Great for a short while, but the end kills it

Rating: 5/10 (29 January 2005)

This movie begins quite well. Its director has spent a great deal of interview time discussing his attempts to make an intelligent action movie. I'll give him credit in that the movie begins as such. There are plenty of great comments for this film going into detail about these aspects.
However, with about half an hour left, the movie loses all intelligence. It goes from being an interesting movie to a brainless one, with the plot following the typical, predictable mindless rail of every similar movie from the 80s.
Suddenly the characters become invincible and survive what would kill or maim anyone else. Suddenly the moons align and impossible, implausible coincidences dominate the movie. Suddenly closing your eyes and firing blindly becomes the best way to fire a weapon.
Such a shame. The movie had a chance to be quite good, but it becomes by-the-numbers, and takes its audience for granted. The movie assumes that once you've committed 70 minutes to it you no longer have a brain. It tries to pull the wool over the eyes of its audience, insults their intelligence, and treats them like sheep.
Worth watching, but I wouldn't recommend finishing it unless you like to be treated as a child.