Reviews

The movie starts interesting. Gary Johnson, a divorced professor leads a boring life. However at some point he starts to moonlight for the police first as tech support, then due to some circumstances as a fake hit man. That second act of the movie is good and entertaining in showing how he does what he does. Then enter Maddy Masters with a serious domestic issue at her hands, The sparks between them are there, they start a romance. Everything ok, until here still a mildly entertaining movie.

The problem however is the third act. It's difficult to describe the issue without spoilers so here they come: Maddy's husband is dead. It turns out she has killed him. As the investigation shows, a recent life insurance policy could be motive. Gary is sent in to get a confession from Maddy. Instead that he is actively guiding her by providing her with clues how to appear innocent in the exchange.

A bit problematic, but hey, this is not a documentary, it's fiction.

But of course one of the cops figured out, that it was Maddy who killed her husband and now tries to blackmail her for some of the insurance money. Her solution to the problem: spiking his bottled beer (how?) so he gets unconscious while blackmailing Maddy and Gary. Gary's solution, as drugging a cop does not have the best looks: Killing the cop, obviously.

And then, they live happily ever after.

So we summarize: Maddy kills her husband probably for the insurance money, Gary covers it up by murdering a cop. Followed by a happy end. Shall this really be the moral of the story? I have my difficulties with that.

Reading the other reviews it seems I am one of the few, which liked the beginning of the movie more than the end. The beginning is indeed slow, and you wonder when the action will come. But Chris Pine is also very convincing here in quietly conveying the difficult situation he is in after being discharged from the Special forces, and finally the decision to become a contractor. Cinematically this phase is also solid.

As is the transition to Berlin, which is shown properly here, and not just with some token shots.

After the action starts the story becomes more problematic. The shootout with German police after the job is completely ridiculous, this is not the way German police operates. People being almost dead in the evening and perfectly fine the next morning also doesn't make sense, as well as being on-and-off incapacitated.

The biggest issues, which p*ssed me off quite a bit, are that the reason why the job was conducted was completely unnecessary, there would have been other ways to achieve the intended result. And that going after Chris Pine's character was also completely unnecessary. Just paying him for a job he performed as to be expected would be the obvious, and cheaper, way to go.

So, overall a movie with a promising start, but frustrating end.