Sezione 8

There is the basis of a decent film here, yes it has all been done before but the opening half hour or so is all pretty engaging (although you do feel they just let Mickey Rourke do and say whatever he wanted).

Then it started to get a bit silly, and then very, very silly. To the point it is barely making sense and they are having to have characters have one sided conversations on telephones to gloss over plot confusion - It just lost all credibility for the sake of slightly better writing.

That said it is clearly made on a budget and it goes well to hide some of this, clearly the whole film is shot in L. A. but watching it does a good job of making out that its characters travel around the US and beyond. The action scenes are fine too, sometimes a bit confused to follow but this actually gives it a bit more authenticity, I felt.

The cast are pretty good overall though two or three are so one dimensional, due to the writing, that they don't come off so well. Its a shame the last half hour or so wasn't as well made as the first and that it feels it needs to have plot twist after plot twist.

Ultimately its better and has a lot more to offer than you might expect, even if it is a bit disappointing overall.

The main character is fairly good, probably the best part of the film.

The action parts are lacking, but the amount of killing makes up for it :) a few good scenes with Scott Adkins, he always brings his A game. I think people expect too much, but a movie with those actors really can't be great, there are too many flashback scenes, even though they're short it's really getting annoying seeing the same flashbacks over & over, we got it, the guy had a family & it the base for the entire premise, but give us a break already.

Mostly I enjoyed it, laughed at it a few times. Why low scores which this movie don't deserve? I give it a 6.5.

I watched this on New Years Day, feeling a little tired and rough and wanting B Movie action nonsense, I was disappointed as all I got was nonsense.

Do people who write, produce and direct this, actually talk and interact with people in real life? Because the script and acting, is not how people talk to and act around others.

I expected better of a movie with Scott Adkins in. He's B Movie Action Royalty. Ryan Kwanten cannot carry a film, I doubt he could carry the bins out. Dolph Lundgren is used too little and Mickey Rourke is virtually unrecognisable anymore.

Anyway, it was disappointing, shambolic and too messy to enjoy.

Please do better.

I'm giving this a 4 to be generous to the cast and production crew. Excellent job as usual.

In fact everything about this story is the usual: a military acquaintance; a plot that becomes more senseless each scene; long, long flashbacks to show the hero's emotions; hand-to-hand attacks during gunfights;and plot inconsistencies that give the impression that a producer's 15-year-old son wrote a script and Dad decided to encourage him... and had the bucks.

Verdict: AVOID. Despite the cast and production quality, I found this movie completely forgettable and an unfortunate waste of time, even though I fast-forwarded through all the my-dead-wife-and-kid-poor-me scenes.

An unrustling narrative, devoid of any worthy substance, relying on the expected norms of the genre, bringing nothing new, or original to the screen.

Packed up with the fight, war, and action celebrities, missing Arnold or Sylvester-type charismatic and charming characters, makes the hole thing a bore.

The film starts with an unrealistic fight sceen from Afghanistan where the Afghan soldiers speak in the middle eastern dialect, instead of the Afgan Arabic. The US moves into the neighborhood knowing it's a setup, in humvees with all windows open letting the fresh air and bullets in. Ultimately, getting many killed.

Usually, viewers find predictability in scenarios where many other films explored the same thing with a number of similar outcomes. This is one of those you will say I knew this was going to happen.