Survivor (2015) Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan, Dylan McDermott, Frances de la Tour, Angela Bassett Movie Review

Survivor (2015)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Milla Jovovich in Survivor (2015)

When Bond Turns Bad

Kate Abbott (Milla Jovovich) has been sent to the American embassy in London as she has a knack of spotting suspicious visa applicants, as in those which are likely connected to terrorist action. It is how she comes to the attention of Dr. Emil Balan (Roger Rees) who supposedly wants to travel to America for a medical conference but has a very different reason for going. But in intervening in his visa application not only does Kate find herself on the run from a deadly assassin going by the name of Nash (Pierce Brosnan), but those in power begin to suspect she is a terrorist herself. As Kate battles to survive she also battles to find out exactly what Dr. Balan plans are if he were to make it to America.

There are movies which pride themselves on trying to be realistic and then there are those movies which don't worry if they are a bit loosey-goosey when it comes to realism. "Survivor" is in the second group as this isn't about the realism of a state employee on the run and trying to prevent an act of terrorism but the excitement of her fighting for her life as she runs around London, hiding in doorways, breaking in to buildings and basically acting as if she has had some sort of CIA training whilst dealing with a cold blooded assassin who despite being a top killer can't seem to shoot her for love nor money, as I said it is a bit loosey-goosey.

Pierce Brosnan in Survivor (2015)

But "Survivor" has a problem as whilst you have Milla Jovovich as Kate and Pierce Brosnan as Nash, as well as a whole host of familiar faces in supporting roles, this is actually not the exciting movie it could have been. Look at it this way; if James Bond or Jason Bourne were running around London you would have lots of snappy, action packed scenes but in "Survivor" the whole thing feels more like Steven Seagal or Van Damme running around London and as such you get lots of edits as time and budget prevents anything more than just some routine scenes of Kate hiding in the shadows, jimmying a door and basically doing a lot of running.

What this actually means is that whilst everyone involved does a professional job the script does them little favours when it comes to delivering memorable characters. In fact the best thing about "Survivor" is Pierce Brosnan's portrayal of an assassin because in a couple of scenes it almost felt like it was watching him as James Bond again, just one which had turned bad.

What this all boils down to is that "Survivor" is not a bad movie but it is one which after watching the routine drama and action once you won't feel the need to watch it again.


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