This thing got mediocre reviews, but I thought it was entertaining Thursday night fare.
If you haven’t seen the previews, Don Cheadle is a Sudanese-American former special forces soldier, who gets caught selling Semtex to some very naughty terrorists, and thrilling hijinks ensue, and of course Things Are Not As They Appear.
I was actually impressed by one thing:
They don’t give away the fact that Don is a double agent in the trailer, although it seemed pretty obvious once the movie got underway.
However, I totally knew that
Don was going to put all the bad guys on the same bus
I saw it because my dad wanted to and it was his turn to treat. I thought it was okay, especially given the author. Unfortunately I read a review of the film in the Globe and Mail and they spoiled about half of the movie, so there was very little tension for me. I didn’t guess the final ending, though. I figured that he would just set all of the explosive devices to fail. Since those people were supposed to be spread throughout the whole country it’s kind of dumb to assume that they’d all be on the same bus route – and that no one innocent, save the driver, would be on the bus. That’s Hollywood for ya.
I saw and enjoyed it. I wasn’t there for the plot, but for another excellent Don Cheadle performance. I’m glad no jerkwad movie reviewer spoiled it for me. I try to never “figure out” what’s going to happen in a film - paying little enough attention to the film to be thinking about that is proof of a mediocre film. I’m there to be entertained, to let someone tell me a story, not anticipate how the story is going to end. And it worked for me. It did have a protagonist that is rarely seen in Hollywood films, a conflicted hero.