Chris Hennemeyer

Intriguing dialogue, several great actors playing great characters, gun play, and cannibalism. What more do you want?

I couldn't make it through to the end, despite many attempts. Russel Crowe did his best, but I honestly didn't care at all about the lead character, played by the dullard ‎Liam Hemsworth, sleepwalking his way through the movie. Likewise, the bad guys were cartoonish in the extreme, more like video game villains than human beings. The whole thing felt lazy and perfunctory, as if the cast and crew just wanted to get it over with and go home. Not horrible, but not worth five bucks and two hours.

I gave up after ten minutes. While I like Aaron Eckhart and think he's well cast, the achingly stupid dialogue and the insipid female agent was more than I could take. This felt more like a high school project that a Hollywood production.

Utter drivel. Painfully dumb, pointless, plotless, and poorly acted. Gyllenhaal must have some back taxes to pay. And the fact that some folks gave this anything more than two stars makes me worry tremendously about my fellow Americans. Maybe they're all former MMA fighters who've been punched in the noggin far too often?

When the caring older brother figures that the only way he can get his bright little sister school books for her special program is to rip off a drug gang, I knew we were in a deep swamp of stupidity. He couldn't speak to the school principal and work out a reimbursement plan? He needed to steal tens of thousands of bucks to buy a few books? He couldn't get a job at McDonalds?

Pretty typical Hollywood rah-rah military hero stuff, shallow, unimaginative, and well below Guy Ritchie's normal standards. The trope is that an US Army dude -- who walks like an American, wears a big G-Shock, and even speaks English out loud -- can sneak into rural Afghanistan post-Taliban with no one noticing. The best part of the movie is the acting by Dar Salim, who quietly underplays the role and does a great job, especially compared to Jake G who show zero subtlety and conveys a character with zero appeal.

I watched this great classic once again after many years and was as intrigued and moved as the very first time. It speaks to all of life's great themes -- love, power, loyalty, death, and the gods. But especially of "strength and honor".

The writing is 'spit out your drink' bad, the plot moronic comic book fare, and the characters have the depth of a mud puddle. But turn off your brain and you'll find the shoot-em-up action is good fun. Of course this being 2021, there has to be a bit of pointless gender power politics with the female lead who was never a character in the novels. Indeed, aside from the title this clunker has nothing in common with the books.

Laughably bad. The plot is absurd, the acting wooden, the dialogue sophomoric and the action unconvincing. Neeson looks like he's mildly embarrassed to be involved in this drivel, but needs to pay the mortgage...or buy a Lambo.