O Agente

Wesley Snipes is an ex-killer for the CIA, living contentedly on a ranch. He's asked to come back to kill a bad, bad man.... and realizes it's a set-up to get him killed. He also needs to take care of 15-year-old Eliza Bennett because the writers must have seen THE PROFESSIONAL and said "I can do that!"

No they can't. It's a decently acted movie -- it's got Charles Dance and Lena Headley -- but it's so derivative that you'll watch it and wonder as it plods self-importantly through its plot points, why they stole this particular twist from that movie, instead of a different plot twist from another. Or any of ten others.

It went straight to video. Now it's on the higher-numbered cable channels.

Thus far, Wesley Snipes output of DTV flicks has been somewhat poor in quality. That would be the polite way to describe dreck like The Detonator and The Marksman anyway. However, his last flick, Hard Luck, re-teaming with his New Jack City director, Mario Van Peebles, was at least watchable. It was a bit all over the place sure, but Snipes gave a performance of some interest. The Contractor is most certainly, Wes's finest DTV action flick so far. That's not to say it's particularly great, but on an overall scale, it's about on a par with Van Damme's, The Hard Corps.

The plot is in part similar to Mark Wahlberg's recent flick, The Shooter, and also Leon. It's the Leon part of the story that works best in this film, while the usual hokey espionage and agency double crossing is the main ingredient on the Shooter side of this film. Snipes is an ex-sniper called in to do a job and ends up being left to take the fall for his employers, who also want to dispose of Snipes now. Following his assignment and initial run in with the law, Wesley holes up in a safe house, where he meets Emily, a tenacious and troubled young girl, who is neighbours with the safe houses owner. She helps James Dial (Snipes) recuperate from a gunshot, while also helping him avoid capture. The relationship between Dial and Emily could have wrecked the movie with inconceivability, however it works.

This is where the film's main strength lies, the cast. Wesley for a start puts in the effort. He's not dialling this one in, like previous roles. He gives the role extra dimension. The cast, for a DTV film, is also blessed with recognisable names. Lena Headey is good, and hot, and Charles Dance and Ralph Brown also appear to add class. The real star here though is young actress Eliza Bennett, who plays Emily. It's so rare that young actors can really immerse themselves in a role, and be totally natural on screen. We've seen it countless times in even the biggest flicks, that young actors given important roles just cannot act. I give you Jake Lloyd as an example, or the Harry Potter kids (from the first two flicks at least, while even now they only border on competent). But Bennett is a real star in the making, oozing potential and an amazing amount of gravitas for someone so young. She is her character, and we never have to make account for her being a young actor playing a role out of her range. She has a good role that she not only does extremely well, but I imagine, created much of herself. We're talking on the same playing field as Haley Joel Osment, Dakota Fanning, Freddie Highmore. She'll be huge I predict. Indeed I think Wesley would have appreciated having someone with real, genuine talent to work off. It's a role that requires maturity and immersion, and because Bennett becomes her character so effectively, she and Snipes can work off each other so well. To think a DTV could have pulled a gem out the hat like this is quite something. By past occurrence, Snipes should have been acting opposite a lump of infantile, irksome, wood.

One failing of the film lies at the feet of director Josef Rusnak. His aping of Tony Scott is problematic. The constant hand-cranking of the camera and blitzkrieg editing, just gets painful, and the action is a mixture of competent, neat scenes, and real misfires, such as a strobe lighting shootout. As for hand to hand fisticuffs, Snipes has one brief fight, which is really well done. A bit more of that would have been better than the somewhat underfinanced gunfights. Still there's a few good foot and car chases here, while the UK locales make a change from the DTV norm of Eastern Europe (Though there's still some fairly blatant Bulgaria moments here). The score isn't too bad either. It's neither memorable, exciting, nor is it irritating or grating. Overall a decent DTV effort. Worth a watch if only to marvel at a shockingly decent cast for such a film. Look out for Bennett in the future too. **1/2

It was clearly meant for UK market, incorporating two popular British actors that ended up working on Game of Thrones together just 4 years later. But ill tell you who else loves this stuff.... Latinos. My Latina wife barely speaks English and loves tf outta these types of story and action.

Every film has a heart. Some hearts are more special than the others. But you are bound to get a wrong impression if you draw your inference without knowing where the heart is.

To the plebeian crowd, if Wesley Snipes is on the poster, that means some semi-mindless non-stop action, with a streak of silly humour once in a while, is coming their way. But Wesley never signed an agreement about that, did he now? This is not an action film, though you see some action in it.

First of all, it is a very low budget film, so don't go all tough and smart criticizing it. Those B-movies, which come to TV only late at night because other slots are for those blockbusters, can certainly not be measured against The Art of War or Blade. The Contractor is a simple, low budget film that shows a little girl's bond with an assassin, whose mission has gone wrong and who has fallen the prey of his own employers. While the action sequences and other things are inadvertently done, very special care has been taken of those moments that reflect the warmth of feelings. Lena Heady was not a necessary recruit for this film, her role any pretty face could play. But I like her, so I am glad she did it.

Some low budget, non-famous films sometimes leave lasting impressions. Maybe they fail overall in box office and audience poll, but sometimes there can be very heartfelt elements in such films. I watched it late at night and liked it for what it is. I was not disappointed for what it was not. Because if I wanted someone other film, I would watch some other film.

But of course, idiots have minds (and comments on IMDb) of their own.

Wesley Snipes is James Dial, an assassin for hire, agent of the CIA and pure bad-ass special operative. During his free time Dial dons a cowboy hat and breeds horses with macho names such as Beauty.

Enter agent Collins, his supervising officer. Enter a new assignment - kill a terrorist that is in UK custody. Of course the United Kingdom being an allied state is a great place for covert ops and head-shots outside of courtrooms.

The assassination is a big success apart from the fact, that the escape plan blew. So Dial's partner and local liaison gets killed in action trying to escape the police, whilst Dial becomes hot property with the London coppers trying to get to him and CIA trying to dispose of him.

Fortunately for Dial the safe-house is routinely visited by a teenager Emily Day (Eliza Bennett), who loves hanging out with cold-blooded killers with arrest warrants and help them escape from the evil UK law enforcement...

With a script like that need I say more? On the plus side Wesley Snipes is Wesley Snipes (be that a pro or a con) and the movie is quite engaging. On the minus editing is very disjointing and has a hurl effect on the stomach.