Ramy Malik stars in a new cinematic version of Robert Liddel's novel. Filmed before in 1982, where it starred John Savage, the film has Malik as a CIA analyst who is rocked to his core when his girlfriend is murdered in terrorist attack. Despite being a milquetoast, he wants to take revenge himself. His bosses don’t want him to, but he pushes and is trained and sent into the field. Unfortunately for everyone nothing goes as planned and the mechanizations of the gamemasters go horribly wrong.
Big budgeted and very slick, this version of the story isn’t bad, but its so hip and happening and slick that you really can’t connect. It doesn’t help that Malik, while a very good actor, is not really right for the role. He is much too buttoned up and up tight. The result is that we don’t get much range in his role as he moves from uptight guy into a James Bond-ish sort of role. It doesn’t help that he did play a Bond villain so we know he can kick ass since he took on the best spy in the world.
The other problem is that what was a relatively simply conspiracy in the original and source is made into something much larger. Bigger isn’t better and the result it feels fake.
Is the film bad? No. I watched the film twice…. I had the film on as background the second time, so it can’t be that bad. Worth a look on a slow night on the couch. Though if given the option give the John Savage film a shot since you’ll feel for the main character more.
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