Cleanskin

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.

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.

I recently caught this film, billed as an action/drama/suspense flick, quite by accident, and immediately wondered why I saw no promo for it...

First off, it was nice to see Sean Bean, who has played some bad ass bad guys (eg. Patriot Games, Goldeneye), get to play the bad ass good guy, Ewan. No other actors were known to me, except for Charlotte Rampling, who was in the short Ghost Recon: Alpha. This was not a disadvantage as all the major and minor characters played their parts well. Rampling in particular did well as the pseudo "M" character.

The movie begins with more drama than action, and enough keeps going wrong, that you begin to wonder if Ewan still should be in this "game." But his ruthlessness (again, pseudo Bond) proves that he should. The plot is heavy with the middle east and terrorism situation and there is a considerable amount of socio-political undercurrent; there is plenty of ruthlessness to go around.

A fair amount of time is used to build suspense and establish motivations, all going to show once again how violence for revenge sake, or any sake for that matter, perpetuates. Pay attention to where there are flashbacks or you might get lost in the details.

The fight scenes seem graphic, not because of blood and gore, so much as for the sound effects. And when the action finally begins to build, it is punctuated with plot twists that underscore the complexities involved.

While ultimately enjoyable to view, the movie is ultimately less action and more drama, and the more realistic for that reason.

This move pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting a rather mindless 'lets get the terrorists' themed action film but was instead treated to a film that, to a limited extent, tried to explore the motivations of the main characters whilst still maintaining the feel and pace of an action movie.

On the action side, it was quite good. The fight scenes felt quite real and were not over the top but still managed to have quite an impact. Where the film fell short however, was the other side, in the explaining motivations. It almost seemed to me that a 30-45min chunk of the film was left out in the middle. The part of the movie that drew me in the most was the bomber and how outside influences as well as his own personal feelings pushed him in the direction he ended up going in but, it needed more of that. As, to me at least, I couldn't attach myself to the leaps he made along the way which overall, ruined what would have otherwise been a very very interesting exploration of the subject.

Perhaps I'm asking too much of an action orientated film, but, I think the film makers in this instance, were doing the same.

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.