Chief of Station

Director Jesse V Johnson is better known for his collaboration with martial arts actor Scott Adkins in movies such as The Debt Collector.

In Chief of Station he goes for espionage but comes up short both in action and story.

Ben Malloy (Aaron Eckhart) is the CIA station chief whose world falls apart after his wife's death.

However Ben is drawn back into the shadowy world, after his former adversaries are killed. He learns that his son is in danger and discovers that he cannot trust anyone, even his former allies.

From very much the early scenes, you can guess who will turn against Ben Malloy. There is nothing here in terms of a good story.

That leaves the action scenes to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately Eckhart is no Adkins. He is perfunctory with the action scenes but the script is not good enough for him to stretch his acting chops.

I had recently sat through, and thoroughly enjoyed, the 2023 movie "The Bricklayer", and thus I opted to sit down and watch this 2024 action thriller titled "Chief of Station", as it also had Aaron Eckhart in the leading role.

Sure, I had never heard about this movie prior to sitting down and watching it, so I didn't really know what I was in for here, aside from it being an action thriller. So writer George Mahaffey and director Jesse V. Johnson essentially had every opportunity to entertain me.

The storyline was watchable, sure, but at the same time it was also somewhat bland and forgettable. Writer George Mahaffey didn't exactly conjure up something grand or thrilling here. "Chief of Station" didn't manage to stand out from so many other action thrillers like it, and thus it was a bit of a disappointment. Now, don't jump to conclusions here, because I am not saying that it was a bad movie, not at all, it definitely had some good parts. But overall it was essentially just a generic action thriller.

This wasn't exactly the highlight of Aaron Eckhart's career, nor was he particular distinguishable in the movie. It was as if he was running a bit on auto-pilot. There were a couple of familiar faces on the cast list, joining Aaron Eckhart on the screen, with the likes of Olga Kurylenko, Nick Moran, James Faulkner and Daniel Bernhardt.

There is a fair amount of action in the movie, and that definitely helps to keep the movie afloat, and thus director Jesse V. Johnson didn't fully deliver a dud.

Watchable for what it was, but don't get your hopes up for "Chief of Station", as it was a rather bland and generic action thriller.

My rating of "Chief of Station" lands on a five out of ten stars.

A big fan of Aaron Earhart and Olga Kurylenko but unfortunately neither one of these actors can save this low budget B film that is so poorly written that it quickly falls apart into a silly out of date silly script that's so predictable table and dull that not even the action scenes can make it feel entertaining. And Olga comes into the picture to save the day almost at the end which is too late and too little.

The directing is decent considering the script is terrible and if you remove Aaron and Olga this would be a terrible low budget B film.

Go in with super low expectations and ready for laughable moments where terrible accents make you cringe and the action fight scenes look like something from the 1970s completely outdated where guys have slug fests rather than shooting each other and all that was missing is Charles Bronson.

Looking forward to next action film from Aaron E and anything Okga K stars is - maybe with higher budget and better script

3 stars for 2 main stars and some great shots of Budapest.

I love the actors in this movie but they did themselves a disservice in this movie. I find it hard to believe that the chief is station of Moscow could be so affected by his wife death six months later that he's resting his head on a fridge full of ham and unable to live normal life. Its a shame because the movie actually has potential if only they had given more depth to the characters and a little more sophistication to the story line, but unfortunately the plot lines are vague, the acting is erratic, more due to direction than skill. Thoroughly disappointing movie. Could have been so much better.

I like Eckhart. I like action espionage movies, but whilst this one holds the attention, it is a bit bland. I swithered between a 6 or 7 score but gave it a 6 due to the clunky, slowly fight scenes (Pettyfer's looked especially un-coordinated & slow - I swear I could almost hear/see him counting down the timed movements in each sequence. I just don't rate him as an actor at all & much preferred Otto Farrant as Alex Rider to Pettyfer's bland interpretation. A pretty boy lead for RomCom maybe, but no action lead).

Bleak landscape (which they could've made more use of), bleak storyline & very dark cinematics helped create a feeling of oppressed pressure - for which, TBH, there wasn't much release. I wanted to rip that gun out of his son's hands when they were under fire in the films big dramatic car chase (is it just me, or have these obligatory action car chases in EVERY film become boring? There's no replacement for great acting, character building or suspense building on a decent storyline. Big budget doesn't always = quality.

This could've been so much better & a whole lot brighter in colour. Continuity was also an issue (see earlier reviews). Eckhart & Kurylenko were watchable as always, but more could've developed for her character more for role & story development. Some real depth would've been good. Ok for an easy late night or rainy day watch, but not to be properly entertained. A quick burger type of movie, rather than a steak dinner one. In a few weeks, I doubt I'll remember this one. It passes the time quite pleasurably, but it won't rock or change your world. 6/10.