Exterritorial

The plot has a basic missing child desperation and rage basis. Good fodder for the action junkie who doesn't care about authenticity or realism. If you wait for cinematography that contains outdoor adventure or sweeping scenery, it doesn't happen. Most of the story happens in the same building, much of which consists of windowless walls. The English dubbing over foreign actors lack of lip sync is easy to get past and better than subtitles. U. S. Marines with full beards and 70 year old medals makes it kind of a joke early on for those of us who scrutinize such things. The protocol at a US foreign embassy was a bit ridiculous and at this point I was losing my enthusiasm. The new release hype draws you in with higher hopes than they deliver.

I don't want to give anything away other than to say this was a decent thriller. The only annoying thing was seeing a woman with small stature successfully take down several dozen 200 pound soldier men throughout the film with her fists and physical training.

Other than that silliness, it was fun, the characters were decent and I kept looking at Dougray Scott and imagining what he would've been like playing the roll of Wolverine if only fate hadn't changed his filming schedule and forcing Hugh Jackman to replace him in the part.

As for this film, I won't give away if the twist is all mental illness or if it's just like a more epic Flightplan plot and I'll let you find out for yourself. Decent fast paced film and good performances from Dougray and the rest of the cast.

I cannot accept this movie's premise as it is. We know that this single-parent mom, a German white woman, a former Special Forces soldier, loves her son so much after her husband died. We can understand how she loves her son. But at the very beginning of this movie, this supposedly well-trained, very lethal Special Forces soldier proves herself not to be a careless person. She is not as good as an ordinary housewife and mother. She almost lost her kid in the subway when she was talking on the phone. Then she commited a more ser serious and unforgivable mistake in the American Embassy. She allowed her little kid to play in the playroom, alone, and left to go checking out her appointment. There's no other parents in that playroom when she left. How possible? It's like you leave a child in an unattended vehicle, or leave a kid in a nobody around playground in a park.

In order to create the leading role losing her child in a security-tight American Embassy, the screenplay writer and director, Christian Zübert, has decided to give us such a ridiculous scenario, a highly unlikely and impossible premise.

A mother has to go to the US embassy for a Visa and while there, her son may or may not have been kidnapped. Did he just got lost in the embassy? Was he actually kidnapped? Or is this son of her's just in her head?

I can't talk too much on the story as there is a lot of twists and swerves, and if you are into this, like more as a thriller, it is actually pretty decent. My issue was that i was expecting an action movie, got pumped for that, and this is where the movie fall short.

The protagonist is extremely beautiful, yet strong and toned, i could totally believe her as a fighter, and while the fights were a lot more grounded than i usually like, i can't say i disliked them. The issue was that there wasn't that many of them.

A lot of the movie is exposition, plot twists and so on. So maybe because i was expecting more of an action movie, i saw myself looking at my phone a few times while watching it.

The movie was made in German but as my language is french, i am used to watch movies dubbed in said french so it made no difference for me.

Overall while i didn't dislike the movie per say, i think it came short of my expectations. Maybe i was simply not in the right mindset for a thriller that day and thats why. Yet i have to praise the performance from the main actress wich was very good for that kind of movie.

I am gonna give it a 6 out of 10. Its nothing special or that i will want to rewatch, but if they were gonna make a more action pack sequel with that same actress/character, i would totally watch it.

Casting-Acting 3/10: Probably shopped around for actors at a Walmart parking lot, cause they struggle to convey believable joy, sorrow, or even anger-leaving key moments feeling hollow. Can't really decide who was the worst, cause they were all pretty bad.

Realism 3/10: Borderline stupid. Nothing makes sense throughout the movie. For example, do you remember when someone broke into your room, pinned you down and you got a clean chance to leave and call for help, but you decided... what the heck.. lets stay with the stranger and help her for no apparent reason.

Plot 4/10: Could be interesting, but it's not. It has so many holes and unrealistic events that makes it hard to keep it interesting.

Dialogues 2/10: I could probably give it a go, and write better lines than what the movie writers managed to come up with.

Choreography 3/10: Well... it's bad. Unwatchable really... just skip through to the next idiotic scene.