C'mon Steven

Rating: 1/10 (7 January 2006)

This movie is a lot like biting into a half baked loaf of bread. The crust is tasty but once you get past that you've got an under baked loaf... or movie in this case. Problems abound in this sprawling and ultimately lackluster narrative. Once you get over the fact that they are assassins with really cool bomb the first half of the movie just falls flat on it's face. the second halves paranoid attack tries to gracefully recover from past missteps but does not seem to ever do so. All we get is a really wet Eric Bana making love to the the memory of the Munich massacre. I would replace love with a more offensive word and say that is exactly what Steven Spielberg did too.
If there was any theme to this movie at all it would have to be ambiguity. Yes, yes I know what you are thinking, is that possible? Amidst some hackneyed musing about home and country, film loses any sense of what it's really about. Unless that is the point. but I really don't think it is Steven.
Okay if you have a multi-million dollar budget, you expect that the filmmaker would take some care to make sure everything was in order. At time I had to stop and ask myself whether this was really a period piece or not because some much the movie feels anachronistic. Of course it is hard to replicate a time period but for heaven's sakes your Steven Spielberg if anyone was able to it would be you. Though it's only a minor problem it serves to highlight a larger one.
This movie was rushed. In my opinion what we have here is the equivalent of Picasso scribbling on a napkin. Sure it looks good and feels somewhat promising but that's only because it's a genius at work. One working with the tricks and spells his perfected for captivating audiences but putting nothing new on the table. Spielberg seems to have rattled this one off quite quickly especially given that he just released another movie this summer. in many ways I'm more disappointed for the movie this could have been if a great deal more care had been taken.
Eric Bana doesn't seem to be able to hold an entire movie to himself either especially one this long. See evidence of this in the Hulk and so forth. He may be able to work quite well given that the character material is rich I.E. Chopper but in this movie all we have is a cute accent.
All in all Narrative trouble, rushed direction and solid but not phenomenal acting don't leave us much to turn to. I'm still a fan but I hope the next thing that Steven Spielberg pulls out of the oven is a totally baked loaf of bread.