The Cold Light Of Day Review

Cold Light Of Day, The
In Spain, American Will Shaw (Henry Cavill) has to go on the run after his parents and brother disappear and he finds himself plunged into a conflict between rogue intelligence factions who are out to secure a mysterious briefcase.

by Kim Newman |
Published on
Release Date:

06 Apr 2012

Running Time:

NaN minutes

Certificate:

12A

Original Title:

Cold Light Of Day, The

Surely, Sigourney Weaver has better things to do than make Abduction twice in one year? This has the same premise as the Taylor Lautner vehicle, as the everyman protagonist (Henry Cavill here, a grown-up) discovers his Dad (here, Bruce Willis) is a secret agent who everyone wants dead, so he has to learn action movie skills overnight to survive. Weaver even plays the same sort of sinister suit role.

The script is cobbled together from Robert Ludlum’s knock-offs, nice Spanish locations feature as backdrops to the usual chases and fights, Veronica Echegui (from Bunny and the Bull) is an appealing but underused Eurobabe heroine and the plot is full of twists but offers no surprises.

Mabrouk El Mechri, director of the well-liked JCVD, can assemble an action scene reasonably, but is stuck with you’ve-seen-it-before gambits like the hero and heroine abseiling off a roof with a satellite dish cable or a secret meeting in an underground car park which turns into a bullet festival.

It exists basically as a long showreel for Superman-to-be Henry Cavill, who gets to demonstrate a mastery of run-with-a-gun acting and flex his leading man charisma without really breaking a sweat.

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