Thrilling

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2018)

I must have missed this film when it came out, and in a way it's a bit of a shame because it is actually a pretty cool film. Come to think of it, it did remind me a lot of the television series Chuck, but only in the sense that the protagonist happened to be this Black Ops specialist who was working in a Bunnings style hardware store. Well, not quite Black Ops because he has retired, but in many ways he still seems to be set in his ways.
Anyway, he has this habit of going to an all night diner around 1:00 am to have a cup of tea (and he even brings his own teabag, they just supply the water). So, he strikes up this conversation with this girl over time, and it soon turns out that she has landed up in a bit of trouble. She happens to be a prostitute, but not one that is doing it willingly, and her pimps are basically treating her as a disobedient possession. As such he decides to go and teach them a lesson. Well, he is polite at first, but these type of people tend to be so cock-sure that he eventually shows them who they are actually messing with.
Well, one doesn't simply walk into a restaurant owned by the Russian Mob and pretty much take everybody out without drawing some attention to yourself, and this is basically what happens. A highly trained special forces operative, who happens to be the guy that cleans up messes for the mob boss, comes over to the United States to find out what is going on. Well, I guess you can probably see where this is going.
It isn't really one of those fast paced movies, at least at first, but that has more to do with the cat and mouse nature of the protagonists. Both are quite highly trained soldiers, though one of them doesn't like to let it on, while the other seems to want to show off his skill any change he gets. It seems to relate to the various types of power relations - soft power and hard power. One rules by the first, while the other simply rules through what he doesn't do. We obviously suspect who comes out on top in this particular movie, but then again the ending is generally pretty much set out right from the beginning.
I guess this film touches on a few things, but once again it seems that the Russians are being painted as the enemy. Even if it isn't a hangover from the Cold War, it does seem to create this stereotypical image of the brutal and hard Russian who lives by his own rules. Once again they seem to be taking upon the mantle of the bad guys, and even if they aren't KGB, they are Russian Mafia, but the difference is that they tend to be somewhat less refined. However, when compared to other mafia group, they do come across as the more brutal and nasty of them.
Yet it was still a pretty cool movie, and there were a couple of little subplots thrown in as well, which all tie up nicely in the end. However, one interesting thing is that they don't always show our protagonist acting, sometimes, such as when he went after the armed robber, there is only an implication of what actually happened. We know he found him, but we don't know what he actually did to him - we just know that he eventually got what he wanted. This was well done in a way.
It's a pretty cool movie, and certainly worth watching, though one of the main reasons I wanted to watch it was because I saw a preview for the sequel where he happens to be posing as an Uber driver.