Unlocked review

Director: Michael Apted

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Michael Douglas, Akshay Kumar

Rating: 15

Running Time: 98m 18s

Release Date: 5 May 2017

Directed by Michael Apted, UNLOCKED probably isn’t the best spy/action/thriller film you’ll see this year but it’s definitely not the worst.

Noomi Rapace (soon to be staring in the upcoming ALIEN: COVENANT) stars as Alice Racine, a CIA interrogator who side lined her career when she failed to ‘unlock’ terrorist information before an attack in Paris a few years before the events of UNLOCKED. Alice places the blame on herself which prompts her to leave the field and become a caseworker in London.

Alice’s backstory is introduced early on in the film, a few years after the attack and she’s still searching for answers. There are times when Alice’s backstory feels like a hindrance and sometimes forced into the narrative. Alice even keeps newspaper cut outs stuck to her fridge so she and now the audience, must never forget. One particular scene staring John Malkovich as a CIA agent feels clumsy and thrown in at the last minute. Suddenly we’re shown a montage of Alice’s past which is then narrated to us by the other CIA agents – it feels awkward and disrupts the film.

Unlocked review

In London, investigations are underway as suspicion and evidence grows against a looming biological attack. Alice is unexpectedly brought back to the CIA to interrogate and successfully ‘unlocks’ the suspect. Before she passes the information on she receives a call that leads her to think she’s been set up.

With some camera trickery and pair of very reflective sunglasses Alice spots the gun in the room and now the action starts.

But with the action comes some very intricate plot details which can be hard to keep up with seeing as gun shots are being fired in most scenes and Alice is almost always on the run. Trying to keep up with her or who she’s even running from becomes the real mission of UNLOCKED.

Unlocked review

Whilst on the run Alice bumps into and later enlists the help of MI5 agent played by Orlando Bloom (it feels like it’s been while since we last saw him on our screens, but he’ll also be reprising his role as Will Turner in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: SALAZAR’S REVENGE). He can only be described using cliché terms like ‘cheeky chappy’ and ‘Jack the lad’.

UNLOCKED tries to be the sort of film that stays two steps ahead of the audience and sometimes it does. It so badly wants to be the film that outwits the audience, but a lot of the time the plot introduces too many twists and turns that leave you feeling dizzy and you can predict the ending before it happens.

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