Viewed – 01 March 2012  DVD

Sometimes, It’s worth going on instinct and not listening to reviews when it comes to a movie.  That may be a strange thing to say as a reviewer myself, but we don’t always get it right.  Or we expect too much.  This can be said for this stylish thriller written by French filmmaker / producer Luc Besson and starring the very beautiful Zoe Saldana (Avatar).

Zoe plays a Colombian girl named Cataleya (yes, not Colombiana) who witnesses her parents get killed by gangsters, and vows revenge.  Travelling to Chicago and being brought up by her uncle, she soon becomes a professional assassin and plies her trade in hope that one day, she’ll find her father’s killer.  This is nothing new, and for Luc Besson, he trod very similar ground in the cult favourite La Femme Nikita.  Yet Zoe Saldana makes for a great ice-cool killer and the various hits are executed with panache (including a very cool Police Station sequence).  Supporting cast are mostly bland, no-name bit part actors who fit the Colombia-heavy stereotype and don’t do much more than look bad-ass and fire lots of guns.  Besson’s chosen director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3), name sounding like a Transformer aside, delivers a slick-looking experience and is obviously in love with his leading lady (who can blame him?).  The plot does rely on a few too many conveniences though, and some stuff  is very sloppily written, like the frankly bonkers way Cataleya’s identity gets discovered … yet overall this was fast and fun – just switch off that brain, and you’ll have a good time.

Verdict:  2.5 /5