Cool Action Flick

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2018)

I reckon I've seen this film a while ago and wasn't really all that impressed with it so I basically let the rest of the franchise slip through my fingers. Then again that is probably a good thing since there are so many franchises, and so many films, these days that keeping up with all of them is a chore in and of itself. Still, a part of me wanted to give it another shot, even though I'm not a big fan of spy thrillers, and in a way I am really glad that I did. I guess the last time I watched it I was a somewhat tired and wasn't able to get into it. In fact, I'm sure this film is also based on an older film that I also loved (or even a book, though I haven't read the book and am unlikely to do so).
Anyway, I suspect the plot of this film is quite well known. A man is fished out of the ocean (though how he managed to survive is beyond me - he should have been well and truly dead, especially if he is floating face down) and basically can't remember a thing. However there is something implanted in him which reveals a Swiss bank account number. To cut a long story short, it turns out that he is a skilled assassin, and is being hunted down by the CIA for some reason or another, though it turns out that he failed a mission and needs to be, well, killed. Not surprisingly he also picks up a female partner to travel with him on his adventures (ah, don't you just love Hollywood cliches).
Well, yeah, it is a spy thriller, and it really did end up keeping me drawn in right through to the end. Okay, it turns out that you pretty much know a lot more than what he does, which does drag the film down somewhat. In a way it is a shame in that regards because it would have been so much better if they had kept the whole CIA business hidden away behind the scenes so that everything was being revealed to us as it was being revealed to him. In a way it did subtract from a lot of suspense. Not surprisingly though he does get his memories back eventually, though it is rather dubious as to how they actually came about - there really wasn't any trigger for that to happen, and once again it might have been better for it not to have actually happened.
I'm not really all that sure if there is much more that I can say about this film though. It is sort of a straight out action thriller, and I suspect that the various sequels are going to be pretty much the same. Still, it was a pretty cool idea, though as I have mentioned it is hardly original (since I believe that it is based on a book). Of course, the period in which this film is set suggests that there was probably been some significant diversion from the original, since the good old evil empire that was the Soviet Union no longer exists, but then again this is also very much about a government agency that has gone completely out of control, though apparently it was quite like that at the height of the Cold War, with CIA operatives basically living it up in Europe. Not surprisingly this does translate over to similar films, particularly since most of the action takes place in Paris (though a part also takes place in Switzerland). So yeah, this was a pretty cool film, and I'll probably go and watch the sequels some time soon.