Clever movie!

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2004)

I thought this was a really good movie, and the rating it was given was decent, if not a little modest.
Denzel Washington does really well in the emotional tough guy role, which is to be expected as it is the only kind of character he can play, or ever has played. The little girl is a little pretentious and over confident, which you could take as the character, but i was more inclined to take it as the personality of a spoiled little actress showing through.
The cinematography, the subtitles and the overall style of the movie was really clever and excellent; the rough colours, sketchy scenes and restless camera angles reflected the strange unreal-yet-real atmosphere created by the characters, all of whom have their own demons.
The great thing about this movie is that it does not designate any particular characters as bad guys or good guys, other than the innocent child. Everyone has some skeleton in their closet or another, while maintaining their loyalty for family or religion.
And if that wasn't enough, there is a scene in the movie in which Creasy kills a guy by detonating some C4 that he stuck up the guy's arse. (the actual placement of the explosives was emitted from the movie, and leaves you with the idea that obviously it is worth getting to know some fat bloke that well just so you can kill him in an amusing way). It reminds you of the days of sticking bungers inside mandarins, as well as one of those commercials where they say "here's one I prepared earlier."
An often intense, occasionally excessively violent movie, that questions the validity of conventional scruples in a world where everyone is "just a professional".