Ava

I like Chastain as an actor bit this is not her genre. This film felt very cheap. The story dull, the direction amateur and the action scenes were really really bad. You could see the fight scenes coming from a mile away. The poor story telling was so bad that the excuses to have a fight we're incredibly lame.

I can't explain why so many top actors took part in this cheese fest. I got goose bumps as they had to blurt out their awful lines. The whole thing just felt B-Roll amateur. Not recommended.

Ava Starts AWESOME with great international spy assassin action, though it fast lost heat, getting to the level of a soap opera drama with unbelievable amount of tears that i could not like.

It should have stayed on track with action, but no.

Still, i can admire the effort and above all the all-star cast, that includes the always beautiful Joan Chen, as well as old time fave John Malkovich who fought pretty good when his time came.

Jessica Chastain in her main character role as well as her nemesis Colin Farrell also did a good work, as expected from them.

The cast even includes two Oscar winners: rapper Common and the forever gorgeous Geena Davis, who at 64 even looked more elegant and stylish than the much younger Chastain during the scene where the two women played cards.

So, as you can infer, cast is not a problem. Problem (in my eyes) was the plot that did make this flick and all action thriller. Because the tears and the telenovela subplot deflate the excitement, preventing the film to reach an awesome peak that would have made it truly memorable. That - sadly - did not happen.

Nevertheless, the Ava is acceptable, probably the best in offer in cinemas right now. I'd say it'd be worth of your bucks and time.

Seem to have seen many almost the same films over the past few years. Assassin with military background falling foul of her employers who turn on her. The only difference with this one was there is almost no story, why are people being killed, why turn on such a good operative. I would have walked out but it was raining

This film is centred on Ava Faulkner, an assassin with addiction problems and a desire to know why her victims are being targeted. This latter quirk bothers her employers. Duke, her direct superior and father figure wants to protect her but others, higher up, believe she is a liability. After an operation goes wrong due to faulty intelligence she suspects that her employers want her dead. Duke tries to persuade her that she is just being paranoid. If that weren't enough there are problems with her family; her ex-boyfriend Michael, who is now her sister's fiancé, has gambling problems which have led to large debts.

I thought this started well and was intrigued by Ava's life as an assassin... I assumed that the plot would eventually lead to who her employers were and what their motives were. Instead it led to the unnecessary subplot involving Michael; this felt a distraction from the main story, as if the makers thought they had an hour's worth of material and needed to pad the film out to an hour and a half. It is a pity they didn't pad it with a bit more action connected to the main plot as what we got there was exciting and well-choreographed; the fights had an impressively physical feel to them. There are of course plenty of clichés but that goes with the genre. Jessica Chastain gives an impressive performance as Ava and John Malkovich and Colin Farrell are solid as Duke and antagonist Simon respectively. Geena Davis is fun as Ava's mother, although her presence made me think of her lead in 'The Long Kiss Goodnight'; a superior female lead action film. Overall it passes the time well enough if you are a fan of the genre but is hardly a must see.

The first 30 minutes were really promising. Good action, suspenseful vibe, great acting... but as soon as one of the secondary character Michael appears, everything flops. Not only because of his insecure and awkwardly mediocre acting, which reminded me of some cheap drama or love story soap opera... but because he represents an entry point into Ava's past. A boring past which has nothing to add to the story or her character.

So if we crop off all the family stuff and stick to the action... then it could be a solid 7. In stead it is a poor 6.

Worth mentioning: Jessica Chastain and John Malkovich performances are great. Colin Farrell somehow sticks to his (good) average, but who really disappoints is Geena Davis. Her approach personally felt to me like "Let's make it clear - I'll say some words, get the money and leave."