ViewGuide

Created Jun 16, 2009 07:04PM PST • Edited Feb 22, 2013 09:35PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   This surprisingly effective revenge thriller plays better than its formulaic trailer might suggest. The mix of A-List star, well written script and competent direction injects plenty of life into an implausible set-up and the resulting cat-and-mouse games.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Liam Neeson carries the movie, so much so that no other cast member is worth noting. Sure, he’s slumming a bit here, but it’s a reasonable rule that when an A-List star appears in a schlocky movie, the movie is probably worth seeing.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Very Good 3.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    The ridiculous set-up is more than redeemed by a cornucopia of pleasingly hard boiled dialog, plus a couple of tortuous interrogation scenes that would surprise even Jack Bauer. As revenge fantasies go, this is high praise.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.4

    Violent as hell.

17. Sex Titillating 2.0

18. Violence Brutal 2.6

19. Rudeness Profane 2.6

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    The movie asks us to accept that white slavery runs rife in modern day Paris. Sure, poor girls from poor countries are taken advantage of in this way, representing a serious stain on modern day civilization. But rich girls from LA? Bullshit.

    And when two rich American girls get plucked out of a luxury Parisian apartment, one of their fathers happens to be ex-CIA. How convennnnient……………

    Finally, in this age of overprotective parents, who lets their teenage daughters go halfway around the world unchaperoned?

22. Circumstantial Glib 2.0

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0