Lame, lame, lame!

Rating: 3/10 (15 April 2006)

Just saw this movie last night after recommendations from this site. Boy did I make a mistake there! I'm sorry but anyone who enjoyed this film has to be kidding.
This film is garbage. Predictable "twists", and flawed in so many ways regarding the plot, this movie offered nothing. It was about 2 hours long but after the opening 15 minutes I was bored.
There are no "heroes" in this film. Denzel Washington, playing the detective on the case conforms to your typical cocky and sexist New York officer. In one scene, we have the detective and his buddy leering at a woman's chest, due to it's ampleness when they are questioning her. That got a few giggles. That was the level of the humour.
The Indian guy who gets pulled in for questioning and protests about his turban being confiscated and being called an Arab by one police officer is just silly also. It just doesn't put people of Indian descent in a good light, and just re-enforces this stereotype that these people are different to us normal, rational people, and are a bit strange.
We have the "likable villain" (Clive Owen's character). How can someone who takes hostages be a likable person, although you're encouraged to think of him this way due to the underlining story. And without giving away the story, how was his decision at the end realistic, and the reaction to his decision by his cohorts for that matter? There's one scene when the detective learns of the horror of a new event and in his shock the director chooses to show a close up of him and make it look as though he is pulled to the scene without his conscious effort, or will. As though he was possessed or something. It was laughable.
This film in essence was predictable, boring and implausible. I didn't go into the cinema expecting a great film, just something that made me think, laugh, or make me go "wow". This film did neither of these things.