While looking at the list of movies playing in one of Indonesia's cinema website, I noticed a new movie that was released yesterday. I saw its posters few times in their theaters earlier but did not really look into it. As there was no other movie and I wanted to give this a try, I decided to see it last night. My wife did not accompany for this with doubt over its quality. Anyway, I'll get to the movie now.
Brief Story Line
A police officer named Frank Penny (Aaron Eckhart - Midway, London Has Fallen etc) was having his normal day when he encountered a suspect kidnapper and tried to capture the criminal, which unfortunately did not end well. Pending investigation, Frank was told by police chief Volk (Giancarlo Esposito - Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Breaking Bad TV series etc) to let go of the case.
However, Frank who felt responsible tried his own way to save the kidnapped person. With an amateur reporter Ava Brooks (Courtney Eaton - Gods of Egypt etc) following him around, Frank had no choice but to race against time and tried to find the culprit (Ben McKenzie - Gotham TV series, The O.C TV series etc). So how would the film conclude? Find them all in this quite suspenseful action thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
However, Frank who felt responsible tried his own way to save the kidnapped person. With an amateur reporter Ava Brooks (Courtney Eaton - Gods of Egypt etc) following him around, Frank had no choice but to race against time and tried to find the culprit (Ben McKenzie - Gotham TV series, The O.C TV series etc). So how would the film conclude? Find them all in this quite suspenseful action thriller movie.
This movie was actually quite surprising for me. At first I thought this would be just a standard police facing criminals story. But it turned out to be a lot more interesting, particularly with the race against the clock premise. The best part about this kind of plot was when the movie maker used real time mode during the movie. It's the kind of recipe that made the TV series 24 (Kiefer Sutherland as the legendary Jack Bauer) became such a huge hit. In this film, when the countdown began and whenever we were told about how much time left, it was perfect to the minute (obviously I did not count to the seconds). And that sense of reality was what made this movie felt suspenseful.
Now aside from that real-time part that amazed me, I thought the action sequence was pretty good. The fight scenes were quite natural and the chasing on foot scenes were quite well done, with the sound of breathing heard clearly as if we were running with them. Sound effects coordinator did a great job on this part. Oh, there were also few jokes referencing to certain 80s series which probably could only be appreciated by fans of the series such as myself.
Aaron Eckhart seemed to be in his prime physique and I thought Ben McKenzie (whom at first I could not recognize due to his different looks from Gotham times) was the perfect bad guy in here. Another surprise interesting cast was Courtney Eaton who seemed to be a natural playing this amateur reporter. However, the rest of them were sadly impressionless, including Giancarlo Esposito and Dina Meyer (Saw movies, Starship Troopers etc) who played a really minor role. Even Ava's best friend Clover (Jessica Lu - Awkward TV series) had a much larger screen time and a more important character.
Unfortunately though, there were also few flaws that I was really displeased and found them to be bothersome, like the fact the police officers in here were mostly very lousy. It was like all the poor quality of police were shown to us in here. And to be honest I think it was a bit imbalance, especially with Officer Frank Penny seemed to be the only good cop. There was also a bit of overly melodramatic moment towards the end, which was supposed to bring emotions to audience but I personally thought it was too much, not to mention it became a bit illogical.
As for the story itself, the idea was interesting. The mystery element was quite intriguing and there were few surprises for us audience. The special effects were a bit poor during the finale fight scene but the rest of them, especially on the streets were pretty well done. Overall I did enjoy the movie despite few of its flaws. The suspense felt real due to the real-time element and in the end I was quite entertained. It's probably a pity that my wife did not accompany me as I thought she would have liked this one. So if you are interested in seeing this kind of suspenseful action movie with some mystery plus real-time mode, then you should be entertained by this.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Now aside from that real-time part that amazed me, I thought the action sequence was pretty good. The fight scenes were quite natural and the chasing on foot scenes were quite well done, with the sound of breathing heard clearly as if we were running with them. Sound effects coordinator did a great job on this part. Oh, there were also few jokes referencing to certain 80s series which probably could only be appreciated by fans of the series such as myself.
Aaron Eckhart seemed to be in his prime physique and I thought Ben McKenzie (whom at first I could not recognize due to his different looks from Gotham times) was the perfect bad guy in here. Another surprise interesting cast was Courtney Eaton who seemed to be a natural playing this amateur reporter. However, the rest of them were sadly impressionless, including Giancarlo Esposito and Dina Meyer (Saw movies, Starship Troopers etc) who played a really minor role. Even Ava's best friend Clover (Jessica Lu - Awkward TV series) had a much larger screen time and a more important character.
As for the story itself, the idea was interesting. The mystery element was quite intriguing and there were few surprises for us audience. The special effects were a bit poor during the finale fight scene but the rest of them, especially on the streets were pretty well done. Overall I did enjoy the movie despite few of its flaws. The suspense felt real due to the real-time element and in the end I was quite entertained. It's probably a pity that my wife did not accompany me as I thought she would have liked this one. So if you are interested in seeing this kind of suspenseful action movie with some mystery plus real-time mode, then you should be entertained by this.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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