Idris Elba stars as Sean Briar, a CIA agent with a troubled past who is stationed as a member of a surveillance team, in Paris in the midst of a growing level of violent activity toward the government by an anarchistic cell based in the city. Part of this gangs agenda involves planting a bomb in the offices of the French Nationalist Party however this does not go to plan when the bomber Zoe (Charlotte Le Bon) has a change of heart and decides not to go through with her mission as she believes innocent people will be hurt which was not part of the plan. This coincides with a chance encounter she has with Michael Mason (Richard Madden who it was nice to see in a role other than Robb Stark on Game Of Thrones) an expert pickpocket who steal her bag, along with the bomb, takes the valuables and ditches the remains of the bag which explodes a few moments later and kills some people.

Mason has to go on the run but at the same time he is being tracked by both Briar and the left wing gang who owned the bomb. Luckily for Mason it is Briar who locates him first and while being interrogated in a ‘safe house’ they are disturbed by members of the left wing gang and after some nice fight scenes it becomes apparent that there is more to this gang than meets the eye, so Mason and Briar need to team up in order to track down Zoe who is the only link for some information on the gang who are trying to kill them and once they do so it becomes apparent that this gang is not just a politically motivated crew and they have links to the police force.

This movie is essentially a buddy cop film (although one of them is not a cop) with the loose cannon policeman doing things his own way, with some good one liners, plenty of action and a half decent twist that, unfortunately, is a little predictable. Plus, I don’t know if it was just me but every time I looked at Victor Gamieux (Jose Garcia) the head the French Ministry of Homeland Security, I thought I was looking at a slightly older Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

The big plus in the film is the chemistry of Elba who commands the screen and fights his way through scene after scene and Madden as a fish out of water, almost comic, foil who shows his worth in the end and they both look engaged in roles that could have otherwise been bland. After watching this I think it would be great to see Elba given a chance at the James Bond role as he could do a great job as a moodier Bond such as the one we’ve recently seen in Casino Royale or Skyfall.

While it’s all been done before by this is a decent action movie which will keep you entertained and amused but won’t set your world alight.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10