Survivor (2015)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Good movie but grossly overrated

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

It is certainly not as bad as the ratings and majority of the reviews suggest. Yes, there are lots of plot holes to find, but I believe a movie should be judged by its entertainment quotient rather than its bullet-proof plot. This one keeps you interested. Brosnan, I felt, was pretty sharp in his role as the assassin and Mila does what she does best, run for cover and retaliate. As I always keep stating, a movie is half as good as its climax, this one though left much to be desired on that front, pretty low key to say the least. I go with a 6/10 for this one.

A reasonable film, but not full of action, and you have to suspend belief that Kate (Milla) could overpower a fit attacker that surprises her from behind, never mind an aged looking Pierce Brosnan who plays the most incompetent assassin ever seen on the screen, missing killing his target on a number of occasions. The nice point of the film is that it isn't one of these Earth destroying everyone at risk film, just the killing of people at the New York New Year celebrations. Maybe a lot of people, but at least not an over the top, unbelievable scenario. Good for a wet Sunday (unfortunately I watched it on a hot Sunday, but you cannot plan these things). *** Spoilers *** Now for the Spoilers Now I'll mention the Spoilers bit which ruined the film for me because the writers did not truly understand security protocol. When Bill deletes the 5 people that are suspicious, he is supposed to use Kate's details. However any worthwhile secure system will record not just the operator but the time, date and user terminal. As Kate had left the building this would also have been recorded and so she would not be under any suspicion. When Kate accidentally shoots a man in a struggle, she is blamed for the death, but GSR (Gun Shoot Residue) would have been on the assailants hands and again she would not be under suspicion, in fact the Police are more likely want to put her in protective custody. Finally you have an assassin who gets a bomb into a restaurant (and it looks like it is with help of the staff), then detonates it without checking the intended target is even in the building. Seriously?

The only redeeming feature of this movie is Milla. I bought this movie because she and Pierce Brosnan are on the cover. It also listed Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN), Angela Bassett, Roger Rees, and Dylan McDermott. I told myself that this has to be a good movie. Well, it is not, because the plot has holes in it that detract from watching the movie. Milla plays an embassy security agent that just got in from New York that is so bad ass that the marine snipers on the roof of the embassy know who she is. She is that hot shot security agent that broke up a terrorist attack in the US. If this is the case, why is she assigned to checking visa applications? The plot is so convoluted that it quickly becomes more and more unbelievable. At a certain point, when she has everyone against her and she infiltrates her way back into the embassy, the person I watch IMDb 250 movies with, demanded that we turn this movie off. He is a Milla Jojovich and Robert Forester fan, but Robert Forester had since exited the film and Milla cannot carry a bad movie all by herself, unless it is a Resident Evil movie. I love Angela Bassett, but the script called for her to play a character that I grew to dislike and hate. All of the characters, I grew to hate, except Milla, but again she could not carry this movie by herself.The plot line involves the use of a weapon that is tested in London, which causes huge destruction. The people take that weapon and smuggle it to the US. In the mean time, the US embassy believes that Milla is the person driving events forward. HOW THE HECK DOES AN EMBASSY SECURITY AGENT assemble and transport a weapon to the US, then set it up for detonation. Then she makes it from London to New York with everyone looking for her, and some how stumbles upon the location of the bomb and foils the plan -- unbelievable. It is more unbelievable that she is not just shot dead by the US anti-terror units. The ending is so contrived and I can only shake my head at how bad it is. How did Milla figure it all out?I went back and finished the movie and looked at the special features on the disk. I found out things, like this movie script has been floating around since the 1970s, which makes all of the sense in the world. No one wanted to finance this disaster -- until now. And the first actress that they asked to consider this roll turned them down, which brought in Milla. If I thought that the movie could not get any worse, I looked at the deleted scenes and I discovered, it could have been. The deleted scenes make for an even worse interpretation of the background, like what the real motivation for the McDermott character's belief structure, which was pure lust, not professional respect.The way the movie ends, the true evil character has not been addressed at all and for all you know is out there, ready to try it all again. In the cut scene, there is an unexplained helicopter that takes him out with a hell fire missile, along with his chauffeur and body guard as he is being driven over a bridge in London. London must have a high tolerance for bomb destruction.

Not worth watching at all.A stereotypical bad action film, "Survivor" is roughly (I'm probably not a good source, I think I fazed out at some point) about some American embassy workers in London, with some explosions etc. And guess what all the British are bad - I know a British accent seems to do strange things to film-makers' brains, but really, isn't that overdone now? Okay, mostly suppressed rant aside, there was really nothing substantial or even particularly good about this movie. The plot goes exactly where you think it's going to go and all the stuff you think happens, does happen. It's predictable and pretty much the same as most of the other "action" movies out there. Also, what's with the name: there is no one in the movie that can really be classed as a "survivor" - except, perhaps, those who, like myself, for some obscure reason actually finished watching the film. And to everyone involved in making this film: you have Milla Jovovich, an absolutely awesome actress, especially for actions films (not to mention the fact you also have an actual James Bond), yet you just have her running around looking confused for basically the whole movie - seriously? You can do better.