Columbiana

Starring: Zoe Saldana, Lennie James, Cliff Curtis, Michael Vartan, Jordi Molla
Directed by: Olivier Megaton
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Zoe Saldana) hunts down her parents' murderers.

Review:

Tim: Columbiana is a pretty average action flick. It does have some decent action sequences, some decent action, and a fairly good story. The movie doesn't exactly do anything wrong or anything especially bad. It simply leaves too much to be desired. The movie is fine, but doesn't do much special.

The movie is pretty straightforward. An individual's parents are killed and they seek revenge. Revenge movies are very common, and have been done numerous times before. This movie does feature a female as the assassin protagonist, which makes it a little different than other movies. Still, the story is pretty familiar, and therefore, somewhat predictable.

The best part of the movie are the more clever murders that the protagonist commits. There's a pretty cool scene escaping from inside a prison to assassinate a fellow prisoner, before breaking back into the jail. There are definitely some strong action moments. I wouldn't say anything was particularly memorable or incredibly cool, but these scenes do enough to keep us pretty entertained.

Zoe Saldana does a good job in that she's believable as a very tough, driven assassin. I think she embodies that strong woman character quite well. Besides bringing real strength to the part, I don't think she did anything above and beyond the typical action heroine role. She was good, but this wasn't her best performance. I loved seeing Lennie James and Cliff Curtis in this movie as well- they're both actors I have respect for, and I enjoyed them here. Overall, the cast is decent, but doesn't offer up anything of real quality.

I really felt like Columbiana was a one-note film. It led with "hey look, this is an assassin movie, but a woman is the assassin!" And it hoped that the novelty there would be enough to satisfy the audience. It doesn't. It made me think of movies like The Professional, and lament that this didn't reach those heights. The movie has some style and flash- it's decently fun to watch, and I didn't have a bad time. It was enjoyable. However, it felt a bit empty. It felt like my attention was being focused on action and sex and violence, and when you add it all up, it feels like the sum was less than all the parts. There are some pretty big logical plot holes in the film, and more a than a few moments that made me feel pretty incredulous. These hurt the overall quality of the film quite a bit.

I had no real, major issues with Columbiana. It's a decent, occasionally mediocre action film. With a few more tweaks, the movie could have possibly been quite good. Unfortunately, I wanted more out of the film. I wanted more substance and more than the flashy, distracting outer layer. This is a film that needed to be better, but wasn't. It's just an average action film.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Losers, The Professional