MOVIE SYNOPSIS
After his latest mission goes disastrously wrong, veteran CIA black ops agent Emerson Kent (John Cusack, 2012) is given one last chance to prove he still has what it takes to do his job. His new assignment: guarding Katherine (Malin Akerman, Watchmen), a code operator at a top-secret remote CIA “Numbers Station” where encrypted messages are sent and received. When an elite team of heavily armed assailants lays siege to the station, Emerson and Katherine suddenly find themselves in a life-or-death struggle against an unknown enemy. With the station compromised and innocent lives at stake, they must stop the deadly plot before it’s too late.
(source: cinemablend.com)
I have a chequered history with action thrillers.
I do like them with the Die Hard and Bourne franchises among some of my favourite movies ever.
Both these series don’t just send their protagonist running willy-nilly, dodging bullets, rocket launchers, thugs and anvils – OK maybe that Wile E Coyote and the Roadrunner but frankly some movies comes awfully, and possibly unintentionally close to that kind of hilarity – but invest them with substantial reasons for acting the way they do.
Which means you get your vicarious thrills and some solid time with characters that are more than worth your time.
Then of course there are the thrillers that are simply shoot-’em-up, bang-’em-up vehicles for endless explosions and mayhem such as all the Fast and Furious movies and just about everything Steven Seagal has ever been in.
Granted they’re loud and impressive but they leave barely a mark on your soul as they slide into the murky backwaters of the zeitgeist.
I am hoping, based almost on the presence of John Cusack alone who brings an intelligence and real empathy for his character to just about movie he is in, that The Numbers Station will fall firmly into the first group of movies.
Based on the trailer alone, which has the requisite flawed and disgraced hero seeking redemption, and the blissfully unaware femme fatale (let’s hope she’s not too helpless or the movie could set back feminism by a decade or two), the movie doesn’t look that remarkable.
And perhaps in terms of narrative it may well just be a paint-by-numbers affair.
But the presence of Cusack, and indeed Akerman who performed admirably in Watchmen promises a film that could well rise above pack.
Or perhaps it shouldn’t given all the bullets flying around.
Perhaps it should just concentrate on looking notable in a hunched over, below-the-parapets kind of way.