This was a movie that I was intrigued after reading the brief synopsis available on the cinema website. But when it was released last Friday, there was only a few studios playing the movie. I guessed the cinema did not have confidence in showing it in a wide release. Anyway, I only got the chance to see this on Sunday at a studio which required a bit of effort to go to. As my wife was out of town for holiday, I went to see it by myself. So here's a bit more on the movie.
Brief Story Line
Pete Koslow (Joel Kinnaman - Hanna TV series, Suicide Squad etc) was an undercover informer working for the FBI with his handler Agent Wilcox (Rosamund Pike - Die Another Day, Gone Girl etc) and her superior special agent Montgomery (Clive Owen - Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, Closer etc). His latest assignment was to uncover the drug distribution by the Polish mob.
Pete wanted to be out from this undercover work and be free to live with his wife Sophie (Ana de Armas - Blade Runner 2049, Knock Knock etc) and their young daughter after this case. However, one thing led to another made Pete had to further continue his assignment under a worse circumstances as he had to be working from inside the prison he served time years before. Things got more complicated when an NYPD detective Grens (Common - Hunter Killer, Hell on Wheels TV series etc) came into the picture, endangering Pete's work.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this crime thriller drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I said above, the brief synopsis of the movie seemed to be a very interesting premise. It would be intriguing on how to make it working undercover in a dangerous prison. In this part, I think the movie was pretty successful in making the tense feeling when our main lead was already in prison. The intensity and suspense was quite apparent during this time. However, what I thought was lacking was this prison part (you would know why if you see the movie) which made me feel that the suspenseful situation were too brief.
The story itself was not bad, with some unexpected twist towards the ending which was the best highlight of this movie for me. But I was a bit surprised to see that the story seemed to deviate a bit from the original premise, especially with that kind of ending which resulted to 1 main issue did not get its full closure (or at least that's what I felt, unless I missed out on this part).
The cast in here did their job adequately, with 1 person in particular really impressed me, i.e. the rapper Common who seemed so natural as this NYPD detective, although there was one scene where he was a bit disappointing but that I believe was more towards the writing and not due to his fault. Our main lead Joel Kinnaman was playing his role quite convincingly and to be honest, I was really rooting for his character who just could not seem to get any breaks. Ana de Armas and Rosamund Pike were OK. But the funniest thing I noticed was Clive Owen's character who seemed to be similar to another movie I just saw.
This movie was categorized as crime thriller, but for me it was more like a crime drama with a bit of thriller and action. So the cinema website was perfect in its categorization and therefore people should not expect a full action movie. It was also rated for mature which was correct, especially with the heavy violence and the amount of foul language in the movie. There was no mid or end credit scene. It has 113 minutes duration which did cover most of the story with the consistent dark tone.
Overall this was not a bad movie. It did provide some thrills and the curiosity of finding out what would happen to the main lead. It just lack the closure of 1 main issue and of course the prison part, otherwise it would have been a more satisfying crime thriller movie for me. So if you are looking for a movie with such genre, this might be an option, as long as you do not expect it to be a very great crime thriller movie up to the level of Infernal Affairs (or its Hollywood remake The Departed) then you should be fine. But if your preference was a more action movie, this certainly did not fit the category. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
PS: This movie was based on a Swedish novel titled Three Seconds written by Roslund/Hellström
No comments:
Post a Comment