Ben Foster and Chris Pine do well in their roles, but it's not enough to save the movie. Unfortunately this isn't one of Sutherland's better jobs, though I'm not sure it's his fault. There's a lot of useless scenes, and the directing is very questionable. The editing is however terrible (laughable at the part where James Harper was on the roof and then on the ground in a second), with some glaring mistakes as well as some scenes and shots being ended way too early.
The plot is a Frankenstein of a thing. It pulls some exceptional pieces from good works of art together to create an ugly, stitched monster. The plot is so boring and reused that you can sense exactly what the "big twist" is because there had to be something to give this plot the green light. It's very predictable and so lame that it feels more like a corporate attenpt to take advantage of our love of veterans than actually honoring them with moving art.
The script has a lot of middle-school grade lines, with a few quotable liens to remind you this snoozer was brought you by a lot of money.
I also found the action quite basic, with some exceptions. Even annoying at times. Whoever's shooting at our protagonist seems to have terrible aim (except when the plot demands it), with no sense of actual, basic military operations despite the said shooters being ex-military. I'm a "civvie" and can conduct their ops three times better.
But I must say what annoyed me the most: the last 15 minutes were great! Why couldn't the rest of the movie be like that!
You've seen this plot many times before, in movies many times better edited, better choreographed, better scripted and better directed, but to The Contractor's credit, maybe not better acted.
The plot is a Frankenstein of a thing. It pulls some exceptional pieces from good works of art together to create an ugly, stitched monster. The plot is so boring and reused that you can sense exactly what the "big twist" is because there had to be something to give this plot the green light. It's very predictable and so lame that it feels more like a corporate attenpt to take advantage of our love of veterans than actually honoring them with moving art.
The script has a lot of middle-school grade lines, with a few quotable liens to remind you this snoozer was brought you by a lot of money.
I also found the action quite basic, with some exceptions. Even annoying at times. Whoever's shooting at our protagonist seems to have terrible aim (except when the plot demands it), with no sense of actual, basic military operations despite the said shooters being ex-military. I'm a "civvie" and can conduct their ops three times better.
But I must say what annoyed me the most: the last 15 minutes were great! Why couldn't the rest of the movie be like that!
You've seen this plot many times before, in movies many times better edited, better choreographed, better scripted and better directed, but to The Contractor's credit, maybe not better acted.