This movie sucks.
What Works: Supposedly, this movie is based on a true story, and I guess that alone makes it more interesting than the typical Jason Statham flick. Still, the trade-off for that is you have to live in the movie’s real-life time of the early 80’s and all the typical, terrible mustaches and fashions of that time. Plus, it irks you further that Statham doesn’t get into the time period at all.
What Doesn’t Work: It’s depressing to watch the great Clive Owen slum it in a paycheck role that you know he doesn’t think is very good (you know this because he’s also not very good in it). Otherwise, the movie is just not that interesting. It’s a solid C grade thriller directed in a sloppy mash of cliches that might knock it down lower than C.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Figure out what this wants to be. If it really wants to be as close to reality as possible, don’t cast Jason Statham or have outlandish action scenes that are clearly fake or embellished from the true story. If it doesn’t want to be realistic at all, don’t tell us it’s “Based on a True Story” when Owen’s last action movie (The International) is actually more realistic than this is.