The Independent

The film manages to build slowly but every key event and dialogue is rushed. Totally lacking credibility. Dialogue and scrip are atrocious. By the end you could not care less about any character, strangely all dislikeable, just delight the movie finished. This film does not manage even to be another passe politcal thriller. It feels like a bad B movie.

Rest assured it has nothing to say on politics or current events. John Cena as presidential candidate Sterling is a particular hard to watch. Too long in the gym, not long enough in acting school I would suggest. Jodie Turner-Smith could also work on her likeability factor. Very one dimensional. Avoid.

This film says too much and shows too little. It's political message is confused between central rationalism of the Washington press and the main character to the point where it's bordering on hypocritical. Her narrative is one pointed towards the ultimate good, an ultimate good which is presented as in conflict with democracy. Whilst the film does well to question the viewer in whether they believe in democracy even when an alternative leader will indisputably be better than those democratically elected, it does nothing to justify democracy as good. Both leads are good, Cox is magnetic as usual, the other main characters provide decent foil though lack substance themselves to the extent that they are forgettable entirely once finished watching. It's plot is formulaic with little to no unpredictability. It fulfils its basic objective of being a film and making sense. It offers little more than that, contributes nothing artistically and asks half baked questions.

Not sure why this is getting so much hate in the reviews on here. It's a clever little political thriller with enough twists to keep you interested. It's well acted - Brian Cox is always great and John Cena shows yet another side to his expanding acting range - he's just getting better and better with everything he's in. (Not sure Peacemaker can be topped for sheer brilliance though).

Jodie Turner Smith starts off a little wooden but grows into the role as the film goes on, though this may well simply be the journey that her character is on, growing in knowledge and confidence over the course of the film.

An enjoyable and diverting movie, great stuff.

I'm a bit shocked to see a film with some major actors go this under the radar, but here we are. I mostly enjoyed this film. Yes, it rehashes a lot of political thriller tropes, however it updates some for the time. Brian Cox remains an absolute powerhouse of a performer and the film excels when he is on screen. The rest of cast does a fine job and I don't understand the criticism of Cena. He showed on Peacemaker that he has dramatic chops and I thought he did well for what the role asked of him. The story isn't too original, but it remains reasonably compelling until the end. For a direct to Peacock film, I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not even eight minutes into this movie, and they've given John Cena some kind of soliloquy as a presidential candidate. His smirky face and is absolutely horrible delivery of lines makes me want to turn this movie off right away. John Cena is a horrible actor.

He's actually good in the wrestling ring when he delivers what they call "promos" in the wrestling world. He has passion, grit, and what he calls "ruthless aggression:. It makes for good TV and good face against heel tension. But as an actor in any movie I've seen him in, it's been a disaster. He's not even good at action movies. The only movie I ever liked him in was Amy's Schumer's Trainwreck. That's because Judd Apatow cast him correctly for comic relief of an empty headed muscleman.