The Facts:
Synopsis: As a police psychologist works to talk down an ex-con who is threatening to jump from a Manhattan hotel rooftop, the biggest diamond heist ever committed is in motion…

Stars: Elizabeth Banks, Sam Worthington, Jamie Bell, Ed Burns, Kyra Sedgwick, Ed Harris

Director: Asger Leth

Rated: PG-13

Running Length: 102 Minutes

Random Crew Highlight:  Custom Tattoo Artist – David Presto (I hope his company is called Presto-Changeo)

TMMM Score: (4/10)

Review:  January is known as a bit of a garbage dump for the studios.  They have spent a lot of money promoting their big holiday and award-worthy movies and the first month of the new year is seen as a place for them to get rid of some excess baggage and hope for a hit (or at least something to make back its money).  Summit Entertainment did just fine with the latest installment of the Twilight series so I don’t think they are crying too hard now.  Their late December release, The Darkest Hour, was a big (and well deserved) bomb and now they are giving us another picture that should have seen the inside of a Redbox machine instead of a cineplex.

With a script/plot/characters straight out of a late 90’s movie, I found myself wondering if Wesley Snipes had ever passed on this back in his day because I can’t imagine there was a huge amount of thought put into the movie as a whole.  That especially goes for the acting.  Poor Elizabeth Banks…doing her best Chelsea Handler impression while spending the majority of the movie leaning out a window she never had me buying she was a hardened NYC cop with demons.  Sam Worthington couldn’t decide what continent his character was from as his accent was on more of a perilous ledge than his character was.  I’m guessing he was a Midwest guy raised in NYC that studied abroad in Australia by way of London.  At least that’s what it sounded like.  Jamie Bell probably did the best with what he had…keeping in mind he was acting opposite the Sassy Latina actress playing his Sassy Latina girlfriend.   Ed Burns sits for most of the movie rolling his eyes and Kyra Sedgwick gets the biggest laughs of the whole evening when her blond, Angl0-Saxon news reporter dialogue has her saying “Reporting from The Roosevelt Hotel, this is Susie Morales” (pronounced Muh-ah-las) with a straight face.  Special mention goes to Ed Harris who looks more and more like Benjamin Button with each passing film.

From the unimaginative, albeit straightforward, title to the Tony Scott-like camera angles the film just never held my attention long enough for me to be interested in anything.  Director Asger Leth is a documentary film maker and newbie to mainstream cinema working with a script from Pablo Fenjves.  Fenjves himself has only written for TV and it clearly shows in his first feature film screenplay.   Unlike some movies where the twists and turns don’t make sense the more you think about them…this movie had plot devices that didn’t add up even as they were unspooling.  For instance, Worthington’s character is shown carefully wiping down everything he touched in a hotel room…yet is shown two seconds later going to the window, opening it up, and climbing out…smudging his prints the whole time.  One of the final big moments of the movie is so unbelievable/unrealistic I half expected the entire movie to have been a fever dream.

 Now I should add that my companions quite enjoyed it for what it was and thought I was being a little stuffy about it so who know…maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood for it.  You can decide for yourself on January 27^th when this is released…but remember…you’ve been warned.