Shine A Light

Rating: 4/10 (9 December 2012)

We've all seen how this movie was marketed . An ensemble action cast making up the widest poster you've seen plastered on a bus " Stallone , Statham , Li , Lundgren , Willis , Rourke and Schwarzenegger all in one film together " One couldn't help wondering if there was enough celluloid to accommodate so many action stars, especially in a movie of 103 minutes or 113 minutes if you see the extended directors cut . It seems if you're going to throw everything including the kitchen sink in to a casting call you're to come up with a few problems
The casting isn't really a problem because despite the never ending ensemble cast a few of the names are confined to cameos . Rourke isn't involved in the action and Bruce and Arnie just appear in one scene . You can understand people going to the cinema to hear " Yipee eye ee bad guys " or " I'll be back " and coming out very disappointed but that's possibly preferable to trying to shoehorn too many characters in to an overblown film along the lines of a action adventure equivalent of THE LONGEST DAY or A BRIDGE TOO FAR . As it stands it's down to Sly and Statham to carry most of the action
As for the rest of the film it does have a cheap straight to DVD/cable feel to it and having Eric Roberts as the bad guy adds to this . Where the film does fall down big time is the cinematography - it really is terrible and ruins the final third which features what might have been an impressive , if OTT battle sequence , is totally undermined by the fact that it's very difficult to see who is who and who is killing who . One would have thought with a film with a budget to attract so many well known names the budget could have been extended to a cinematographer with the knowledge as to how to light a scene