Following the collapse of the democratic government in Nigeria, Lieutenant A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis), a Special Ops commander, and his team, are sent in to rescue American doctor Dr. Lena Fiore Kendricks (Monica Bellucci). When they arrive, the good doctor refuses to leave unless Waters escorts the locals to a safe border. Waters, seeing the violence of the region, relents. On their way they are chased through the jungle by rebels who are intent on killing one of Water's wards, the single remaining descendant of a royal family.

Sounds like an interesting premise. Interesting premises don't guaranty interesting movies.

The premise calls for a taut, sharp script. The movement of the Special Ops team through the jungles with the refugees should have been a tightly shot, very tense experience. The film fails, and fails spectacularly because the storytellers consistently get in the way of their story. Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and screenwriters Alex Lasker (Beyond Ragoon) and Patrick Cirillo have quick moments of tension but undercut them by shoehorning in obtuse moments of political/social navel gazing and heavy-handed plays on the audience's emotions. Following a scene of tension or action it is traditional for a director/writer to have things settle down. This brings the tension down until the next event. This is good pacing. This film follows this tradition, but the down times are filled with characters delivering some horribly written dialog and stuffy platitudes that are so out of context to their situation it is laughable. Mix this with a director so unsure about his storytelling abilities that he has to be explicit in every aspect under his control. One example from this film is the showing of a woman with her breasts sliced off to represent the cruelty of the rebels. The point that the rebels are ruthless could have been made a thousand different ways. Fuqua felt that his potential audience was so dim that they wouldn't be able to dissect a more subtle approach. This isn't just gratuitous, it's flat bad filmaking.


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Labels: Bruce Willis, film, Monica Bellucci, movie review