Edge of Darkness

Now and then I like me some straight forward action/drama/thriller type movies, though mostly, I end up disappointed and frustrated. I guess I am a bit naive about it. Around the web I had picked up the cue, that the Mel Gibson thriller Edge of Darkness was a bit of a sleeper gem, that you might just check out for the funzies of it.

So I picked it up yesterday in a used store and threw it on the player while having a nice belgian ale. The Ale was decent, the movie wasn´t. It fact it was quite dreadful.

It falls within the same category as the disgusting movie "Taken" with Liam Neeson. The cop/agent of the state, who has to rescue or avenge his daughter and goes on a violent rampage leaving a trail of blood and dead bodies. The difference here is that his daughter is killed by accident not kidnapped. Never the less, the daddy cop takes things into his own hands and more or less uses his position to get back at people who may have knowledge or be involved in the killing.

The first thing I notice is a recurring theme. Even if the daughter is sort of nice and warm towards her father, she is still kind of, what is it called, showing this annoyance by his "lack" of "healthyness", "not eating enough veggies" and this kind of female nagging. And off course he has no knowledge of where she works, who she works with, if she has a boyfriend or if he is a decent guy. She just wipe him off with ... "you won´t like him"

Instead of taking up this lack of agreement betwen the two of them, daddy just says "you´re my girl", and that is after she told him she is with a guy (who maypotentially become father to her children), that he won´t like. What kind of father is that. And what kind of daughter is that ! But no, we do not need to go further into that. Because femininity i guess.

Now to the acting. Holy s&%# it is bad. I never have my hopes high with action movies like this... but it is bloody awful. Gidson is stiff as a statue with out even the minimum emotional engagement he might be capable off. Several scenes he just sits there looking completely blank without any emotion of any kind. I guees the director knew not to put too much demand on this aging actor, who never had much too give in this department anyway. Ray Winstone is equally bad. He is bloated and stiff without any real presence. like he is unsure of what he is really doing here in this movie.

Most of the supporting actors are boring, stiff and uninspiring or just plain goofy. The only actor I really felt a connection with was the little girl who played his daughter as a small child. She was both very cute and had a real sparkle and natural acting talen to her that practically was the only uplifting aspect of this piece of junk. The dialogue is vague and quite frankly stupid at times. And the violence is not either frightening or really felt like it is needed where it is. Feels often like it is deliberately overblown just for effekt, like when a girl is hit by a chasing car out of the blue. The cinematography is at times decent, and at time unnecessarily bad.

I really, really don´t like this movie, even for its type or class it is several levels below par. It is a mystery how it even got the vote of 6.6 on IMDB, which is a half decent one. It is pretty simple, stay clear of this one.

3/10