The Independent

I'm a bit shocked to see a film with some major actors go this under the radar, but here we are. I mostly enjoyed this film. Yes, it rehashes a lot of political thriller tropes, however it updates some for the time. Brian Cox remains an absolute powerhouse of a performer and the film excels when he is on screen. The rest of cast does a fine job and I don't understand the criticism of Cena. He showed on Peacemaker that he has dramatic chops and I thought he did well for what the role asked of him. The story isn't too original, but it remains reasonably compelling until the end. For a direct to Peacock film, I was pleasantly surprised.

This film says too much and shows too little. It's political message is confused between central rationalism of the Washington press and the main character to the point where it's bordering on hypocritical. Her narrative is one pointed towards the ultimate good, an ultimate good which is presented as in conflict with democracy. Whilst the film does well to question the viewer in whether they believe in democracy even when an alternative leader will indisputably be better than those democratically elected, it does nothing to justify democracy as good. Both leads are good, Cox is magnetic as usual, the other main characters provide decent foil though lack substance themselves to the extent that they are forgettable entirely once finished watching. It's plot is formulaic with little to no unpredictability. It fulfils its basic objective of being a film and making sense. It offers little more than that, contributes nothing artistically and asks half baked questions.

I'm not even eight minutes into this movie, and they've given John Cena some kind of soliloquy as a presidential candidate. His smirky face and is absolutely horrible delivery of lines makes me want to turn this movie off right away. John Cena is a horrible actor.

He's actually good in the wrestling ring when he delivers what they call "promos" in the wrestling world. He has passion, grit, and what he calls "ruthless aggression:. It makes for good TV and good face against heel tension. But as an actor in any movie I've seen him in, it's been a disaster. He's not even good at action movies. The only movie I ever liked him in was Amy's Schumer's Trainwreck. That's because Judd Apatow cast him correctly for comic relief of an empty headed muscleman.

Not sure why this is getting so much hate in the reviews on here. It's a clever little political thriller with enough twists to keep you interested. It's well acted - Brian Cox is always great and John Cena shows yet another side to his expanding acting range - he's just getting better and better with everything he's in. (Not sure Peacemaker can be topped for sheer brilliance though).

Jodie Turner Smith starts off a little wooden but grows into the role as the film goes on, though this may well simply be the journey that her character is on, growing in knowledge and confidence over the course of the film.

An enjoyable and diverting movie, great stuff.

Talented young Journalist Eli James uncovers an Earth shattering truth about

For a so called thriller, this really did lack one element, thrills. From the outset it seemed as though it was going to be a slick, fast paced thriller full of subterfuge and intrigue, sadly it was just boring.

I wasn't keen on the production of this film, it looked and felt a little cheap, like a made for TV thriller that ends up showing on a Sunday afternoon slot some time in April.

I stuck it out until the end, hoping for it to get better, and wanting it to get better, personally I think it flatlined quite early on, and never sparked into anything.

Brian Cox has always been a good actor, and he did a good job, albeit within the confines of the script. If I'm honest, I watched this primarily because I wanted to see how good Jodie Turner Smith was following on from the ill fated Anne Boleyn series. I thought Jodie was ok, again hampered by the average script.

4/10.