A SEAL team led by Jake Harris (Scott Adkins!) is charged with escorting a CIA analyst (Ashley Greene) to retrieve Amin Mansur (Waleed Elgadi), a high-value prisoner who apparently holds information that might help avert another 9/11. They get held up by some bureaucratic back and forth, and just as they manage to take custody of the prisoner, a (literal!) truckload of mercenaries arrive, blow up the SEAL's extraction helicopter and start shooting up the place. Of course they've come after Mansur, too.
The SEAL team and their wards hole up in one of the buildings while the mercenaries kill off most of the troops outside and free and arm the other prisoners. As the defenders run out of ammo, Harris makes an excursion out to fix communications. There's some infighting, as you'd expect, and an interesting tangent where Mansur insists that he's innocent - a victim of the war on terror - which adds a little unpredictability to the proceeds, but in the end it's not really important except to make him into an unexpectedly sympathetic figure. It's one of those movies where anyone can go at any minute, and things get remarkably bleak.
The constant long takes mean that it sacrifices complexity to gain immediacy - the action consists of mostly pretty straightforward shooting and cat-and-mouse games, always moving relentlessly forwards. It gets a little exhausting, and seems to run out of steam as it carries on; Personally, I'd rather have a more traditional film where the choreographers don't need to worry about a botched move ruining a seven minute take - that way they could plan more elaborate action, but this works just fine.
Compounding the issues with the action sort of running together, the military compound doesn't make for a very engaging backdrop - it's barely a step up above abandoned warehouse - but I guess it's pretty low-budget-friendly.
The script (by Jamie Russell) is very simple; Dialogue's a bit hoary, but it fits its subjects. The fact that they're in a black site is treated very matter-of-factly; everyone is aware of it, knows what happens in them, deals. There's no overt ideology espoused here, and that's probably the best tack as it's really not what the movie is about. The film doesn't shy away from showing human rights violations, however, and the CIA analyst takes a dim view on the viability of torture (and is later proven right). So a little ideology seeps through.
A couple of villains are provided (played by Jess Liaudin and Lee Charles), and the action does follow them for a while, but other than show that they're only in it of the money and use 'the cause' for profit, they're not very strong characters. Suitably badass and menacing, but not really memorable.
Technically, it's a very accomplished film. Nothing as elaborate as, say, 1917, but then again, even though the budget here is the tiniest fraction of that, the takes seem to be a bit more seamless, and I only noticed a couple of the hidden cuts. Much respect for editor Liviu Jipescu. Despite the 'one shot' gimmick, director James Nunn counterintuitively plays down the technical aspects- it certainly doesn't really have any moments when it shows off. They could do it, just a little; they earned it.
The low budget is noticeable and, as mentioned before, the action gets a bit samey, but its momentum is strong, and it's such an uphill battle that it remains engrossing until the end.
The low budget is noticeable and, as mentioned before, the action gets a bit samey, but its momentum is strong, and it's such an uphill battle that it remains engrossing until the end.
Adkins doesn't really get a chance to show off his martial arts - it's not that type of movie, anyways - but he's very believable as a gruff, hyper-competent SEAL (says a guy with no experience in anything even remotely military), and his physicality and precise movements lend what brawls there are, and even all the running and gunning and cover-taking, a welcome edge. He's great, even if his main strengths go untapped.
The rest of the acting is all over the place - Ryan Phillippe was especially unconvincing as a hard-ass superior officer - Or maybe miscast, I have a lot of trouble seeing him as a hard-ass anything.
Music comes courtesy of prolific videogame composer Austin Wintory. It's non-diegetic and also not his best work. The cinematography (by Jonathan Iles) is exactly what you'd expect: all muted colours, and the whole one-shot gimmick prevents it from doing much of interest. Some of the explosions are pretty dodgy CGI, but nothing immersion breaking.
It's all right. A fun B-movie, and its style is both well-executed and provides the film with a distinctive hook it'd otherwise lack. I might not remember anything about it in a couple of years, but I enjoyed watching it.
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