Chief of Station

Started out pretty good. Good plot actually. But what killed it for me were the fight scenes and the shoot outs. The bad guys were as poor a shots as Stormtroopers in Star Wars! And of course the good guys can't miss. Oh, and how he all of a sudden has a change of clothes after finding the laptop with the evidence on it! Could have been good, but it wasn't. Car chase scenes too were poorly done and like most of the film totally unrealistic. Best thing about it was the scenery in Europe. I would have thought with the cast they had it would have been a little better. But unfortunately it was basically not good.

Stopped the film for about 1 hour and never finished watching it. Nothing compelling to bring me back. Rented it against my better judgement but the good cast enticed me with a promise of potential entertainment value. That luster potential died when main lead visited the cemetery where his wife is laid to rest. Large brown marble gravestone with a rather bold gold inlay of a crescent & star. Yes she was a Muslim. Thought immediately of South Park Joke "put a chick in it and make her gay" Disney advice for PC screenwriters. No idea if that quick shot was an important part to the plot but it did make me wonder looking at the graveyard full of Christian headstones if the producers violated some sort of Islamic burial rite? I suspect understanding and respecting Islamic burial customs was not a priority for the producers who just wanted to make a simple pc comment. Any way save your $6 it will be free soon...

I like Eckhart. I like action espionage movies, but whilst this one holds the attention, it is a bit bland. I swithered between a 6 or 7 score but gave it a 6 due to the clunky, slowly fight scenes (Pettyfer's looked especially un-coordinated & slow - I swear I could almost hear/see him counting down the timed movements in each sequence. I just don't rate him as an actor at all & much preferred Otto Farrant as Alex Rider to Pettyfer's bland interpretation. A pretty boy lead for RomCom maybe, but no action lead). Bleak landscape (which they could've made more use of), bleak storyline & very dark cinematics helped create a feeling of oppressed pressure - for which, TBH, there wasn't much release. I wanted to rip that gun out of his son's hands when they were under fire in the films big dramatic car chase (is it just me, or have these obligatory action car chases in EVERY film become boring? There's no replacement for great acting, character building or suspense building on a decent storyline. Big budget doesn't always = quality. This could've been so much better & a whole lot brighter in colour. Continuity was also an issue (see earlier reviews). Eckhart & Kurylenko were watchable as always, but more could've developed for her character more for role & story development. Some real depth would've been good. Ok for an easy late night or rainy day watch, but not to be properly entertained. A quick burger type of movie, rather than a steak dinner one. In a few weeks, I doubt I'll remember this one. It passes the time quite pleasurably, but it won't rock or change your world. 6/10.

Starts good, money spent on the action but honestly how can a director miss key important areas...half way through it's becomes more like a b movie... I had to send it to my daughter a future continuation director to use as an example! For example (1) the lock on the door opened by the necklace! It's a padlock... with a screw on hinge... one kick and the door would open.. or just break in through the glass windows! Seriously all that effort for the necklace... to open a padlock!! Should have been access to a bank vault container or secret sealed room.. (2) shooting in the warehouse... with 2 trained soldiers shooting straight down the corridor at him... in a million years a kid wouldn't miss that shot! (3) car exits warehouse past the soldiers and crashes... time it takes for the soldiers to get outside they must have been on a coffee break!! (4) bullet holes in the driver side door of his car! But he's still ok (5) not ducking down when driving towards 2 gunmen, fairly sure thats not typical human behaviour (6) the last scene in Paris looks like a Hollywood stage set... anyway so many more but mainly in the last half of the movie...almost like they sacked a continuation director half way through or ran out of money... would have cost nothing to fix this and make it a way better movie. I'll happily review movies for free lol.

What a pile of disjointed, nonsensical, unbelievable crap, a plate of old boiled cabbage. Rather wish I'd have had my moustache waxed and soothed with chilli oil. Just don't have the words to communicate how bad this is and usually I would articulate in greater detail why but I've wasted enough time watching it. Every cliche in the East meets West playbook. Bad guy gets stabbed multiple times and one in the jugular but no blood! He then gets mullered with a heavy metal object, falls off a moving ship only to show up in next few scenes dry, unbloodied and unbruised. Trained assassins who can't hit a car from 6 feet away with fully automatic weapons. So.no I can't go on. I might ruin it for someone. Olga is still beautiful though, so every cloud. Avoid.

In Chief of Station, learning that the death of his wife was not an accident, a former CIA Station Chief is forced back into the espionage underworld, teaming up with an adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew. The film improves a little in the 2nd-half, but it's bland and generic, without grit or suspense and the story certainly never intrigues. Aaron Eckhart's not lead material and there were no twists because we could see everything coming. Another point, Ben gets his son with no experience to face the assassins straight on and shoot at them, surely he'd be better off being the shooter and the son driving, but why didn't the assassins hit him.

I sat down to watch the movie chief of station because I really enjoy Aaron Eckhart. The movie started out great. The back-and-forth play between seasoned espionage agents was fun to watch. Then the "action" started. The storyline itself was somewhat interesting, but what drove me up the wall were the action scenes. In one fight between Aaron Eckhart and the lead bad guy, they beat the crap out of each other on a boat to the point The bad guy gets hit with what appears to be some kind of metal object three times in the face And falls overboard. The very next scene, he is wet to be sure, but not a mark on him. Similarly with Aaron Eckhart. Not a mark on his face. Then there are the ridiculous gun battles. His untrained son is shooting at a car with trained assassins. The cars are 1 Foot apart and no one can hit anything even with high-powered automatic weapons. His son who didn't even know how to use the gun somehow knows how to use the grenade launcher to do away with the bad guy. I hope Aaron Eckhart is not heading into Bruce Willis and Nicolas Cage career choices. The only good thing about this movie is it is an hour and a half long. At least I didn't waste over two hours.