Review of Cleanskin (2012) by Dave J — 05 Feb 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014.

(2012) Cleanskin.

POLITICAL THRILLER.

A low budget rendition of a much better movie called "Casino Royale" with a twist. It's called "Cleanskin" because it's another term the United Kingdom give to terrorists which initially derived from the actual bombings of 2005(look it up on Wikipedia). That term is used for this film since the terrorists are law abiding UK citizens resulting them to be the least expected to participate in such acts. Anyways, Sean Bean plays an undercover agent hired indiscreetly to infiltrate the bombings before they happen for he's also been given authority to kill(sound familiar), and the agency would cover it up later by removing his DNA. Bean plays Ewan who's the best candidate to take on this task since he's lost a loved one who was a victim to a previous bombing. And to tag along with him is a partner named Mark (Tom Burke) we don't know too much about.

Written and directed by Hadi Hajaig which from looking at the title "Cleanskin" I should've expected that the film also have to showcase the side of the terrorists too which is something I don't necessarily need since viewers should've already been aware about terrorists motivations in the first place- the reasons are obvious which are usually as a result of alienation, belonging and radicalism. There's hardly anything more this film has told me that I don't know myself. Apart from the unexpected twist ending a great portion of this film has already been done already and had been shown before.

2 out of 4 stars.