Unknown number of rip-offs

Rating: Null/10 (15 August 2011)

An American couple arrive at Berlin for a summit on biochemistry; there is peculiar atmosphere, a suitcase left behind. Is it going to unfold a Frantic-type (the Polanski film) fish-out-of-water scenario about the increasingly bewildered American losing himself in a strange place? Is it going to be some cheap Face/Off clone except without the actual face change? Is it going to rip off The Game, some other film about the hero a hapless pawn in shady conspiracies?
It gets worse as you keep watching. More exasperatingly implausible, downright stupid. Bruno Ganz shows up and, of course, he rattles off about the shame of Nazi heritage to a stranger he met just two minutes ago. He is completely wasted, as is Frank Langella. Liam Neeson - who, for some reason, I keep thinking as the Randolph Scott of our times, with the benign face and rugged demeanor - mostly coasts through this. With Taken, he at least seemed to be mildly interested in the role of the avenging father.
So, it's basically bottom-of-the-barrel patchwork stuff with some sheen of professionalism (read safe, pedestrian, unimaginative), a slot-filler for the multiplex while catchier stuff awaits release. It's a b-movie with a cast of recognizable faces to save it from the straight-to-video bin. Avoid.