Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Donal Logue, Beau Bridges, Chris O’Donnell, Olga Kurylenko, Kate Burton, Amaury Nolasco, Nelly Furtado, Jamie Hector
Directed By: John Moore
Written By: Beau Thorne
Based On The Videogame By: Sam Lake
Cinematography By: Jonathan Sela
Edited By: Dan Zimmerman
Now even though this film is made competently no bad production values no boom mikes in any shots this film is bad and worse then that it is insulting to the audience now while this film might be awesome to a 11 year old this film is just plain stupid to a thinking person. First of all the film is set in New York yet it looks nothing like New York more like Chicago for some reason there is always bad weather in most scenes either rain or snow that never seems to stick. Every building in this movie looks dirty dingy or rundown even the parties. There are plenty of well known actors in this who are here for nothing more then cameos or they make no sense why they would take such small roles obviously the producers wanted to give this film more credence then they knew it deserved.
The visuals while good in this film are distracting and are used so much that it is obvious they are here to show off while this film is based on a videogame there is no need for this film to have so much of a ridiculous fantasy feel. While there are plenty of action scenes to pad out the running time and to distract you from the ridiculous plot. It is still not enough to wash this film completely from my brain.
Mark Wahlberg is a man who knows when and when not to use his talent I believe he saves up all his creativity for roles like the departed and “I Heart Huckabees” and when it comes to movies like this “Rock Star” and “Invincible” he realizes the type of quality film he is in so he just takes the check and runs. While this film and performance would be noteworthy in the 80’s now it just seems like a really big ridiculous cliché the cop determined to find his wife’s murderer at all cost. The take no nonsense cop. Then you throw in Mila Kunis who looks all of 12 as a Russian asassian trying to find her sister’s killer she’s very non-threatening and seems like a kid trying to impress the adults at the table. Chris “Ludacris” Bridges wasn’t born to be a natural performer and embarasses himself often. Olga Kurylenko Is also in this playing her usual role she is beautiful but so far the only real respectable role she has had is in “Quantam Of Solace” here yet again she plays a scantily clad druggie temptress who barely wears any clothing but doesn’t show any nudity. Which would have at lest made these films she was in noteworthy she plays in these type of movies so much this could have been “Hitman 2” the films are so similar and bad they are close to interchangeable. Which makes sense since they are both based on videogames. This film also strangely has two chart topping musicians in roles one in a bit one supporting.
The plot of this film building a set of super soldiers that can become mutated thanks to a drug yes that is part of the plot it is that stupid. But the really bad part is that it treats this revalation and trying to find out the truth like this was the film “Chinatown” is what is really insulting
It tries so hard to ape Successful films like "300" and "Sin City" in terms of style that it fails miserably because those were made by skilled sirectors and based on graphic novels it seems rare that there is s sucesful film based on a videogame in terms of quailty.
GRADE: F
