Survivor (2015)

Number Rolled: 13

Movie Name/Year: Survivor (2015)

Tagline: Framed. Abandoned. Hunted.

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Length: 96 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Production Companies: Millennium Films, Winkler Films, Survivor Productions

Producer: Jason Bloom, Boaz Davidson, Ged Dickersin, Mark Gill, Avi Lerner, Alexander O'Neal, Matthew O'Toole, Lonnie Ramati, Trevor Short, John Thompson, Les Weldon, Charles Winkler, Irwin Winkler

Director: James McTeigue

Writer: Philip Shelby

Actors: Paddy Wallace, Parker Sawyers, Sean Teale, Rege-Jean Page, Jing Lusi, Antonia Thomas, Milla Jovovich, Dylan McDermott, Frances de la Tour, Robert Forster, Roger Rees, Benno Furmann, Alissa Atanassova, Pierce Brosnan, Genevieve O’Reilly, Malcolm Sinclair, Alex Beckett, James D’Arcy, Angela Bassett, Sonya Cassidy, Steven Robertson, Corey Johnson

Stunt Doubles: David R. Grant, Radoslav Ignatov, Danko Jordanov, Radka Petkova, Jan Petrina, Reni Sirmina, Annabel Elizabeth Wood, Marina Yordanova

Blurb from Netflix: Framed after a terrorist bombing, a U.S. embassy employee is on the run in London, while trying to stop another pending attack.

Selina’s Point of View:

I like a good action film, and I’m a big of Milla Jovovich (Faces in the Crowd, Bringing Up Bobby, Resident Evil), but I had some logistical problems with this film.

Normally, I can suspend disbelief through a lot. Give me a creature feature and I can even forget science exists for a couple of hours. That’s fine, to me. This film, however, takes its thrill factor from its roots in reality. Therefore, I expect reality to be a factor.

For instance, a world-class assassin should have impeccable aim. Also, law enforcement wouldn’t follow the best friend of a fugitive up until the two meet and then forget she exists. There were a lot of small issues like that – and when you put them all together, they don’t seem so small.

The ending also seemed rushed and completely out of the realm of possibility. I can’t say much without spoilers, however. Just know there were a lot of loose ends and an unrealistic take on the actuality of the setting.

For all that, it wasn’t a terrible movie. It was mediocre, though. I wouldn’t complain if friends wanted to watch, but I wouldn’t turn it on myself.

I just found it a bit unrealistic and boring.

Cat’s Point of View:

I was excited when the dice gave us this movie. I mean, seriously - Pierce Brosnan (Seraphim Falls, Remember Me, Urge) and Milla Jovovich (Ultraviolet, The Fourth Kind, Cymbeline) in an action movie? Sold. Jovovich and Brosnan weren’t even the only ‘heavy hitters’ amongst the cast, either.

Sometimes, regardless of how great the recipe looks on paper, when you put it all together it just doesn’t work. I wanted so much to love this film. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t feel enough of the thrills in ‘thriller’ and it felt like I’d seen it before. I know I haven’t, but that tells me that there just wasn’t anything unexpected about the plot.

It was surprising, to say the least. There was just something missing for me to make it stand out and grab my attention. This was entirely not what I expected from a movie directed by James McTeigue (V For Vendetta, The Raven, Sense8). He helmed one of my favorite guilty pleasure action films, Ninja Assassin (2009), I wanted more from him.

It bears repeating that the movie wasn’t bad, per se. I found it fairly entertaining. I just didn’t connect with it on the level I would have liked. I’d likely recommend other action films ahead of this one.

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 9%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 32%

Metascore - 28/100

Metacritic User Score – 3.8/10

IMDB Score – 5.6/10

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

Movie Trailer: