This movie is a clear example of the use of gratuitous violence to juice up a boring, and cliché ridden film.
It is hard to blame Janet McTeer for the character she plays-- a prim middle age British woman who happens to be an accomplished and ruthless assassin. But Helen Mirren did play the part better, and with more humor, the year before in the Bruce Willis movie, "Red".
The fault, however, doesn't really lie with Ms. McTeer, she is only doing what the script calls for her to do. Rather it is the talentless script writers and the director, John Stockwell, who directed this with no sense of subtlety. Which is a shame, because I thought Stockwell's "Crazy/Beautiful", with Kirsten Dunst, was actually a very touching movie about teenage self-destruction.
Here though, with Stockwell's direction, by the time you get midway through the movie, you are prepared that every time Janet McTeer appears on screen, someone is going to murdered in a fairly graphic display--the only tension is whether the victim is going to be tortured first. Predictability is a lot more serious enemy in any film, than an assassin can be.
I rate the movie 3 stars, and not less because of Janet McTeer's performance, which does attempt a certain black humor.
Paz Vega, who is the main reason why I chose to watch this movie, is poorly used here. The DVD cover has Paz crouching, with a high powered gun. This suggests that her character will be exacting some vengeance of her own, which might have had some cathartic appeal, but that virtually never happens.
Paz is simply a "damsel in distress" who is constantly on the run, with a small baby, no less!
It is hard to blame Janet McTeer for the character she plays-- a prim middle age British woman who happens to be an accomplished and ruthless assassin. But Helen Mirren did play the part better, and with more humor, the year before in the Bruce Willis movie, "Red".
The fault, however, doesn't really lie with Ms. McTeer, she is only doing what the script calls for her to do. Rather it is the talentless script writers and the director, John Stockwell, who directed this with no sense of subtlety. Which is a shame, because I thought Stockwell's "Crazy/Beautiful", with Kirsten Dunst, was actually a very touching movie about teenage self-destruction.
Here though, with Stockwell's direction, by the time you get midway through the movie, you are prepared that every time Janet McTeer appears on screen, someone is going to murdered in a fairly graphic display--the only tension is whether the victim is going to be tortured first. Predictability is a lot more serious enemy in any film, than an assassin can be.
I rate the movie 3 stars, and not less because of Janet McTeer's performance, which does attempt a certain black humor.
Paz Vega, who is the main reason why I chose to watch this movie, is poorly used here. The DVD cover has Paz crouching, with a high powered gun. This suggests that her character will be exacting some vengeance of her own, which might have had some cathartic appeal, but that virtually never happens.
Paz is simply a "damsel in distress" who is constantly on the run, with a small baby, no less!