Sean Bean as James Bond! YES!
Well, there's far more to it than that in this film. The overall choice of genre has to deal head-on with the pitfalls of a clichéd script, and I'm not sure this film succeeded in evading that.
I assumed this would be a second rate budget film, and I hate to admit it -it's probably because Sean is in this film. He's a good actor with a solid presence, and he's has played some fantastic roles and been in some great films and TV series (even recently such as Game of Thrones) but he always seems to have bad luck follow him, for some reason he never has made it to the hall of fame as a true Hollywood star and hero. But with the state of Hollywood films these days, that is hardly a thing to aspire to. Sean Bean in my book is a veritable new Rutger Hauer, or a poor man's Liam Neeson.
Mr Bean aside, -there is even a quick comic allusion to this during the film- the film debuts the work of Hadi Hajaig, who wrote, produced and directed the film. I assume that Hajaig has some Muslim background which gives him some angles in the script. The fact is that rather than just a film about Sean nutting people and breaking bad guys' arms (oh yes!)there is a very sharp poignancy in the film about Muslim British youth. This is in no small part thanks to another excellent casting choice- the unknown Abhin Galeya as the anti-hero/villain. A typical law student with an identity crisis that develops into some extreme moral tensions, inevitably seeing him drawn into Islamic terrorism.
You may think that having a good-looking sultry student-type turn into a terrorist is a bit bad taste, but Hajaig's script is all about moral ambiguity and identity. He puts his two main protagonists Bean as troubled Afghanistan war veteran "Ewan" and Galeya as "Ash (aka Ashraf)" in their own very separate story arcs, which is a very smart piece of storytelling.
In some ways, Ash's story is a film within the film and several lengthy flashbacks really flesh-out a realistic believable character. How do western Muslims become terrorists and why? Well, watch the film.
Ewen's world mirrors Ash in that Ash is a young man finding his way in the world -for right or wrong. Sean Bean's Ewen is a man with stern resolve and scarred by experiences, his story sees him cut like a knife through everything in his way -for right or wrong. Ewen is not one- dimensional, but like Ash/Ashraf they have to really consider their actions and the repercussions involved. All the killings and brutality in the film are suffered by believable characters with a back-story and there's more pathos than you'll find in most novels.
Despite pathos; IE thriller & drama... we are still dealing with an action film here. Commercially it was probably the only way to get such a heavy weight script to the screen. But it's a shame when there are lines such as when a terrorist outside a hotel cocks his gun and says to his nervous driver: "I'm going in...wait here" in pretty stereotypical emotionally empty clichés. I'm happy to say that these clichés are relatively few.
If you can get through the first five minutes without smiling wryly at the first few stereotypes you might just realise the film for what it is- a quite original and thought-provoking film. The action is good value for money entertainment but never mindless. The drama is actually top-notch British stuff thanks to peripheral characters such as Charlotte Rampling's answer to Judi Dench's "M", but also Ash's love interest played by an unknown TV actress by the name of Tuppence Middleton, she was actually pretty good. Yes she flashed her tits early on, I told you there were clichés, but to be honest are these things the mark of a cheap film or are they not in fact just stock-in-trade Hollywoodisms? I can't think of a Hollywood blockbuster film in this genre that HASN'T had gratuitous sex scenes and braindead violence. At least this film managed to pull all that off but with some real motivation for it in the story itself. In that respect Tuppence Middleton was actually highly instrumental, with her own sub-plot of inner turmoil, identity crises and moral...stuff.
Lots to chew on here, but it was easy to watch. I suspect that many will underplay this film as what it appears to be- but for those who are interesting in actively receiving something from a film experience; then this has something to offer. So open up your head and you might find more to this than a British indie budget spy film.
Well, there's far more to it than that in this film. The overall choice of genre has to deal head-on with the pitfalls of a clichéd script, and I'm not sure this film succeeded in evading that.
I assumed this would be a second rate budget film, and I hate to admit it -it's probably because Sean is in this film. He's a good actor with a solid presence, and he's has played some fantastic roles and been in some great films and TV series (even recently such as Game of Thrones) but he always seems to have bad luck follow him, for some reason he never has made it to the hall of fame as a true Hollywood star and hero. But with the state of Hollywood films these days, that is hardly a thing to aspire to. Sean Bean in my book is a veritable new Rutger Hauer, or a poor man's Liam Neeson.
Mr Bean aside, -there is even a quick comic allusion to this during the film- the film debuts the work of Hadi Hajaig, who wrote, produced and directed the film. I assume that Hajaig has some Muslim background which gives him some angles in the script. The fact is that rather than just a film about Sean nutting people and breaking bad guys' arms (oh yes!)there is a very sharp poignancy in the film about Muslim British youth. This is in no small part thanks to another excellent casting choice- the unknown Abhin Galeya as the anti-hero/villain. A typical law student with an identity crisis that develops into some extreme moral tensions, inevitably seeing him drawn into Islamic terrorism.
You may think that having a good-looking sultry student-type turn into a terrorist is a bit bad taste, but Hajaig's script is all about moral ambiguity and identity. He puts his two main protagonists Bean as troubled Afghanistan war veteran "Ewan" and Galeya as "Ash (aka Ashraf)" in their own very separate story arcs, which is a very smart piece of storytelling.
In some ways, Ash's story is a film within the film and several lengthy flashbacks really flesh-out a realistic believable character. How do western Muslims become terrorists and why? Well, watch the film.
Ewen's world mirrors Ash in that Ash is a young man finding his way in the world -for right or wrong. Sean Bean's Ewen is a man with stern resolve and scarred by experiences, his story sees him cut like a knife through everything in his way -for right or wrong. Ewen is not one- dimensional, but like Ash/Ashraf they have to really consider their actions and the repercussions involved. All the killings and brutality in the film are suffered by believable characters with a back-story and there's more pathos than you'll find in most novels.
Despite pathos; IE thriller & drama... we are still dealing with an action film here. Commercially it was probably the only way to get such a heavy weight script to the screen. But it's a shame when there are lines such as when a terrorist outside a hotel cocks his gun and says to his nervous driver: "I'm going in...wait here" in pretty stereotypical emotionally empty clichés. I'm happy to say that these clichés are relatively few.
If you can get through the first five minutes without smiling wryly at the first few stereotypes you might just realise the film for what it is- a quite original and thought-provoking film. The action is good value for money entertainment but never mindless. The drama is actually top-notch British stuff thanks to peripheral characters such as Charlotte Rampling's answer to Judi Dench's "M", but also Ash's love interest played by an unknown TV actress by the name of Tuppence Middleton, she was actually pretty good. Yes she flashed her tits early on, I told you there were clichés, but to be honest are these things the mark of a cheap film or are they not in fact just stock-in-trade Hollywoodisms? I can't think of a Hollywood blockbuster film in this genre that HASN'T had gratuitous sex scenes and braindead violence. At least this film managed to pull all that off but with some real motivation for it in the story itself. In that respect Tuppence Middleton was actually highly instrumental, with her own sub-plot of inner turmoil, identity crises and moral...stuff.
Lots to chew on here, but it was easy to watch. I suspect that many will underplay this film as what it appears to be- but for those who are interesting in actively receiving something from a film experience; then this has something to offer. So open up your head and you might find more to this than a British indie budget spy film.
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