Not bad, but not as clever as it thinks it is.

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2007)

I pretty much went into this film with little by way of expectations  the reviews I remembered suggested that it wasn't all that good. However, I was pleasantly surprised by what I got. Sure, the all star cast were maybe on cruise control (although Hartnett and (particularly) Liu were moderately sparkling) and maybe the 'twist' was blatantly telegraphed ahead, and maybe there was nothing new, and maybe the attempt to justify one of the murders is a little shaky (as the protagonist could not have known what we learn  it was a murder of expedience. Watch out for it), and maybe it wasn't half as clever as it thought it was, but sometimes a movie can just be a movie without pretensions to being art, and can be no less enjoyable for that. This is a decent little film which may not be anyone's favourite film of all time but at least it isn't Speed 2. And that, of course, is a very good thing.