Doesn't deliver the goods

Rating: 4/10 (22 October 2010)

On the face of things this movie seems to have everything going for it: with an action movie about a retired CIA agent being chased by his highly skilled pears, with Bruce Willis in the leading role, and a distinguished row of beloved actors by his side, the viewer may ask him or herself what can possibly go wrong? Surprisingly, the answer is: practically everything.
After a very promising beginning, the movie very quickly ran out of steam. The remainder hour and a half exhibited a rather dull story line and action scenes that wouldn't be innovating even in the 1970s. The direction of the action scenes seem to have no soul: they were void and unoriginal, with not mush thought brought into them. Just a bunch of people running around with guns doesn't quite cut it in today's standards. After so many action films being produced in the last three decades, the viewers thirst for something new. This movie just repeats old formulas and is not even good at that.
Other than in the beginning there was a rather well done action scene at an air port. Too bad it was highly unrepresentative to the rest of this movie. On any other respect, the movie seemed to deteriorate as it went on. The end-scene was as unreliable as it was anti-climatic. The villains were shallow: their motivations were unclear and unreliable, and there was nothing particularly interesting about them. To sum up in tow words: disappointing, unfulfilling.