This movie had great production values. Where it fell down was the script. Not to be terribly snarky but your spoiler is wrong -- he was not hired to break into the vault, someone else did that during the opening scenes, he was tricked into bypassing the security on the document safe stolen from the vault -- and if you got that wrong maybe you aren't the type to notice shortcuts in the script.
Off the top of my head, here are some of the shortcuts:
1) Girl runs off from father, back to apartment, despite knowing that lots of big scary men with guns want to kill them both. She saw the bodies of 5 people who were assassinated, not to mention all of those people shot as collateral damage and yet she runs off alone. That's more than stupid teenager syndrome, it is a crutch for the script to move the plot along.
2) Anna Brandt, CIA black-ops expert (remember she met the protagonist in the field in north africa, she is not just a desk jockey analyst) is able to shoot two armed men, but two seconds later is so incompetent that she gets close enough to be stabbed by the guy in the car. She could have just shot the guy through the window, or let him drive off, or let him open the door. Or waited until everyone was in the car, buckled in and just sitting ducks. Of all the choices available, she picked the worst possible one. Another script crutch.
3) Protagonist gets a text to come in to the office because a package was delivered. What was up with that? Was it the package he sent last night being delivered somewhere else, why would he care if that arrived? If it was a package that arrived at the (now abandoned) office, who signed for it? Where is it? Another scripting crutch, just a nonsensical way to let him discover the conspiracy.
4) Protagonist tells daughter to put on her seatbelt, and the guy with the gun in the back seat without a seatbelt can't figure out the plan? The audience could, why couldn't the professional assassin figure it out?
5) Main bad guy doesn't open the briefcase enough to trigger the bomb while the protagonist is within the kill radius. Just a script crutch so that the good guy can live in the end. And why was he fiddling with the phone in Nabil's apartment? It sure looked like he was going to use the phone as a remote detonator. Why else open it up and fiddle with the guts? But nothing ever came of that - the director could have used that as a much more plausible way to blow up the bad guy once the good guy was out of range.
6) The document safe itself - they didn't need to open it, the guys who stole it already knew what was in it. All they needed was to destroy it so the contents couldn't be used against them. (And what about photocopies? Maybe a copy is weaker evidence than an original, but surely still incriminating enough to cause serious problems). Basically the entire premise of the movie was unnecessary.
All of these scripting shortcuts could have been handled much better with just a little more effort by the writers. They aren't necessarily distracting but as they accumulate the movie just feels more and more dull.
FWIW, I originally gave this movie a 5 rating, but writing out this list has caused me to reflect - usually I come to these boards after watching a movie to gain more insight and better understand the more subtle details, but with this one its been the opposite. One or two shortcuts I can live with, but this movie had way too many. Writing all this out has convinced me to lower my rating to a 4.
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LucasNorth
12 years ago
I would say my plot is correct, but breaking of the capsule, not a vault. Bad word play on my part.
And very much agreed, that production values were excellent for such a low budget. I would love to see what that director could have done if he was doing this film but with a larger budget.
In my views, I thought his daughter's reactions to everything going on just seemed, normal for a lack of a better word, It just seemed like a normal reaction for someone who hasn't been in that world most of their life. I can't say that I would do something similar if I was in her shoes. It was honestly refreshing to see. I especially loved her reaction when she found out he was in a kill squad.
Brandt ran a kill squad yes, but that was the first time she met their consultant. How was she to know he was a combatant? It looked like she just thought he was a driver due to the surprised look on her face.
He got the text. But we never saw what it said and he never said what it read. Saying it was for him to go to the office or about that package he had sent is just a guess.
That guy with the gun is my only real problem with the film. He's labeled as a pro assassin and looks more like a crazy guy with a gun that isn't thinking straight. Not to mention he literally couldn't shoot straight enough to save his life. But that's what it was, had blinders on to anything, wasn't thinking clearly so that Ben's comment to his daughter went right over his head.
This was interesting, as Ben had a plan for if he survived. But when you looked at his expressions, it never looked like he expected to. As if the only way to make sure they were dead and keep them away from his daughter was for him to die and take them with him. It was an interesting scene. And I appreciated that the film makers didn't assume their audience was stupid and had to explain everything. And he turned that phone into the detonator for the bomb. Weather he lived or died is debatable because both outcomes have merit for story and character. DVD alternate ending perhaps?
The way I saw it was they were tasked with bringing the documents to the CEO so they could verify that they had everything before it was destroyed because that is a smart thing to do. You don't simply trust that people you paid will destroy the extremely incriminating evidence against you. You do that yourself. Make sure everything is accounted for and get rid of all traces.
Interesting different views.
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black_dodo_b
12 years ago
All your points, except number 5, are valid. Then again it didn't bother me that much, just because most of these particular kind of thriller are riddled with such clutches and plot holes. I still don't think that this was a great movie, but an okey one. Mainly due to some bad action sequences and questionable directorial / cutting choices.
Just to elaborate on your point number 5:
The trigger was set to detonate at the second opening of the case. This was fairly explicitly shown during the assembley of the case. He used some of the cell phones wiring to fashion his trigger mechanism.
Apart from that, I grant you all your points. And you could even add some more.
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alastor32167
12 years ago
You amuse me: flaming a movie and getting the criticism wrong - nice!
Concerning
1. You are right. Teenagers sometimes do very stupid things. Grownups as well..
2. Right again. But hey, traitors have to die in an espionage movie.
3.It was a reminder in his phone. He got a call the previous evening about that delivery arriving at 8 am..
4. He figured it out when Ben started accelarating. How did it help him? Assassin's pov: Ben doesnt know he is in mortal danger and Ben's daughter is in the car, so he wouldnt try doing anything stupid.
5. Bomb triggers at second opening, as shown in a previous scene..
6. You usually would like to verify you have got the needed evidence before destroying the container which allegedly contains it.
2 out of 6. I'd say you have failed.
I gave the movie a 9 out of 10 because I havent seen one so enjoyable in a while.
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osimonide
12 years ago
IMHO the only real problem (but a major one) was point number 6.
I could not believe that all of the evidence would be conveniently stored in a single container.
Surely several people at the CIA would have been working on this case ?
But I liked the movie otherwise.
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sleepyhollows
12 years ago
Some of those bothered me as well.
His daughter going back to the apartment was dumb, especially after she already talked to her father about them not going back to their house before. I'll let that one go because she's a teenager and they tend to do stupid things. She was scared so I'd expect a scared teen girl to do something like that.
The seat-belt thing wasn't that big a deal, we all knew that was coming based on what he said to his daughter earlier in the film. The character in the film wouldn't know or pay attention to that. Risking a major accident with his kid in the car, you know? The assassin had no reason to believe he was going to do that plus he seemed very on edge to have to kill someone he knew, his character was erratic but when he was speeding up he realized what was going on.
The bomb thing it's just a movie, that's expected so I'll let that slide.
The part that bothered me the most was Anna getting stabbed. All that training and intelligence she had she should know better. I guess the character assumed the driver was a lower rank agent who she wouldn't have to fear would do that? Based on the reaction of the two agents behind her (who did nothing) and the two she had shot. Who knows but that was really stupid. She should have shot him through the door.
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