Strictly average movie

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Cleanskin is a well directed piece about the contemporary issue of 'home grown' terrorism in the UK. All sides are portrayed with a degree of neutrality, without the usual stereotyping of similar films such as those from the US.Some scenes do jar a little, or beg for some explanation, however.Sean Bean's character is noted as a veteran of British military service in Afghanistan and, whilst visiting the funeral of a dead soldier, who we are led to believe he served with (Bean apparently an officer or warrant-officer by another character's reference to him as 'sir'), another disabled veteran stumbles away from the service feeling somewhat sorry for himself, only to be stopped by Bean, who straightens him up and makes him realise his own situation isn't that dire. Here's the conundrum though. As the other man hobbles away down the aisle, we see a photo of the dead soldier, complete with red beret, denoting service with the Parachute Regiment. When talking with Bean, he asks him about 'the Regiment'. That sort of phrase is more suited to talk about the SAS, frequently referred to as 'the Regiment', especially by those within it. A minor flaw of sorts as one could surmise that this young man is referring to the Parachute Regiment, although much less likely.Another scene where Abhin Galeya, the 'home grown' terrorist is talking with the usual firebrand extremist cleric in a flashback scene about going to Afghanistan to learn how to 'do useful things' as the cleric puts it. Nothing is made of this, although I suspect the film's budget had something to do with that particular concept.One final thing that was a little off was the whole 'false flag' twist towards the end. It did little to carry the story along as Charlotte Rampling's character was amoral enough to have been merely corrupt rather than willing to instigate terror acts for her own agenda. This smacked of a paranoid patriot US style storyline which I felt detracted from the overall feel of the thing.These issues aside, the various twists and turns and brief violent scenes along with the psychological stress suffered by many within the film, especially Ewan (Bean) and Ash (Abhin Galeya) really do the film justice. Tom Burke's role as Ewan's erstwhile partner, Mark is another nice subplot as is the character Kate, Ash's sometime love interest played by Tuppence Middleton.All in all, a well made, topical film well worth a watch.

British secret agents are commanded to recover a cache of stolen explosives and kill the terrorists using them in London. Young men are told to become terrorists by a muslim cleric whose arguments against the British establishment are convincing. This film is dangerous because these arguments are never refuted and the Secret Service is seen as both amateurish (Ewan) and encouraging terrorism (Charlotte). It conceivably might be used as a training device to turn Muslim men into terrorists.

"Cleanskin" is a very good film from 2012. It is currently available on NetFlix Instant Download Streaming. The writer and director is Hadi Hajaig. For me, Sean (aka 'Ewan') puts on a fantastic performance, in a film where I was also very impressed with Peter Polycarpou (aka 'Nabil'). The romance between Ash and Kate felt very believable, not all actors/actresses can pull this job off. It was a film that touches on a very serious subject, so for all you rom-com addicts, prob not one for you, lol! However, although a serious topic, you'll find some light hearted humor in parts of the film. Have already recommended to friends and family, purchased on DVD myself, so go and watch too if you already haven't. Overall, a great watch with some excellent action shots and twists and turns throughout. I gave it 8 stars. Dale Haufrect

A British film about suicide bombers in London is most likely to be too dark (and a little too much like real life) to be a mainstream success, so many people may be forgiven for never hearing about Cleanskin.Sean Bean plays a Secret Service agent on the trail of a suicide bomber cell in Britain. What could be quite a clichéd film actually turns out pretty good. It's partly divided up into two separate stories - one detailing Sean's quest to track down the cell and the other showing the terrorists themselves. Perhaps the best part of the film even relates to the terrorists. While Sean is your typical no-nonsense tough guy (think Liam Neeson in the Taken films), the terrorists are actually pretty well thought out characters - no 'True Lies' clichéd Arab terrorists here. It takes something pretty well written to make you have sympathy with a terrorist one minute, then be revolted by his actions the next, plus even weave in a convincing love story into the mix.I won't go into too many details about the film's plot, as there are a few twists and turns you might not see coming. Just rest assured, if you're looking for a decent action/drama (with plenty of splendid shots of London from above!) then give Sean and co a go.