British Actress Blog

The Contractor (2007)

Score: 7/10

Director: Josef Rusnak

Stars: Lena Headey, Wesley Snipes, Eliza Bennett, Charles Dance.

Synopsis: A retired Ex-CIA agent is called back into the field for one last mission to eliminate a threat to national security.

Review: James Dial ( Wesley Snipes ) is an Ex-CIA agents who is contacted by his former handler to eliminate a target that James failed to stop many years ago. While James is on his mission, he notices that nothing is what it seems ( typical ).

I am so glad to see Lena Headey in this role as an active character that helps push the story forward. The character she is playing is not overly naïve and tents to use critical thinking when analyzing a situation. Honestly I love how the women in this movie use their real sense and thinking when reading peoples character and predicting their next move. The female characters feel more realistic like women that I personally know in real life. Roles like this one and Game of Thrones is the reason why Lena Headey is in my top ten British actress list. I hate it when other directors have Lena Headey on the sidelines playing a minor role when she is damn sure capable of so much more. Other films suppress her true talents and it’s very refreshing to see her active and a major part of this story.

Yes we have yet another CIA film that uses all sorts of tiered and drawn out clichés. The every so typical CIA agent who gets burned by their own agency crap. This idea really only exists in Hollywood. I like how even though Wesley Snipes’s character is of course wearing plot armor, the director makes it feel as though Wesley Snipes is in real danger for his life, and his moves throughout the film are limited by modern day surveillance. Also the agent who works with Wesley Snipes is not overly stupid and always has a backup plan as we could imagine that a real agent would.

The cinematography is well done at times and mentally unstable at others. This is that time in the 2010’ish era where directors where using strange cuts to the camera instead of the smooth and streamed line camera work we have now. The lighting, backgrounds, set dressing, and wardrobe are all well done for this film. If you watch a lot of CIA movies like I do you will feel tiered of this one. From other CIA movies such as Nothing but the truth (2008), The Bourne Legacy (2012), to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015) you may get fatigued of these kind of films. The one CIA movie I definitely recommend you see is The Recruit (2003). As for this movie, it’s not bad and yet not that great. I give it an average score.

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More Films.

Cinderella (2015)

The King’s Speech (2010)

Suffragette (2015)

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

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