Spartan

Actually very good watching. This action thriller maintained a good pace throughout. I agree it did seem quite similar to the film Taken, but hey, is anything really original anymore.

Poorly directed. Under-rehearsed. Badly edited. An otherwise good thriller trashed through cost-cutting in pre-production. The penalty for letting bean-counters override creatives. Disappointing

Val Kilmer is brilliant; he can make a terrible film and still i anticipate anything he is in. This slipped through my radar somehow and i wish it hadn't, because its brilliant, just like Val. And not only that, its got Johnny Messner in it (awesome underrated b-movie actor) and William H Macy, and directed by powerhouse David Mamet. The latter's influence showing heavily in the wonderful script, which sounds less like real dialogue (sometimes a negative) and more like stage-scripting, but if the actors still deliver in a certain tone (like reading shakespeare, for instance; no one ever actually speaks like that) then it adds a great deal of...prestige to a film. The plot jumps to and fro like no ones business, but at its heart its a simple story of espionage, corruption and betrayal, and a strange sense of loyalty thrown in for good measure. The cold emotionless tone of the acting is perfect for what it going on and the awesome, low-lying soundtrack is so wistful and thought-provoking you are never quite sure of what to expect. Its not just a good solid thriller, its a beautiful film as well, to look at and enjoy. Excellent, underrated stuff.

Fairly exciting abduction movie, complete with plenty of guns and killings, which seem to be par for the course in most films of this type these days. Val Kilmer in good form as the hard secret agent in a film which lays the corruption of American politics pretty much on the line.

This plot is almost a clone of the film Taken with Liam Neeson. Its a different style but the essiential plot is identical