XIII (2008)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

hyped garbage

Excellent but underrated film

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

America's first female president is shot during Memorial Day when she announces that she will bring back the troops from the Middle East. The shooter is about to leave the scene of the crime. Val is sitting in a car and communicates with someone that the shooter is about to leave. As soon as the killer exits an elevator two security guards shoot at him, but he kills them. Then Val confronts the killer himself but he manages to escape.Then a military higher up, General Carrington, meets some little black girl and they talk about some failed mission, bodies, and someone who escaped.Now we meet a hunter who discovers a guy hanging from a parachute and bleeding. He takes him to his home where his wife takes care of him. The guy has a tattoo on his upper chest "XIII". He has some flashbacks but also amnesia. He knows nothing previous to waking up at the hunter's home. But they also discover he's got great military/self-defense skills and has some muscle memory of accessing some sites with a memory card he had in his watch.The NSA run by the awesome Colonel Amos in the meantime is trying to find the killer and eventually make public the picture of XIII.But Val and some military unit show up and shoot up everyone at the hunter's place. XIII escapes but is eventually grabbed by the NSA. He's tortured, uh...interrogated, but since he's got amnesia he has nothing to say. He manages to escape. And always Val after him who grabs him at some point only to lose him again. Eventually the little black girl and Carrington contact XIII and tell him what is going on.XIII of course is on a mission to discover his past. He's got pictures of a woman. But Carrington lets him know that he has a task to complete. He's not really the killer but his job is to draw out a conspiracy deep within the government. XIII agrees to continue. And sure enough, since the election is coming up there are powerful interests trying to obtain a certain result. After the president was killed, several terrorist attacks have taken place on US soil and XIII discovers a major nuclear attack planned on election day. Terrorism is as usual used by hawks to try to direct foreign and domestic policy. And the surprises continue till the very end.XIII has a fantastic rich and complicated story involving political intrigue, conspiracies, red flag operations, terrorism, etc. It has some good action scenes as XIII is almost invincible. I wouldn't expect too much realism in the action scenes, or some of the political details but that's fine. It has a good cast in part: Dorff, Kilmer, Bryk (a revelation and star-making performance), McHattie, Bourgeois. But there are casting problems as well: Higgins is weak in a key role, Murino is gorgeous but her accent is rather thick. Davis is completely miscast. Editing could have been better to make the story a bit smoother. Things are unnecessarily unclear at first, with short nonsensical flashbacks. Direction too isn't as good as this story deserves. Still, in the absence of 24 or something like it, XIII is a thrilling movie/mini-series.

The story line is very good. There are holes but for the sake of keeping the viewer intense, it is okay. The actors are quite believable. The action scenes are good. I really enjoyed this movie. If you like conspiracy stories - this one, is one of the best, and very well delivered. The character I liked most was of Greg Bryk playing Colonel Amos running the government intelligence. This character is just brilliant!Stephen Dorff could have been better. It seems as if he tries to imitate Jason Statham, being a bad ass. But all and all I liked him.To sum it up - I really hoped there would be another sequel.

I saw this 2 part "movie" last night on French TV.I obviously can't comment on how the actors "sounded" as I was seeing it dubbed into french.In the french version however, all the characters sounded like they where in character (earlier reviews suggested that Dorf didn't sound like he cared!?).I admit that I was often thinking "oh it's Jason Bourne", but really it is just the amnesia (and trained assassin) that link the 2.But this didn't detract from the experience, they are different enough not to step on each other's toes.Some have complained that the distances traveled are "unbelievable", remember TV and Cinema is about suspension of disbelief, so these things generally don't worry me too much.Val Kilmer (we don't see him enough) was excellent as the bad guy. Good on him to take the plunge into "evil parts", I look forward to more "evilness" from him, which should be good.I haven't read the comics, but I would agree that the end of the 2 part series leaves me wanting to know what happens from here. So I guess a full mini series is on the cards at some point in the future ??? Who knows.I enjoyed the plot, and it was a good way to spend a few hours in front of the TV.

In my opinion, XIII is very interested TV-mini series. In the style of Bourne Identity, 24 and Shooter, XIII is one of the movie you should watch. Actually, I founded the additional information about this movie after I searched XIII's information in IMDb and I found that it had the video game in the same name. As a result, I knew that XIII was really the comic books but was made as video game and the movie later. It also inspired from Bourne Identity as well which made me don't surprise about how the movie was in its style.For the cast, I was surprised that Val Kilmer had a role in the TV-mini series. (as same as I surprised that he played the villain role) He hasn't seen in the theater-releasing film for a long time, so I thought it liked a big surprise that a big superstar who used to be Batman and had many great role in the Hollywood film decided to play on the Franco-Canadian TV mini series. As The Mongoose, Kilmer played his role very well. I think everyone could not believe in his performance. Oh! Why our hero decided to play villain? He made everyone thrilled and hated him. So, I think he is one of the greatest Hollywood actor as same as John Travolta who had many experience as the good guy and the bad guy.Stephen Dorff was very good in his role. He looked like Jason Statham very much. His look in the movie was realistic and authentic. Other guys also fit in their role. Although, somebody should have more participated in the movie. For example, Kim Rowland, she was appeared in very short time and was died on the middle of the movie. In fact, she was one of the important character in the XIII's comic books, but when she was appeared only the middle of the movie and then, she was shot and died. It misfitted! For about the plot, it was very interested to watch and very reasonable. An amnesia guy who was found that he is one of the conspiracy people who try to make a very huge coup d'etat in the history of the U.S. using the assassination of the first-ever U.S. female president as the first step of the plan. However, everything was twisted. Actually, he was the CIA special-opts who decided to work with General Callington from the NSA in the order to stop the huge scheme by masquerade as the president's murderer with XIII code.As I explained, I highly loved this plot and also how the movie was going on. I also liked how the movie was far away from women's hurting by men. Unlike Shooter and Bourne Ultimatum, XIII avoided about how the women was hurt by men which is how I liked it. By the way, this movie had some complaint. Even the action scene was OK and the plot was very good but some complaint was occurred. For example, how The Mongoose had the connection with XIII (or Steve Rowland or Ross Tanner whatever) it should have more explanation. Also the last hour of the movie in Part 2 which was too confused.For the summary, I didn't think that this movie was really bad. Many one could have any comment as they want. But for me, XIII was very good, even I didn't like some scene and it maybe not as great as the Hollywood film but you have to notice that this was only the TV-mini series not the theater-releasing film. Also the ending scene of the movie which could make someone disappointed how it was end, but if you find more about the information of XIII, you will understand how the movie goes. As a result, XIII was very good TV mini-series.