Fake Identity

The older Val Kilmer gets the worst he is.

Fatty, heavy, clumsy and without any ability to show any emotion. He looks like a stoned junkie.

The story itself is below average.

Double, triple, quadruple agents are messing with each other without any sign of consistency.

Boring characters, boring storyline, no acting, predictable outcome.

Everything is there to make you feel cheated.

The main disappointment is Kilmer. I think he is drinking too much. His face is puffy, he moves like a tired elephant.

Don't waste your time...

Val Kilmer, looking nice and swank, heavier... but I still miss the old days when he played roles like the Saint. Then, we saw a much sharper, expressive, and exciting Kilmer. In this movie, Kilmer plays a doctor who becomes mistaken for a secret agent/diamond dealer, with the usual nefarious consequences. The story does try to keep you interested till the very end, but I felt Kilmer was a bit of a letdown.

The movie takes place in Bulgaria, not Chechenya, and from there, moves to Prague. Most of the supporting actors seem to be slavic, but they all acted well. I could find no fault there. The girl, Katrine (Izabella Miko) is beautiful and acted well too.

The main plot is not about saving anyone mysterious, nor protecting her from assailants. The girl is a secret double agent, working both for a British group seeking to control a diamond cartel, and the Bulgarian/Czech people who also want control of the same. The girl bumps into Kilmer, while running from being captured taking pictures for the Brits, kiss to make believe it was intentional to shake them off, and that begins a love affair, so strong, both were willing to risk their lives for the other. Whether or not you believe this is highly improbable depends on your definition of the word, but that is the plot, in a nutshell.

This is not to say that the movie is just a frivolous jamboree of hastily made-up story lines. No, it was OK, considering the story is nothing new, and similar plots have been used many times before. It would be a mistake to compare this movie with older ones of similar ideas, such as 007 Diamonds Are Forever. Such movies were a tour de force. It would be an injustice to make such comparisons, so the best thing to do, I guess, is just to take this one as a standalone, and judge it by its own merit. Doing so, it is not a shining accomplishment, but neither does it fail miserably.

So, bottom line: "will I like it?" If you like this kind of plot, it will keep you interested, but you'll have to follow the story carefully to avoid becoming confused. I know I did until I started doing some facial recognition. Despite the blasé storyline, it's not a bad waste of time.

The plot is silly, one hurried kiss and the two main characters have fallen so deeply in love they will risk their lives for each other.

The acting is OK, Kilmer plays an over-weight doctor well, you can really believe he is struggling gamely to run and out of breath! The rest of the cast are OK.

The story is a mess, none of it makes sense.

The dialogue is poor.

The ending is almost comical it is so ridiculous.

This isn't a good film but if you can switch your brain off you can watch it.

The only reason to watch this movie is if you are a Val Kilmer fan, otherwise its pretty forgettable.

It tries too hard to be clever but ends up spinning you around so much you just lose interest.

A disappointing film. I actually enjoyed Val Kilmer's the Saint (pacy action, use of gadgets) however corny it may have been, so I hoped for something similar with this, ie a couple of hours of light relief. Sadly this film is unremarkable, a 'me-too' 80's thriller that covers ground that already so familiar from previous Eastern European / spy / cold war movies. The authentic settings catch your interest at the start but there is nothing in the plot to hold this. The girl is beautiful but the men are all clichés. I considered walking out and going for a pizza, several times, but hope kept me in my seat, mistakenly. At the end I walked out muttering about 2 hours of my life wasted.