A little surprised not to see a thread for this one already.  Just watched it last night from Netflix, and had to post my comments.

First up, let me say this very clearly...this has to be one of THE WORST big budget movies I've ever seen.  Just jaw-droppingly pathetic in every way.  A bunch of people recommended this, and I'm just blown away with what they were probably smoking.

Where to begin?  Hmmm...OK. lets' start with the opening 22 minutes of complete non action, horrendous dialogue, poor acting, and painfully dull "story".  I had to keep checking the run time, cause I thought I must have been missing something...how could a big budget action thriller start out so shockingly slow?  I don't know. I really don't know.

Once things got going, it only got worse.  Comedic and cliche scenes, God awful dialogue, pathetic acting, completely unrealistic action and setups.  God, this was bad!

I could go on and on, but there's no reason to, really.  It comes off as a comedy in many ways, but then the brutal action and deaths (one particular one in slow motion, of all things) make it apparent that it was not intended to be taken in a comedic vein.  I did find myself, numerous times, just shaking my head, wondering WTF the people behind this mess were possibly thinking.

So, I actually think I've figured something out from watching this fiasco.  And it leads to the oh so sad state of affairs in MovieLand, and what it's done and still is doing to screenwriters around the world.

Apparently, this is what screenwriters strive for, because apparently, this is what producers with pocketfuls of money think make for great movie entertainment. It's so wrong, though.

This is exactly the kind of shit that I pan all the time when reading scripts...the hip, smart-ass, witty stupid as fuck dialogue, action, and characters that make for such onscreen dreck.

Just downright silly, ridiculous, over the top action accompanied by a whisper thin plot that really makes ZERO sense, when you give it a few minutes of thought.

The intro here (again, that ran some 20 minutes or so) makes it so painfully obvious there's more to Caroline's role than just being Reese's wife.  The conclusion about her being "put into this role" purposely, 6 years ago, to be able to try and pull off what she does, is just preposterous, and actually insulting.

A few gems for you all...

Reese carrying around a big urn filled with cocaine for what seems like hours, while engaged in violent gunfire, chases, etc.

Wax chasing Caroline, where they both just leap out of a window, and roll down, run across rooftops.

Reese shooting his wife in the head in slow motion, and then joking around with people minutes later.

The constant use of character's names in dialogue (one of my script pet peeves), over and over again, to the point where I literally started saying them out loud every time a character would do it.

This movie is literally what's wrong in Hollywood, even though it's actually a French film.  Nothing works here.  The acting is downright bad, and even laughable much of the time.  The action is ridiculous and over the top.  The characters are cardboard, cliched cutouts. The dialogue is some of the worst I've ever heard. The plot and story are extremely weak at best, laughable at worst.

TERRIBLE MOVIE!  Shame on everyone involved with this bomb.  $52 Million spent on the production budget, yielded a $52 Million World Wide Box Office.  Is anyone surprised?  My only surprise is that it actually made this much.  This kind of thing is cheap-ass DTV all the way, and has absolutely no right being shown in a world wide release.

That's the point though ain't it Jeff, there apparently is a market for these movies, it took $52m at the box office, There are many, many great films that would not have taken $52m at the box office

So for my mind, if any blame needs to be apportioned it should really be given to the morons who keep going to the the Cinema and watching this kind of crap, these are the people killing Hollywood, not necessarily just the studios giving them why they want. They have a choice, there are many fine, smaller budget films on the other screens, in other cinemas that the majority just dont want to watch.

Inception has shown that a film can be both exiting and well written at the same time but not sure it will make a difference. If you are in business then you want to give your customers exactly what they want and produce it at the lowest price you can, that appears to mean plenty of loud noises and B grade actors running around for 90 mins.

Anyway, this is made by the same director as Taken, I thought that was awful too and would have stayed well away from this one. Like Taken it was written by Luc Besson, he certainly has gone downhill.

Welcome back, Murph!

This shit cluster only took in $24 Million at the NABO, which is pretty miserable for a wide release with Travolta and Rhys Meyers from Tudors fame.  The $28 Million it took in overseas is also low, considering it has Luc Besson behind it, and it's set in gay old Pareee.

Obviously a $52 Million WWBO on a $52 Million budget is far from what the studios and producers were hoping for, and also far from a success.  You're definitely right though...there is a HUGE audience for this kind of flick...mid/big budget action/thriller with star power...but this bomb proves that shit usually does sink to the bottom of the toilet.

My take on it is this...no matter how crappy the product is, if you release it wide, with star power attached, it's going to bring in some money. No way around that.  People go to the theater to see movies on a constant basis, good product or shit product.  I for one, am that kind of movie goer...I just like seeing flicks on a big screen, in a dark quiet big-ass room.

I didn't hate Taken, but I did think it was way over rated, and took in way more money than it had any right to.  It was one of those runaway surprises that comes along every now and then in MovieLand.

Luc Besson is credited with writing the story here, but Adi Hasak gets the screenwriting credit.  In the special features, Adi talks about writing it and meeting with Luc, for a week in his hotel, and getting a call a year later from Luc saying they were going forward with it.

The script is pure shit though in every single way imaginable. It's exactly what gives screenwriting a bad name, and IMO, it shows how fucking stupid so many of these people in control really are.  A better script here would have doubled or tripled the BO returns. There's just no reason a Travolta film like this (especially since he showed this crazy new look and character) shouldn't gross well over $100 Million WW.

Sad...very sad.

I figured there wasn't a thread about it already because nobody bothered to see it.  You can see how awful it looks just from the trailer.

Mike...it's much worse than it looks on the trailer...much, much worse!

All you can do is keep chipping away, write good scripts, make good films, and hopefully start to change peoples expectations of what their $15 should give them. Until there is a consumser backlash then nothing will change, the best way to create a consumer backlash is to offer a better product and hope they go and see it. Christopher Nolan seems to be doing a good job, there is no reason that well written needs to be as expensive as inception.

It's why we are here ain't it? Use crap films to spur you on. Nothing motivates me more to want to write than a crap film. I should watch then more often.

Quoted from Dreamscale Mike...it's much worse than it looks on the trailer...much, much worse!

Bald, weird looking Travolta for 2 minutes vs. Bald, weird looking Travolta for 90 minutes?


Yeah, I'm sure it's worse.

This movie is as crappy as they come. Did anyone actually get the "plot"? Is it me or did it just change randomly so Travolta could kill a bunch of people?

Funny, Rob.  My girlfriend and I were asking each other the same thing. What was the plot?  What was with all the cocaine stuff?  All the random killings?  Chasing around?

No clue.  HORRIBLE!!!!!

Quoted from Dreamscale A bunch of people recommended this, and I'm just blown away with what they were probably smoking.

I thought this was funny because what I was smoking had no effect on how I perceived the film. I still thought it was the absolute worst of 2010. As bad as Travolta was (and was he ever bad), he was the best actor in the film which is awe-inspiring considering how ridiculous his character was. But indeed, everyone else in the film was borderline comatose. Stupid and over-the-top at least makes for some kind of disposable entertainment. Not that it did here but still. Boring and uninspired never amounts to anything, which was the case here. But that's just the characters. The plot was completely incoherent and devoid of any sort of cause and effect.

Also, did anyone think this film was racist? In a really naive, juvenile way? With no sign of any plot whatsoever, the whole film felt like it was just knocking perceived enemies of the U.S. off a checklist for cheap shits and giggles. Can't think of any other film that's ever made me feel this way. Not even Manderlay or Passion of the Christ.

God fucking awful. Absolute abomination to cinema and entertainment in general.

Ha!  James, how did you really feel about this film?  

I agree with everything you've said, including that Travolta easily had the the best performance, which is pathetic.  That Rhys Meyers guy was just God awful!  Literally every line he uttered was painful.  My girlfriend loves The Tudors, and I've watched a few.  He wasn't half bad there, but here?  Damn, new levels of ineptitude.

I don't know if I found it racist, but I do see where you're coming from.

For me, it was the dialogue that stood out the most, above all the other heinous aspects of the film.  The way they constantly used each others names in their dialogue exchanges, the things they talked about, and the way they said them...just comically bad on an epic scale.

What are your thoughts about this script being made into a $50 Million picture?  Or do you blame Besson for just doing shit with shit, cause he can, and expected another Taken success story?