a5c7b9f00b Bruce Willis is an outcast FBI agent who protects a 9 year old autistic boy who is the target for assassins after cracking a top secret government code. Shadowy elements in the NSA target a nine-year old autistic savant for death when he is able to decipher a top secret code. I was surprised to see the terrible reviews it got from some &quot;important&quot; reviewers. I&#39;m watching it for at least the 4th time, just recorded it from satellite TV. Bruce Willis is really fine in this…I think few people appreciated how complex and skilled he is before this release, and I&#39;m very glad they chose him for this role. Baldwin and the entire cast is very good and despite the not uncommon plot elements, the whole thing succeeds.<br/><br/>Since the &quot;Patriot Act&quot; went into effect, I can give the actions of the government in this film a lot more credence…I rate itan 8 out of 10, and I have seen extremely few 10&#39;s.<br/><br/>mark FBI agent Art Jeffries is washed out after confronting his superiors after an undercover job goes bad. Simon Lynch is an autistic child who loves puzzles. When he cracks a code that the Government put into a magazine to test it&#39;s strength he begins a target and his parents are murdered by someone from the NSA. Jeffries is assigned to the case when the boy goes missing and easily finds him. However Jeffries soon realises that this is not a simple case and that both he and the boy are in great dangerNSA Colonel Kudrow tries to protect his code.<br/><br/>Despite having a career boost in the mid nineties with 1995, Bruce Willis proved that he could still do pretty lame and mindless films by signing on to do this. In fairness it isn&#39;t that the film is really bad, it&#39;s more that it is condescending to it&#39;s audience. The actual plot is interesting Enemy of The State was good using the same sort of `all powerful Government conspiracy&#39;. However this film feels so lazy in every approach that it spoils a potentially good set up by not playing to it&#39;s strengths and thus exposing it&#39;s weaknesses.<br/><br/>It&#39;s weaknesses are of course the fact that the plot, lets be honest, is daft from square one. Add to this plot twists that are unexplained and daft and you&#39;re on the road to nowhere. The film introduces a love interest in a lazy way it doesn&#39;t really bring in her well and you&#39;re never quite sure who she is or what she&#39;s doing but suddenly they&#39;re kissing each other hello and goodbye etc. The film ahs some good thriller scenes but mostly these don&#39;t feel part of the film,the majority of it is slow and talky.<br/><br/>This made me feel like I wasn&#39;t worth the effort that the producers felt that I didn&#39;t need to have a logic behind the story to enjoy it and that simply saying `look, she&#39;s a love interest OK?&#39; for example would do the trick. It doesn&#39;t. On top of this the script falls into lazy cliché the hitman `died twenty years ago officially&#39;, Jeffries is `washed out&#39; and on pills, even the black sidekick comes into play.<br/><br/>Willis looks like he is on autopilot and Willis on autopilot is not a good thing. He mumbles his way through it and doesn&#39;t really convince aside from when being an action hero. Hughes is really good if a little annoying. His role didn&#39;t help me understand autism at all (in fact it was a bit gimmicky) but he did wellan actor. The only downside is that horrible, pitying score that plays when he is onscreen all sad and `awh, bless&#39;. Baldwin reminded me of his role in Glengary Glen Ross here talking with authority and down to his staff, but he is nowhere neargood. He isn&#39;tall powerful or menacing as, say, John Voight in `Enemy of the state&#39; simply because Alex only seems to have a few staff and none of them can catch a child. Ginter is menacing but not given enough time, Dickens is simply thrown into the film without thought and Peter Stormare makes a fleeting appearance.<br/><br/>Overall this is passable but I couldn&#39;t shake the feeling that I,an audience member, deserved more. Why shouldn&#39;t the story hang together? Why shouldn&#39;t the script work harder and not just be lazy? Why shouldn&#39;t the film be exciting and the actors be acting full tilt? This is a dumb thriller acting like a grown up thriller at every point it feels like it just couldn&#39;t be bothered to put in that little bit of extra effort. Hugely expensive, weakly formulaic.
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321 weeks ago