Rating of
1/4
40%
CJP - wrote on 10/19/08
Action: 2/3 + Comedy: 0/2 + Good vs Evil: 1/1 + Love/Sex: 1/1 + Special Effects: 0/1 + Plot: 0/1 +Music: 0/1 = 4/10 or 40%.
Director John Moore enjoys films that analyze politics in a roundabout fashion. He dumped the potential world ending antics of his remake of the Omen to focus on the political rise of the anti-christ within U.S. government, yet garnished good performances. Then came his remake of Flight of the Phoenix, which was sub-par to say the least. Now Moore is given the opportunity to show his stuff, to perhaps create a respectable video game film that has a preset plot, but is not a remake. Alas, he fails badly.
Nothing, not even one minute ounce of originality arises from this mess. He pulls Memento strings for the flashback sequences, the demon and spiritual side to things are a lesser Constantine, and the actors appear bored. Wahlberg, like Garner in Elektra, scowls a bunch and summons the leading man qualities of Keanu in Point Break- could it get any worse? Yes.
This film is a bad sign of things to come. Even the aside speeches about the horrors of what it takes to win the war on terror (Moore's political infatuation continues), via drugs that only work on 1% of soldiers, are stale and horribly misplaced. The viewer is also suppossed to accept Ludacris as a detective and Mila Kunis, complete with unfaltering line delivery ala Meg, as some Russian bad-ass. The accent lasts about 5 minutes. About the same time John Moore put any relevant thought into this atrocity that wishes it could make an indirect statement on the war on terror. Again, it doesn't. Again, a complete unbridled failure within cinema.
