An average movie

Eventually, it was not bad at all, actually rather entertaining but I can't say I was really blown away by the whole thing. Basically, it all depends how you respond to it. Indeed, on one hand, this movie was very well done and it can be definitely appreciated as an action movie. What's too bad is that they didn't try to make it more than just being an action flick. I mean, they did actually try to have a deeper meaning but eventually that's where the movie failed to deliver. Instead of pushing further into this interesting direction, it seemed that the makers "chickened" out and decided to remain in their "action-movie" comfort zone. As a matter of fact, originally this film was much longer and larger in scope running approximately two and half hours and this is the cut that Peter Berg wanted to release, which featured more character development and more dramatic overtones to the story. Universal balked at the idea and forced Berg to cut down the film to its current length much to his dismay. Maybe this cut was better but I sincerely doubt it. Anyway, the directing remains pretty solid, there was a nice cast involved (Jamie Foxx , Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins, Frances Fisher, Danny Huston, Minka Kelly) and the whole thing was pretty entertaining. To conclude, even though it is nothing mind-blowing, it remains a decent action flick and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.