Login
I actually really enjoyed the first one. It had a good twist and some fun action. This one did catch my interest with the trailer. It has a pretty interesting main cast. This is directed by Dennis Gansel who did We Are the Night (an interesting look at a group of female vampires) as well as The Wave (The German film about an experiment I really want to see). Philip Shelby has only written one other film I have heard of called Survivor which stars Pierce Brosnan and Milla Jovovich. Rachel Long and Brian Pittman have worked on the same three movies all of which I've heard of. This is Tony Mosher's only writing credit. With this many writers I can only hope that they managed to keep the story interesting. I do find it interesting that the first one didn't make enough to warrant a sequel, but they decided to make one anyways.
The writing and directing here make for some pretty ridiculous moments. The way things happen and such just feel a bit amateur sadly. A few things go unexplained which is probably because they actually couldn't think of a way for it to actually be possible. The fight scenes and the preparation for the assassinations were pretty cool though. The plot was just generic though. There really is nothing different about this. They even said that the idea comes from Jason Statham's other movie Killer Elite about the same thing. That's just a bit lazy.
Wow some of the acting here is subpar. Not sure if it's because of the mediocre writing or if it's because this is the director's first Hollywood film though. I have seen much better from Jessica Alba. Sam Hazeldine actually pulled off being a villain though. Some characters were utilized poorly as one in particular just disappears for the rest of the movie with no acknowledgement or anything. The decisions some of the characters make are just silly.
So there was really nothing special about this movie. The action was the main attraction. With that I wasn't disappointed. The acting and characters here were at times just pathetic. A lot of things felt out of place or just happen. I couldn't take it seriously. The first one was so much smarter and well thought out. Even the twist at the end felt pretty obvious. If you are just looking for decent action with little care for anything else this is for you. If you were expecting more than that then this sequel should be avoided.
