The Assignment Reviews

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a pretty nice cast, I thought I might as well give it a try. Basically, it is a rather unknown and quite obscure flick (it is in fact a Canadian production and, apparently, it was mostly shot in Montréal but it is not something that bothered me) but I thought it was actually pretty good and, in my opinion, it is actually rather underrated. First of all, Ben Kingsley and Donald Sutherland, as usual, were quite good here and it was interesting to see Aidan Quinn playing the bad guy for once (even though it was only for a very short time). Of course, you could argue that the story was not really original and it is indeed true, it shamelessly borrows elements from other more prestigious productions but, somehow, it actually worked out fine, at least for me. Indeed, I thought it was quite entertaining and it kept me on the edge of my seat until the end. To conclude, even though it is nothing amazing, I think it is actually a decent flick and, in my opinion, it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Aidan Quinn plays a killer, and a lookalike who is hired to find that killer, the infamous Carlos "The Jackal". Kingsley is an Israeli agent, while Sutherland is the recruiting agent.

First, I *have* to comment on the lousy, let's emphasize this, very lousy location scouting. The street shown right at the beginning is Rue St-Paul in Montreal, and the scene after that is a decor of the Eiffel Tower in Paris - huh???? (I know this usually happens in movies, but this is just *too* evident and very badly done. Montreal streets do *not* look anything like Paris'.)

Bad directing. I can't say the actors impressed me, and they're usually all reasonably good. I always like Quinn and Kingsley's performances, and this film is only saved by Quinn's acting - he's the only one good here.

As for the script, it's pretty much a remake of many movies, as this is a boring and repetitive storyline in a badly written script.
Honestly, there are so many of these movies out there, it's no wonder Hollywood people make films to later produce remakes. This movie being yet another remake goes to show how many unoriginal stories are available! This is one of them.

Very cheap Canadian production - very obvious too. Not a recommended film, not by my standards anyway!