Review of The Cold Light of Day (2012) by Maksim B — 30 Mar 2013

Cliched and lifeless, The Cold Light of day is a poor and uninteresting wanna-be-spy thriller which offers nothing but several pale performances and a chaotic run-and-chase story. With nothing to impress this movie is probably the worst spy & chase movie since Taylor Lautner's Abduction from 2011.

The story is set in Spain where the family of Martin Shaw (Bruce Willis) is having a family reunion on the family's yacht. After introduction in which some sort of father-son tension becomes clear, the movie finally takes off with the disappearing of Will's (Henry Cavill) family from their yacht. While trying to escape from supposedly corrupted cops, Will gets saved by his father, only to understand that Bruce Willis has been working as an CIA operative for years. So far, so good. Even the early killing of Willis works fine and opens up the story for a fast paced spy entertainment, which unfortunately never happens.

From the moment of Willis' death and Sigourney Weaver's introduction, the young Henry Cavill and director Mabrouk El Mechri fail to hold the grip on the audience. The movie becomes a simple run-and-chase action in which the spy elements are far from being convincing (it is never clarified what is it in the suitcase), the plot holes are obvious and performances completely forgettable. There is no tension in terms of possible story development as there is nothing uncertain in Weaver's character (being the rogue agent) and everything is being marginalized to several dialogues between her and Cavill and several chases. To further strengthen the boredom, the supposed climax is actually quite an ordinary car parking shoot-out followed by decent car chase. Sadly, even the climax cannot really engage the audience's attention.

To all this criticism, one should add up the uninspired and annoyingly insecure performance of Henry Cavil (soon to be the new Superman) and the disappointing Sigourney Weaver. In fact, Weaver repeats her mistake from Abduction where she had similar role and completely disappointed as a "bad agent".

The Cold Light of Day is by no means a poor movie. Starting from its inappropriate title, through the boring story-telling and finishing with its boring climax, this movie offers really nothing to the viewers. Perfectly forgettable and lifeless, it could eventually be seen on TV if you have nothing else to do, but even then you might find yourself browsing through the other TV channels.