Christopher Fleming

It gets 3 stars because Thomas Jane is absolutely fantastic, just as he is in everything I've ever seen. Sadly, appart from his stellar performance there really isn't much to like in this film. The opening is nice, and makes you look forward to a good ol' western, but it transitions straight away to a detective/police flick in London. Apparently MI6 is so understaffed that they have to recruit a Texas ranger to help them find a terrorist who's planning to blow up the House of Parliament. John Malkovich plays the most idiotic role of his career (and that's saying a lot!), as a British counter terrorism boss with an unidentifiable, non British accent, who sounds as if he just suffered a stroke. The plot gets dumber and dumber, with multiple run ins, leaving piles of anonymous henchmen dead, but each time allowing the main villains to escape. Somehow the baddies manage to bring a huge piece of artillery they bought in Ukraine into an abandoned building opposite Big Ben. Very believable! Then, when all the police know exactly where they are, instead of just blowing them all to hell, they allow the Ranger and his sidekick female officer to walk into the building and fight the bad guys. Why???!! The main villain somehow just walks away and escapes, thanks to a couple of smoke grenades (no police security perimeter?), leaving the ranger to track him down in an anticlimactic scene that brings us full circle, back to the Mexican desert. The ending was a total disappointment, such a waste of a great character. In general the plot made no sense, most of the characters were miscast, with the exception of Jane and the main Irish villain, who did a good job with what he had. The gym bro Russian mobster, Declan's second in command, was quite ridiculous, and completely out of place in this film. It also seemed that it didn't matter how hard he hit the Ranger, because he never seemed to do him any real harm; perhaps his muscles were just for show. The female British officer was a one-dimensional character who bored me to tears, and the Mexican police chief was a caricature of himself. Looking back on my own review, maybe I should give the film only 2 stars, because the overall cinematic quality is poor. Oh, who cares?! Thomas Jane is a baddass. I'll give it 3.

One of my favourite films of all time. It has a star-studded cast who all act brilliantly. The script is sometimes sparse, as there is not a lot of talking. It is a dark, moving tale of violence, loss, death and redemption. The cinematography is superb, as good as westerns get. The story slowly winds its way towards a terrible climax, which is softened by the emotional ending (no spoilers).

The A-list cast is mostly wasted in this overly self-conscious film. The script is DREADFUL. I was constantly longing for something to happen, but instead we got long dialogues about the meaning of life. The film feels like the few action scenes are merely fillers for the "deep" dialogues, and everything is too slow and boring. Appart from the counselor regretting his decision to deal with the Mafia, what was the point of the film? I was unable to feel invested in the characters, because none of them speak like real in people, and they all seem fake. I will give it 2 stars, because some of the action was good. Overall, a disappointment.

The story is predicatble, the characters are one dimensional, the dialogue is terrible, the special effects are so bad I laughed out loud. Watch some paint dry. It will be more entertaining.