The premise of this movie – in a CIA black site, a terrorist breaks free and begins to hunt the operatives – got me interested. It sounded maybe like a military slasher film, a reverse Die Hard, or if John Wick was the bad guy. And, for a short period of time, the movie lived up to my imagination.

Unfortunately the film doesn’t gel enough… there are a few good suspense moments and one good action set piece, but mostly the movie sputters and coughs. When it should be crackling with energy, the characters wind up walking around or aimlessly loitering.

The big bad villain who is hunting the spooks is played by Jason Clarke. I like Jason Clarke… but a lethal in-the-shadows terror weapon who is slicing and dicing ALL the CIA agents is not really his specialty. This role called for either an Arnold beast-mode type or a Keanu lethal snake type.

The main lead is Michelle Monaghan and it was nice to see her in action thriller mode… especially when, darn it all, she loses her shirt and finishes the movie in a t-shirt, conveniently showing off toned arms and back. There’s no doubt about her skill in this… she read the lines and did the action.

She was just simply failed by lackluster pacing, suspense, and action. And a bit of an obviously low budget… the film is largely set in non-descript cinderblock hallways but occasionally has to show obviously CGI bunker doors, deserts, and muzzle flashes.

This film had potential and occasionally lived up to it, but more often than not failed. I don’t think its any of the actors fault (even Clarke did his job), but more the ambition exceeded the ability and budget of the filmmakers.

Score: 71