Poor at every level

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2006)

Viwed as a moralistic sermon, this may well work for some people. On a different level and for those like me unwilling or unable to take sides in the Israeli/Palestinian question it also fails abysmally as a credible thriller. The set-pieces were confusing with nothing to tell us where in the world they were located (although I did recognise a London Transport bus) and some of them simply insulted our intelligence.
To name a few: One of the fleeing Israeli athletes returns to the dorm, picks up a handy kitchen knife and sticks it - not in a terrorist's gut - but, with no discernible effort, in his forehead, pinning him to the wall. Spielberg should have done his research and worked out that it would take Superman to pull this one off.
The Mossad hit team hole up for the night with a band of Palestinians in total ignorance of each other's nationalities or motives. Yeah, right. Good job the Jewish guys kept their pants on!
The Dutch hitwoman: Why didn't she hang around and take out Eric Bana, her original target, too? She might have got paid double and been able to move out her little houseboat.
More laughably, when they go after her they take zip guns designed to look like bicycle pumps. What was wrong with a good, old-fashioned Beretta? What is more, against a person touted as a renowned freelance killer, they don't even bother loading their bicycle pumps until they corner her in the bedroom.
One last thing: I admire most of SS's work but am I alone in thinking that he has never got round to working out how to end a movie without overdosing us on the corn?
Think about it: Saving Private Ryan (the sheer cliché of that salute to the grave; Schindler's List (ditto for the stones on the grave); Munich (total anti-climax, so to speak); Artificial Intelligence, Close Encounters, ET, need I say more?