This movie is stupid as hell. It has a few sequences that are pretty neat but if you go see this, you might as well take 10 bucks and flush it down the toilet, and then forget you did that because you also won’t remember this movie the next day. Watch Mission Impossible 4 instead for thrills and The Grey for a thriller that won’t treat you like you’re retarded.
What Works: The movie’s plot is about a man…ugghhhh…on a ledge who has been set up by Ed Harris’s shithead businessman and his brother breaks into the businessman’s safe while the man on a ledge provides a distraction. I liked a couple of sequences but mostly all two hours of this thing doesn’t make your palms sweat nearly as much as that one five minute sequence in Mission Impossible 4 where Tom Cruise is dangling outside a skyscraper. Mostly because you never for a second believe Sam Worthington is in any real danger or even up on a ledge (the movie is suspiciously absent of shots where he’s even looking down and you can see his face). However, I did like some of the low tech tricks used for the break-in sequences like taking a picture of the hallway to put in front of the security camera.
What Doesn’t Work: There’s no danger, there’s only two thrills, and one or two good scenes doesn’t make a good movie. The plot gets gradually more ridiculous as it keeps going. And it’s a shame to waste such a great supporting cast (Titus Welliver in particular deserves better) when Sam Worthington can’t even get his accent right for most of the movie.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I guess I would have looked at the script, started marking all the plot holes or every time a character does something that completely betrays everything we know about them (negotiators willing to literally jump out on a ledge for no good reason, bad cops who suddenly turn good after being bad the whole movie, the brother and his girlfriend who bicker like a married couple DURING the jewel heist, etc.), and eliminated them one by one. Of course, after that this movie would have been about ten minutes long and not a very interesting short film. Audiences seemed to really go for this film’s stupidity, which I guess says something about audiences.
There is a lot to be entertained by here but there is also way too much that we can’t actually take seriously and it actually ends up being more of just a silly thriller that has a good cast, that doesn’t really do much. Good review. Check out mine when you can.
It’s interesting you should bring up the cast because I was definitely disappointed that they didn’t do more with such a collection of talent. By the end the only two that left much impression were Sam Worthington and Genesis Rodriguez and it was for all the wrong reasons: his inconsistent accent and her lack of acting experience. The film is completely disposable and I just feel like audiences will have more of a satisfying time at Mission Impossible 4 or a deeper one at The Grey.