When Sir Ben Kingsley furrows his brow, his whole head furrows. And he is quite furrowing in this movie. I took a glance at the Wikipedia article on this movie to see where it was filmed, and it's pretty clear that the Wikipedia article was written by someone who worked on the movie, someone promoting the movie, or someone who only had access to press materials released with the movie. It was, incidentally, filmed in Sri Lanka.
Ben is a magnificent actor. That is the high point of this movie.
The other actors are a horrific blend of overacting, underacting, and mild apathy about their roles. From the police chief who is - at best - wooden in his performance to the minister's aid who can't be bothered, there isn't another good actor in the bunch. Even the action scenes appear to have been done with guys who happened to be hanging out at the back of the film lot at the time.
The camerawork is another dull spot. Sometimes the camera is solid, giving the impression that money was spent on hardware, but then the operator tries to do something. I can't say that the cameras detract from the acting, because the acting is its own worst enemy. The cameras only distract from what is some lovely scenery - and really, the shots of the shoreline and ocean help this movie out. Unfortunately, it works about as well as the pretty shots of Miami improve CSI: Miami.
The story is a reworked crapfest of a guy who terrorizes the police with threats of blowing up parts of the city. The police - strangely - do very little to actually combat this problem, and instead concentrate on acquiescing to his demands as quickly as possible. Each member of the force, we can only assume, has an internal conflict going on about this decision, but their acting talents will not allow for any of that to come out.
Spoiler Alert:
He is actually trying to kill a bunch of terrorists who have been captured, tried, convicted, and are serving out sentences. This only adds to the conflict that is internalized with all of the others. At least, we can assume that. Best of all, someone actually has to point out - out loud - that there is some hypocrisy in his using terrorism to combat terrorists.
So, the acting, as I've stated, is hideously, terribly inadequate for a film of any magnitude.
The cinematography is bested by many Youtube clips.
The storyline is not particularly realistic.
Did I mention how bad the acting is?
The dialogue appears to have been lifted from the 1930s.
The audio (not normally something I comment on) is awful. It's like everyone dubbed their own voices.
The editing has been done with a hatchet.
The directing - they may as well have had Uwe Boll
The music is straight Bollywood, and it's not particularly helpful.
The props were cheap and crappy.
The sets were not believable as real locations.
I was not a fan.
0.0/5