Sunday, September 30, 2018

Final Score - "Die Hard" in a Football Stadium

Last Friday, a new movie premiered in one of the cinema chain in Indonesia. It was not difficult to see this as it played in quite a lot of theaters including ones near my home. Since the Indonesian movie that my wife and I wanted to see only played in limited theaters, I decided to see this one first by myself. Those who have read my previous posts would understand that sometimes I would see movies that I have doubt on the quality to save my wife from the pain of having to see films that she might not like. Anyway, we shall move on to the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Mike Knox (Dave Bautista - Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and its predecessor, Escape Plan 2 etc) was a US soldier who took time off to London to meet with his best friend's family there. He wanted to bring their teenage daughter Danni (Lara Peake - How to Talk to Girls at Parties etc) to a soccer match between West Ham United and Dynamo in the Boleyn Ground (Upton Park) which had around 35,000 capacity, and also happened to be the last match in that stadium. 


Mike who was separated from Danni from the start of the game, tried to find her but instead met with a terrorist and realized an imminent danger. With the unlikely help from assistant to the stadium's steward Faisal (Amit Shah), Mike tried to take down the terrorists who were a group of Russian rebels led by Arkady (Ray Stevenson - Cold Skin, Punisher: War Zone etc). What was supposed to be a fun evening for Mike and Danni became a night full of terror as the three of them, with the support from police and a government agent Cho (Julian Cheung - S Storm, 1994 version The Legend of the Condor Heroes etc) tried their best to stop the attack.

As time running out, could the people in the stadium be saved? Find them all in this action movie.

End of Brief Story Line

This movie did not take too much time to get to the fun part. After around 15 minutes, we already were in the stadium and the rest of the movie remained in or around the stadium. Once I saw the plan by the terrorists, I immediately felt it had similarities with the Die Hard movie, except it was in a football stadium having 35,000 people in it, as opposed to a building with lesser people. 

What surprised me was actually the movie was not as bad as I suspected. I did have some fun and Dave Bautista was a lot better here than his performance in Escape Plan 2. But the scene stealer here would definitely be Amit Shah who was quite fun, full of wit and there was a funny scene involving him towards the end (which hopefully did not create controversy). The rest of the cast were not too memorable, although there was a character played by Alexandra Dinu (211, Bullet Head etc) which was quite interesting. Pierce Brosnan (The Foreigner, Remington Steele TV series etc) also had some role in here, though it was not as big as Bautista and Stevenson.

Of course this movie had plenty of plot holes and few illogical moments, but if you are able to disregard them perhaps you could enjoy it just like any other action movie. Although I was a bit curious about the football game itself since it did not look real (and it did not seem to use real WHU footballers? not sure about that as I could not seem to find the info). And the scenes inside the stadium somehow seemed like they were computer generated, even though it was said to be shot inside there.

The special effects were pretty decent, especially the explosion scene. Fight scenes involving Bautista were good (loved the one in the kitchen). There was one scene towards the end that really surprised me. Also a twist which was quite nicely done. The sound effects were quite satisfying. There was no emotional/touching moment, as everything was supposed to be intense. The director Scott Mann (previous works included Heist aka Bus 657, The Tournament) obviously focused more on the action and suspense part.

Overall it was quite a decent action movie. Though admitted having similarity with Die Hard movie, but it was definitely not up to that par. However if you want to see Dave Bautista in a lead role or want to see some quite suspenseful action movie without over thinking plot, and you are a fan of West Ham United, then obviously you got to see this movie. Just a reminder that if you expect it to be a really great action movie, then you have to lower your expectation a bit. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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