The Gun Jams. Repeatedly.

Rating: 6/10 (25 May 2011)

Okay I read the review that's been 'rated most useful' on here and actually rented the film based on it. Well blast you reviewer, damn you. You misled me.
The reviewer professed that this was 'no typical Hollywood film', and that not everyone would 'get it'. He was totally right - I didn't get it. But I don't think I'm missing anything, I think the movie is. It is essentially contrived. The characters are unimaginative, as are the moral conundrums they face. Cage's wife is a stock character, there only to highlight Cage's spiral down into decadence.
Besides feeling decidedly forced, the movie is frequently at odds with itself in tone and style. At first it seems to be a light action-centric biopic with the occasional sombre note. The humour is always teetering on the edge of being funny, but never quite comes to fruition. You couldn't pick the action scenes out from a crowd - they're all as generic and boring as hell. And the ending to the film - well boy I won't 'ruin' it, but Cage breaks down the fourth wall and attempts some sort of lame profundity with a statistic we all knew anyway. The makers of this film obviously thought they'd induce some sort of revelation in the viewers - the pomposity and self-righteousness of this assumption really shows on screen.
Don't get me wrong - I don't mind the message of the film, but its stunted, inarticulate, out of the blue delivery at the climax of the story really doesn't work. Most of all this film failed in entertaining me - the characters were boring and the narrative predictable. The film is too light to be affecting; too dark to be funny; and far, far too predictable to be engaging. Predictable story, predictable character arcs. The only unpredictable element of the whole experience is the tone, that blundering beast that bumbles all over the place for the whole film, before finally flopping over dead.
Might I add - the cinematography is not all that great. At points it is really nice, but often shots feel artificial.
6/10 - The gun doesn't just jam. It Backfires. There are better films on which to spend your time.