While browsing through new movies in few platforms, I noticed this one that was released on HBO Go on Saturday which I never heard of. But after reading its very brief synopsis, I was immediately intrigued. So I decided to watch it in the morning before its premiere on HBO channel at 8 PM. OK, I'll go on with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively - A Simple Favor, The Age of Adaline etc) life was turned upside down when she lost her family in a plane crash three years earlier and became a drug addict & prostitute. However when she found out that the crash was not accidental, she decided to take revenge on the people responsible.
With the reluctant aid from a former MI6 agent Iain Boyd (Jude Law - Captain Marvel, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword etc), Stephanie trained herself to be ready and later resumed the identity of a contract killer. She also met a former CIA agent Marc Serra (Sterling K. Brown - The Angry Birds Movie 2, Hotel Artemis etc) who would become sort of her liason.
And what would happen to Stephanie? Find them all in this action thriller movie.
End of Brief Story Line
I always have a soft spot for movies that have revenge element. There was always a satisfying feeling when seeing the really bad guys who had ruined the life of the lead character got what they deserved. Perhaps this had been embedded in my mind since young age when I used to watch Chinese Kung Fu movies. That's why when there was a revenge movie/series, I would always give it a try.
Now this movie might not have the totally exact formula (the hero's life was ruined but indirectly due to the result of villains' action), however the rest was the same. The story telling in the early part was a bit too slow for my taste. It was not until almost half way that the movie became more interesting. The action sequence was pretty standard, but there was 1 scene that I thought was awesome relating to the car chase. What I did not really like was it felt a bit of anti climax in the end, especially with a good enough build up.
For a movie that had 1 hour 45 minutes, it felt a bit too long especially because of the slow first half. There was no mid or post end credit scene. It was a bit violent and there might be one disturbing scene. I saw in the movie database that the movie had an R rating, though I thought it was not truly full of violence like other films. However, there might be some really violent scenes that were cut, because the duration on HBO was only 1 hour 45 minutes, whereas according to few websites, it was supposed to be 109 minutes. It meant there could have been a potential 4 minutes that were censored.
The lead cast Blake Lively I thought was pretty good in playing this part. She was really convincing as a drug addict who transformed into a killer and still kept her humanity. Her physical appearance was also very good in here (especially in the early part where I could barely recognize her). Jude Law and Sterling K. Brown were OK. The rest of the cast had too little screen time to leave me with any impressions.
The movie was based on the novel of the same title written by Mark Burnell. I also saw Barbara Broccoli's name as the producer and when I read more details, one of the production company was Eon Productions which produced James Bond movies. It was such a shame though that the movie itself was not successful commercially and got mixed critical review, despite directed by Reed Moreno who had directed movies like Meadowland and few episodes of The Handmaid's Tales series (and even won Emmy Award for it).
Overall I thought this was a mediocre action thriller movie about revenge. The first half was not fast enough to keep me interested and the climax was not truly satisfying. There were some actions with one awesome car chase scene, but other than that, there was not much that I enjoyed. So if you wish to see some revenge movie, this one might tick the box, though you might not be truly satisfied by the ending.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
