A Common Man

This movie could have been good.

I loved Ben Kingsley in it. He was the only person who acted.

At first I thought the actors were actually trying to look stilted and awkward and were purposely trying to deliver their lines in that horrible manner. It felt like they were literally reading their lines from the script....

I soon learned, no, they were just all bad actors... apart from Ben K that is...

Very disappointing.

The story itself was great though.

This could have been a much better movie.

A terrorist (Ben Kingsley) plants several bombs throughout the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka and threatens to detonate them unless prisoners are released.

Writing a review for this film without revealing the end is a bit hard to do, but I will try. There are many things about this production that can be said...

First of all, this is a remake of an Indian film called "A Wednesday". I have not seen it, but if the reviews are any indication, the original is vastly superior (and probably worth my seeking out).

Second, Kingsley is completely wasted here. He is one of the great actors of our times, and is vastly underrated for some reason. He gets cast in movies that are forgettable, like this one and "The Wackness". Even when he shines (which is almost always), it is hard to appreciate the talent when he is surrounded by rubbish.

Lastly, the people who made this did not seem to grasp English. When Kingsley speaks, it sounds pretty okay. But when others speak, they talk in a nonsense style sometimes, repeat themselves a lot... it just never makes sense. This is the film's biggest weakness -- do not try to make a film in English if you cannot speak the language. I would much rather watch a Sri Lankan film with subtitles if it would sound more natural...

Firstly, there are several sound problems left over from poor editing. A loud crackle at 7 minutes, echoed dialogue at 30 mins etc. These are caused by gaps and sync issues in the time-line of the editing software. They are short and don't interfere with the film, but it shows a lack of faith in the producers, editor and director that they cant even watch their own product before sending it to market. There are also moments when some dialogue is quiet so you turn the volume up, then it gets loud and you turn it down. Keep the remote nearby as you will be juggling the volume a lot. There is some English dubbing throughout but thats to be expected for a film not set in an English speaking country.

The director is very ambitious. He knows how to position a camera to get artistic. Overhead shots of fights in the alley, crane shots and quiet long takes showing the bomber. It appears he has just come out of film school and this is his first passion project. How he got Ben Kinglsey onboard is the biggest question to ask. Even the cameras are a decent grade HD, better than some big budget blockbusters. I will say the colour is a little drowned out though. He also needs to learn to avoid pointing the camera at the sunlight from windows when doing interior shots.

The acting is poor, and the script is cliché. The dialogue is tough to watch. Thankfully most of the film is focused on the silent bad guy, who holds your attention enough to keep you watching. Its short and the story is easy to follow.

This is not however a bad film. It has lots of potential and is a learning experience for the crew especially. You can see them enhancing their CV credits while they pretend to be background police officers. If they watch back this film and learn from all their mistakes, they will be rewarded.

As for us viewers, watching what is essentially a student film, its not something I can recommend mainly because of the constantly changing volume issue. I picked it up on bluray at the dollar store, so its not breaking the bank at least.

Ben Kingsley is one of those actors that is always amazing but takes on such a wide variety of strange roles that sometimes he gets thrown into something that he just can't save. At the same time he has delivered so many brilliant performances that those few missteps can be ignored. Fresh of the triumph of his awesome performance in Iron Man 3 comes his latest film A Common Man alongside Ben Cross. Will this be another great performance to add to his impressive resume or be lost in struggling film?

A Common Man follows a terrorist who plants several bombs around the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka and threatens to detonate them unless prisoners are released. This is one of those movies that initially looks fairly low budget and could have easily fallen into obscurity if not for the star power of Ben Kingsley. The film opens leaving little mystery to what is happening and what Kingsley's character is up to or so you think. Thanks to some clever writing and another great performance by Kingsley this film takes an interesting and unexpected turn to create a film that is much better than it would have been. On the flip side most of those around the rest of the film deliver OK performances with Ben Cross seemingly just walking through his performance and offering nothing all that much the character or the film. This film plays as more of a thriller as opposed to an action film and leads you down a path that has been touched on numerous times, but quickly makes a U-turn into a completely different direction.

This is an intriguing film that manages to create a story that is sure to keep you invested until the very end. As mentioned before while most of the performances do nothing to really suck you in, its Kingsley's performance that carries this movie. This isn't a perfect movie by any means, but does offer some interesting twists and turns that make this film worth checking out.

Poorly done movie even for low budget. Not sure when I've seen such badly done movie last time. The story is so predictable, and easy to find out the ending after 30 mins of movie. Bad acting, really bad. Music is totally out out and not fit into movie at all. Scenario is all wrongly written. Not sure if this movie has an director at all but I would see this as an school project movie and not profi done. Don't have much more to write and I'm so surprise I have watched it to the end. I would say that this movie is even not good enough for TV. Im not sure if it makes it onto the screens but hope no as it would be a waste of money for tickets. Don't waste your time