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Dir. Pierre Morel
Rating: 3.2 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
The opening credits of Pierre Morel's new action thriller would suggest an entirely different kind of film from what turns out to be the case: No fanfare, no soundtrack, just a lonely man sitting in a chair in a gloomy, semi-darkened room. Unfortunately, that's as about as brooding and cerebral as this loathsome revenge fantasy ever gets. The man in question is Bryan (Liam Neeson, sporting regrettably fluffy hair), a former government operative -- we can assume C.I.A. -- who has recently given up his career in order to be physically closer to his 17-year-old daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), who lives with her mother (Famke Janssen) and super-rich step dad (Xander Berkeley) in a palace somewhere out in the hills of L.A. Kim wants to go to Paris with a friend, and despite his well-documented reservations, he finally gives in to her -- with a little helpful prodding from mom: "Our daughter at risk for going to Paris? You're pathetic" -- but no sooner does Kim arrive at the airport with her friend that she is, in fact, abducted by sex traffickers. Incensed -- and somehow witholding the urge to scream "IN YOUR FACE" to Kim's mother -- Bryan then flies to Paris and murders, tortures and beats on people until he recovers her. In addition to being ethically vile -- Bryan fancifully utilizes brutal torture techniques and, later, shoots a perfectly innocent woman in the arm in order to extract information from her husband -- the film is also utterly empty-headed. Everyone in France, including the villains, speak perfect English, and despite the fact that Bryan leaves a trail of disaster and bodies everywhere he goes, the French authorities seem unable to capture him. With a supposed training in covert ops, Bryan instead just charges pell-mell into whatever location he's trying to infiltrate and kills everyone in sight. The film, co-written by Luc Besson, who should certainly know better, is also inexcusably lazy, laying out a facile series of elements for Bryan to trail in order to recover his daughter, whom he rescues more or less by herself, leaving all the other poor daughters not lucky enough to have a skilled assassin for a pop to their own devices. If the film is trying to make a statement against Bush-era diplomacy, it's far too dimwitted to avoid getting caught up in the exact opposite, making a dubious case for achieving one's goal by any violent means necessary. Still, the film won't be hated by everyone, much as it may deserve; Dick Cheney will certainly like the cut of its jib.
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