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3/10

Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Douglas, Toni Collette, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich, Akshay Kumar

Director: Michael Apted

It's hard to follow more than a sliver of this terrorist/espionage thriller but, with a script this bad, harder still to make the effort.

Nothing about the film convinces, and certainly not the performances, especially that of Bloom, although's he's only the worst of a field in which several notable names come a cropper.

All we can for sure about the plot is that the diminutive Rapace is the heroine, a CIA agent called back to active duty when a germ warfare attack is organised by Afghan extremists and renegade American agents: a likely story.

Rapace does handle the action scenes well, but whom can her character trust? Her ex-bosses (at least I think that's what they are) Collette and Douglas seem to be pleased she's working for them again, although the grinning-idiot CIA chief (Malkovich) back home is more ambivalent.

Then there's the burglar (Bloom) she finds in her flat; he, too, seems to be on her side. As for the Moroccan restaurateur, well...

The action is hard-hitting, but it's all this disappointing film has.

David Quinlan

USA/Czech Republic 2016. UK Distributor: LionsGate. Colour by Panalux.
98 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 01 May 2017