The Independent

This is a fictional account of the upcoming 2024 election. The setting borrows from our current state of affairs. The nation is in a recession and post pandemic. One party promotes rage while the whines about it and nothing gets done. Nate Sterling (John Cena) is an Olympic gold medalist who has written a common sense manifesto. He is running as a major third party candidate against the sitting Democrat and a woman Republican senator from Tennessee (Ann Dowd pretending to be Kathy Bates). At the Washington Chronicle (looks like the Post in "All the President's Men"), newbie Elisha James (Jodie Turner-Smith) is working with senior writer and columnist Nicolas Booker ( Brian Cox) covering the campaigns. Elisha suspects the Republican may be moving funds from the Lotto to their own campaign, robbing schools of funding. Elsiha's boyfriend (Luke Kirby) works for Nate Sterling and there is too much pillow talk going on. This was a nice paced film and a good political drama reminding me too much of real political drama. The "Country over Politics" political sign sounds like the Lincoln Foundation. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

At a time when journalistic integrity and the pursuit of the truth in the media have reached a nadir, "The Independent" sought to recover some of the nostalgia for decent news reporting. The structure of the film took on the approach of "All The President's Men" in the hustle of two investigative reporters to get to the heart of political corruption that impacts the future of the nation. Unfortunately, the filmmakers got mired in a sob story about how a presidential candidate currently leading in the polls co-opted a national lottery to embezzle millions and took away funds earmarked for poor elementary school children in West Virginia. There were good performances from Brian Cox and Jodie Turner-Smith as the two determined reporters seeking to expose the corruption of the presidential front runner, Nate Sterling. Cox plays the grizzled veteran journalist while Turner-Smith is the tyro reporter cleverly getting to the bottom of the story. A major shortcoming of the film was that all three presidential candidates were lackluster and not believable. It was not convincing at all that Sterling would be able to implement his policy "Country Over Party" in light of the political realities of the Washington establishment. The fact that he had to resort to an embezzlement scheme to float his campaign says it all about his capabilities as a leader. While there was decent dramatic tension and an interesting set of characters, the subplot of the young journalist's family, wherein her father was also a journalist, was inadvertently the most moving and memorable part of the film.

The film manages to build slowly but every key event and dialogue is rushed. Totally lacking credibility. Dialogue and scrip are atrocious. By the end you could not care less about any character, strangely all dislikeable, just delight the movie finished. This film does not manage even to be another passe politcal thriller. It feels like a bad B movie. Rest assured it has nothing to say on politics or current events. John Cena as presidential candidate Sterling is a particular hard to watch. Too long in the gym, not long enough in acting school I would suggest. Jodie Turner-Smith could also work on her likeability factor. Very one dimensional. Avoid.

I'm not even eight minutes into this movie, and they've given John Cena some kind of soliloquy as a presidential candidate. His smirky face and is absolutely horrible delivery of lines makes me want to turn this movie off right away. John Cena is a horrible actor. He's actually good in the wrestling ring when he delivers what they call "promos" in the wrestling world. He has passion, grit, and what he calls "ruthless aggression:. It makes for good TV and good face against heel tension. But as an actor in any movie I've seen him in, it's been a disaster. He's not even good at action movies. The only movie I ever liked him in was Amy's Schumer's Trainwreck. That's because Judd Apatow cast him correctly for comic relief of an empty headed muscleman.

I'm a bit shocked to see a film with some major actors go this under the radar, but here we are. I mostly enjoyed this film. Yes, it rehashes a lot of political thriller tropes, however it updates some for the time. Brian Cox remains an absolute powerhouse of a performer and the film excels when he is on screen. The rest of cast does a fine job and I don't understand the criticism of Cena. He showed on Peacemaker that he has dramatic chops and I thought he did well for what the role asked of him. The story isn't too original, but it remains reasonably compelling until the end. For a direct to Peacock film, I was pleasantly surprised.

Talented young Journalist Eli James uncovers an Earth shattering truth about For a so called thriller, this really did lack one element, thrills. From the outset it seemed as though it was going to be a slick, fast paced thriller full of subterfuge and intrigue, sadly it was just boring. I wasn't keen on the production of this film, it looked and felt a little cheap, like a made for TV thriller that ends up showing on a Sunday afternoon slot some time in April. I stuck it out until the end, hoping for it to get better, and wanting it to get better, personally I think it flatlined quite early on, and never sparked into anything. Brian Cox has always been a good actor, and he did a good job, albeit within the confines of the script. If I'm honest, I watched this primarily because I wanted to see how good Jodie Turner Smith was following on from the ill fated Anne Boleyn series. I thought Jodie was ok, again hampered by the average script. 4/10.

I was struck with how well this movie opened with a great writing sequence. I guess I related to a marginalised character both for being a woman and black stood who up for herself very professionally against a clearly biased boss. I loved how this was written and how Brian Cox came in and added some credibility with his always awesome acting. The story was current and relevant and not at all predictable which really is quite hard to do these days. I like these kind of movies though and I think if you like political dramas and thrillers this will just appeal. So much makes sense here and it's believable that this amount of corruption leads to real presidents being elected. Great casting all round. The likes the way this movie just grabbed my attention, for every minute. Very engaging.