Crossfire

My Review - Crossfire

My Rating 6/10

I was looking forward to seeing Kelley Hawes in a lead role again but the subject matter of Crossfire I found very upsetting ,probably due to the constant stream of gun related violence on our television screens recently.

Kelley Hawes the extremely talented wife of Matthew Macfadyen is excellent in the role of Jo a wife and mother relating the circumstances of her life that saw her as well as her family and friends holiday in a remote Spanish resort in The Canary Islands turn to horror.

Two gunmen in a revenge act of terror go on a rampage of indiscriminate killing that turns Jo an ex Policewomen's and her family and friends lives upside down.

The story is told in flashback moments that reveal Jo's marriage is not what it seems at first terminating longterm friendships when details of Jo's relationship to her husband Jason's oldest friend China is revealed in flashback.

While I enjoyed Kelley Hawes powerful performance as Jo I found the plot line of this mini series very disturbing as most of the dramatic content of Crossfire concerns the two rampaging gunmen hunting for victims through the resort shooting indiscriminately, Crossfire is not based on a true story. The show's creator and executive producer Louise Doughty said that while the plot is entirely fictional, she did research "very carefully what has actually happened in these incidents".

Well Louise Doughty I'm glad Crossfire is not based on true events but they are unfortunately horrible events that seem to be occurring more today and I'd rather not have subjected myself to this horrible scenario .

There were unexplained bloopers also that were puzzling concerning the Island resort's isolation from the mainland ? This was the cause of the long delay in getting the Police and rescue team to attend the resort by helicopter.

I had to wonder then how and where from the rescue and ambulance vehicles arrived at the same time as the chopper team?

I'm about to go on a Cruise holiday soon and the events that occur in Crossfire made me think what if ?

Viewers will decide for themselves if they watch Crossfire I have no problem with movies or series such as Nitram which explored the events leading up to the 1996 gun massacre in Tasmania . Nitram explored the psychology of the gunman and his family without subjecting us to reliving the massacre itself.

For me Crossfire is less about the characters and more about the horror caused by the gunmen and the insanity that makes guns so easy to obtain...

From the beginning I found the demographic of the family/friends ensemble totally unconvincing.

It was so confusing and even at the end I had no idea who the children's parents were.

The rest of it was unconvincing as well. A load of people running around acting scared did not actually convey the horror of the situation. One assumes this was based on the attack on tourists in Tunisia in 2015 when 38 people were murdered.

A much more convincing film of this genre is the Norwegian film, Utøya 22. Juli (2018).

I don't know whether it is the writing, storyboarding or editing that is at fault, but there was a distinct lack of continuity.

You have terrorists shooting people indiscriminately and without any forethought except when they are faced with a featured cast character ... then they don't shoot them. They allow themselves to be engaged in pointless dialogue. Then there was the clichéd scene of a terrorist and tourist grappling on the floor trying to wrestle a gun free, with the usual inevitable result.

The scene when the tourist looks on dumbly at a terrorist confrontation and walks stupidly into a knife is just embarrassing.

Why did Keely Hawes character receive a police commendation when she was not a serving police officer and it happened in a foreign land?

At best it would surely have been a civil award.

And her going back into the force just seemed unbelievable.

I really lost interest as the three part drama progressed, particularly the last episode which was boring.

I've never seen anything like this in my life.

I'm guessing it was loosely based on real life events in Tunisia a few years ago, but they could have introduced some sort of story line, or how about even just making it an hour long so as not to put us through such misery.

Hours of complete nonsense, no real story, the odd flash back and and more gratuitous, pointless violence than you can shake a stick at!

We were introduced to the characters so briefly as for it to be impossible to remember who was who.

Usually like Keely Hawes stuff but this is pathetic. Don't waste your time, life's too short!

So in this large hotel only these guests ended up running round bumping into each other. Not sure who's kids were whose. Good job keeley managed to get hold of a shotgun from the back office or I don't know what they'd have done. And those poor kids must all be burnt to a crisp in that heat and no sun cream To say there only appeared to be 2 gunmen then everyone could have been saved quite easily.

This island is so remote it's either Alcatraz or the Island from Lost, cos local police didn't turn up till about a week later Complete drivel and what not to do if ever you are trapped in a massive hotel with no security and all doors and gates locked.

I don't get the negative reviews. Why the hate? Yes, we have seen similar survival stories in the past but this gives it a strong modern spin. Can we pick it apart? Sure, but why? This is a well-done thriller, at least through the first episode and the beginning of the second. Looking for more backstory but it seems to be coming. Intriguing setting. Likable characters, even one of the bad guys. I'm hooked and ready to learn more. Acting is fully believable. Watch it for yourself, ignore the reviews. It's only three episodes and riveting drama. And if you're planning a visit to a foreign resort anytime soon, you may want to rethink your plans.