no blockbuster here

Rating: 3/10 (14 February 2009)

One of the more popular reviews on this movie at IMDb (by uniiq) remarks: "As bullets curve, heads get punctured, hilarity ensues, and rats explode (peanut butter rocks, BTW), you'll smile besides yourself." I'm sorry, did I miss something? Heads getting punctured is supposed to be hilarious? I love violent action films, and I enjoy 'black comedy;' but a good action film knows when to take itself seriously, and a good 'black comedy' knows that violence is painful, even when the events around it are absurd. Yes you can mix the two genres - "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is a fine moment of this - but it requires a real delicacy.
Which this movie hasn't got. The first third is an amusing look at a nerd who suddenly finds himself in a comic book world of professional assassins; the second third is simply unpleasant, the nerd's occasionally sadistic initiation into that world. The third act is high concept - "James Bond in 'The Empire Strikes Back.'" And unfortunately the concept doesn't work. Towards the end, although we know exactly what's going on, the film has lost it's focus just as a film - that is, as a story cinematically told - and we end up not giving a dam'.
Finally, there's the acting - the nerd is a wimp, the supporting characters get hammy or wooden, and the actors who actually know what acting is don't have anything much to do here - including Angelina Jolie, who is almost completely wasted (anybody who thinks this movie is 'sexy' obviously hasn't reached puberty).
Not a total loss as a dumb action movie - but blockbuster? I think not.