An average movie

Even though I’m well aware of the fact that his movies are not really good, I always had a weak spot for Renny Harlin’s work, and his movies are among my guilty pleasures. However, I thought this time it could be a real gem though. Indeed, even though it was not really successful when it was released, it has since reached a cult status. Furthermore, the story was rather intriguing, some kind of female Jason Bourne, from a screenplay written by Shane Black (sold at 3 million dollars, it is the most expensive screenplay ever). Geena Davis looked pretty badass and with Samuel L. Jackson as sidekick, how could it go wrong? Unfortunately, even though all the ingredients were there to make a really awesome action flick (even the title was cool), the end result was still pretty underwhelming. It’s pretty obvious that Geena Davis and her then-husband Renny Harlin tried really hard first with ‘Cutthroat Island’ and then with this movie to launch her career as a female action star but it just wasn’t meant to be apparently. I mean, she wasn’t bad but compared to other actresses such as Sigourney Weaver, Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich or even Noomi Rapace, she wasn’t really convincing. On the other hand, in my opinion, it was above all the story which was honestly pretty weak (I don’t really understand why they spent so much money for this). I mean, it started pretty good but really quickly it became just another really pedestrian action flick with some really bland and boring characters. Even the action scenes were not bad, but still nothing remotely impressive. At the end of the day, the whole thing remains watchable but it could have been so much better. To conclude, in my opinion, it was yet another underwhelming movie directed by Renny Harlin and I don’t think it is really worth a look.

5/10