Worth a rental, but not much else

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2009)

First things first, I came into this movie with no expectations, it was simply a last minute recommendation from a friend.
Pros: Great production quality! The action scenes were well choreographed, car scenes weren't too laden with special fx, and the lighting of the film was really superb. To boot, the storyline was pretty convincing and the thematic content was quite serious. It was nice to see an emotional character written with a certain cold-blooded-ness that is usually glossed over for fear of alienating the audience. Oddly enough that brings me to my next point.
Cons: Gratuitous carnage. Probably about 10 cold-blooded murders with another 30-40 other 'slaughters'. I don't mind a bit of death, but this was over the top. It's foolish to assume that simply filming lots and lots of murder scenes will help a movie compete with other studio action films. Violence can be artfully and thoughtfully woven into a film, but that definitely did not occur here.
The ending was also a fairly big letdown, but at that point it felt like the film just wanted/needed to wrap up quickly - it was getting a bit tired.
All in all a fairly decent film, definitely a solid rental. It would have been eerily spectacular if it had been directed by David Cronenburg, a director who's understanding of violence and the more disturbing parts of the human psyche would have made this story pop!