Survivor (2015) R-13

Framed for a terrorist bombing, a foreign service officer (Milla Jovovich) must dodge a top assassin (Pierce Brosnan), while racing against time to thwart a deadly plot.-WWW

Directed by James McTeigue

Written by Philip Shelby

Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan and Dylan McDermott enticed me to watch this film.  I never saw the trailer and I never read any review about this film, but somehow the three of them got me interested.  

After our little snack at a famous coffee shop, mom and I thought we still had eight whole minutes to spare so we went to the powder room.  Unfortunately(or fortunately), we missed the first few minutes.

Having no idea what the movie was all about, we just watched the movie.  It was exciting at first, but if I were Kate Abbott and was really keen about the most minuscule thing, then I would totally doubt the super obvious superior. 

AFTER watching the movie, I read the reviews(click Philip Shelby's name to read the milder ones).  They were praising the actors, but they hated the script.  I do agree with a lot of what they said and probably thought of a million ways to improve it, but hey, he was given a break, so he probably pitched it right.  Besides, there were a lot scenes that were exciting too.  

Yes, there were a lot of stupid scenes and some scenes weren't new.  Why did Angela Bassett agree to be a very stupid American Ambassador? Why?  Well, not entirely stupid, but it was an obvious frame-up.  She dropped her protégée, Kate Abbott, like a hot potato.  She judged her just like that.  She should have investigated more.  If I were the US President, I would remove her from her post.   Anyways, like the rest, she acted well.  

Also, they made the US Embassy staff look like a bunch of imbeciles, just because a certain group was controlling them.  I won't expound why.  

Shucks, shucks, shucks.

At least we(the critics and I, the observer) agree that the actors did great.  Yes.  They surely did.  Nevertheless, Philip Shelby is not idiotic like they claim he is.  Maybe he was unfair to the US Embassy or the US of A herself, but the action scenes were good.  There were a lot of Kate Abbott's decisions that were...ah, never mind.  So, it's not Philip Shelby who is stupid.  The people he created are.  They were able to solve something, but not everything, to make it a little more realistic, I guess.

Oh, even if Dylan McDermott was the apple of my eye in this film, Pierce Brosnan still has IT.  :-)  There were scenes, even if he's playing the bad guy, that were reminiscent of James Bond.  Ooh la la.

What about Milla Jovovich?  She did not disappoint(to reiterate, as an actress/actor, but her character needed more depth).

What about the direction?  Maybe it's his fault the script turned out that way, but at least the actors were great. ;-)  

  In toto, it's worth watching.  Just don't expect a perfect script or perfect direction, OK?  It's still good anyway.  Not the best, but...

 ;-)

Dylan McDermott

• Milla Jovovich as Kate Abbott
• Pierce Brosnan as Nash "The Watchmaker"
• Dylan McDermott as Sam Parker
• Angela Bassett as Ambassador Maureen Crane
• Robert Forster as Bill Talbot
• James D'Arcy as Inspector Paul Anderson
• Frances de la Tour as Sally 
• Antonia Thomas as Naomi Rosenbaum
• Rege-Jean Page as Robert Purvell
• Jing Lusi as Joyce Su
• Paddy Wallace as Johnny Talbot
• Parker Sawyers as Ray
• Roger Rees as Dr. Emil Balan