' bend every rule of civilized conduct in order to further their own questionable ends. It's a story about people who have absolutely no doubt that their ends justify the means... even though those 'ends' long ago ceased being particularly noble, if indeed they ever were.

The story concerns the journey of one Middle Eastern man from political agnostic to suicide commando. His compelling, if fairly obvious, tale is counterpointed against the gradual awakening of the British assassin sent to track him down, operating well outside the rules of police work or even espionage.

There are no laughs in this movie, no car chases. There is extreme violence, and a lot of incentive to question the purpose of that violence. The characters are strong, as is the message. Unfortunately, those who most need to hear that message are likely to either avoid this film entirely, or conveniently misunderstand it.

A British film about suicide bombers in London is most likely to be too dark (and a little too much like real life) to be a mainstream success, so many people may be forgiven for never hearing about Cleanskin.

Sean Bean plays a Secret Service agent on the trail of a suicide bomber cell in Britain. What could be quite a clichéd film actually turns out pretty good. It's partly divided up into two separate stories - one detailing Sean's quest to track down the cell and the other showing the terrorists themselves. Perhaps the best part of the film even relates to the terrorists. While Sean is your typical no-nonsense tough guy (think Liam Neeson in the Taken films), the terrorists are actually pretty well thought out characters - no 'True Lies' clichéd Arab terrorists here. It takes something pretty well written to make you have sympathy with a terrorist one minute, then be revolted by his actions the next, plus even weave in a convincing love story into the mix.

I won't go into too many details about the film's plot, as there are a few twists and turns you might not see coming. Just rest assured, if you're looking for a decent action/drama (with plenty of splendid shots of London from above!) then give Sean and co a go.

A great performance from not only Sean but also the girl (Tuppence?), and it was nice to see Peter Polycarpou back on our screen!

cleanskin will appeal to a wide audience, not just those who are still recovering from 7/7 (which i couldn't stop thinking about whilst watching) and it's helpful seeing the side from the "good guy" and the side from the "bad guy".

having lived in London when i was younger, it was nice to see some of the landmarks i visited as a kid, so it seems they really went out of their way to keep the realism in the film. it could have easily been filmed in a film studio but it wasn't, which makes it home more for me.

Still the scenes linger in the memory after i watched them.

What I enjoyed most about this films that it showed both sides of a very British story without being preachy, one sided or have an agenda. What made me watch it all the way through is that it was all built into the thriller format.

What I have found in many films dealing with this subject matter is that they all have been either heavy handed but mostly too worthy. Cleanskin gets on with telling a story and just observes and keeps a distance from the issues, simply presenting them asthey are.

It was good to see the process of how a man born here in the UK is turned to the road of murder and how people use him for their own reasons and benefits. Very refreshing to have a film show the process and treat the character of Ash objectively but showing all his appalling faults.

It was Sean's Beans best performance for many years, I'm not too familiar with all his films but I thought he did a very good job with this film as he did on Game of Thrones. The good thing about his character is that he wasn't the standard angry soldier, he had a history and motivation.

My favourite scene was when Ash is about to commit his attack he visits the Cleric, Ash wants reassurance about heaven and the cleric reassures him then hurriedly goes to his sons birthday party leaving Ash alone to commit his act while the Cleric is enjoying himself elsewhere. I think that scene sums the film up, very poignantly written.