XIII 020910

The first female president is assassinated and the country is thrown into a frenzy as agencies run ragged trying to find the assassin. Several weeks later, an elderly couple find an injured man attached to a parachute, hanging from a tree. He awakens in their house with no memory. To make this abysmal situation worse, people are trying to kill him and he’s caught up in a slew of political intrigue.

I was wary of this movie initially because straight to video thrillers are very rarely good and Val Kilmer has made a painful number of bombs in recent years but I was pleasantly surprised to find this story very engaging and watchable. The plot sucks you in and the characters are well played and likeable (the ones you’re supposed to anyway). It bares strong resemblance to the Bourne Identity, even stronger resemblance to the book, but it still doesn’t tell the same story so it works.

The bad. It’s a political thriller that seems to have been written by someone with no understanding of politics. The politicians spout right-wing rhetoric while enacting left-wing policies. This may’ve been intentional to keep from picking on a specific side but it makes it difficult to grasp. A lot of things are unclear throughout the entire story as well. We know that the bad guys want to make a certain person president but we don’t know why. Because of that, we only want him to not be president because that’s what the bad guys want. This puts us in the position of not wanting the villain’s terrorist plots to succeed simply because of the loss of life and not because of the grand picture. That’s not bad but it does keep the story from sucking you in. Another annoyance factor was the film’s constant and, in the beginning, distracting attempts to be cool. It puts in quick, random cuts, flashy exposure changes, color effects, etc. None of these do anything to enhance the movie viewing experience. They’re just thrown in there because everyone else is doing it. There’s also this wooshing sound that is used in every fight scene to try and make the heroes actions seem cooler than they actually are.

All in all, a good late-night, popcorn movie. You’ll have fun watching it but you won’t want to see it again. And be sure to turn your brain off for maximum enjoyment. C -.