David Mamet is a man of awesome talent but sometimes he tries to reinvent the wheel when what you need is merely to put a new twist on an old twist. Kidnapping the president's daughter is a totally adequate if familiar concept ditto the tormented hero.
Mamet tries to get some mystery happening by not revealing what's going on until a fair way in - but come on, Dave, we've seen the previews and read the trailers we know what the film's about.
And the twists aren't much - ooh, they really want her dead... ooh, it's a conspiracy. (The problem with geniuses working on a low-brow genre is that often they're not that familiar with the films of that genre - the audience for this sort of stuff is familiar with these twists).
His dialogue and characters are pretty strong (at least they provide something a bit different) and it has an effective spooky deserted "look", but momentum is lost when the action shifts to the Middle East.
And Kick Gurry as an Australian mercenary - I know there are Aussies who are mercenaries, but it's Kick Gurry. He looks like he's on his way to the Old Fitz after having a coffee at Bondi.
And Kick Gurry as an Australian mercenary - I know there are Aussies who are mercenaries, but it's Kick Gurry. He looks like he's on his way to the Old Fitz after having a coffee at Bondi.
The action sequences are handled quite well, I didn't mind Val Kilmer as the super hero (though it might be time for him to lay off the sauces) - but do we ever believe Val could be really devoted to anything?
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