Sick Product of a Sick System

Expected more

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I really enjoyed this one with gripping action, thrills and the chases. Olga does justice to her role and plays her character well. The suspense towards the end was quite surprising. Overall well made action thriller that did not waste my time at all.

MOMENTUM is a modern-day action thriller with a female lead and plenty of action to see it through. It was shot in a nice-looking South Africa by a first-time director and it did very badly on release at the box office, although I'm not too sure why. I suspect that the appetite for straight action movies has disappeared these days as people turn to superhero flicks and other outlandish variants for their thrills. Me, I prefer a good BOURNE-style thriller any day of the week and MOMENTUM did the trick for me. It's obviously been made on a limited budget so it's a surprise that the explosive action really hits home and provides all the necessary excitement. With this and THE NOVEMBER MAN Olga Kurylenko proves that she's got what it takes to lead a thriller, although the real stand-out here is James Purefoy's urbane villain who seems to be modelled on his role in THE FOLLOWING. Purefoy is a delight and adds plenty of wry humour to his part. Morgan Freeman is wasted and some of the plotting is a little routine, but otherwise this is a cat-and-mouse thriller that delivers the goods.

Alexis Farraday (Olga Kurylenko) gets pulled into another job by her running mate Kevin Fuller. It's a bank heist to steal diamonds. Alexis gets unmasked in a fight against one of the robbery crew. Mr. Washington (James Purefoy) hired by a Senator (Morgan Freeman) comes looking not just for the diamonds but a computer drive. He kills Fuller but Alexis escapes with the drive.The story is simple. It relies on action and not much else. It's alright for a 90's gun fight action film. The action is done well enough. There is a good variety of gun, hand-to-hand, and car chases. It needs more in terms of dialog and characterization. The writing is lackluster. Kurylenko is still not the best actress around and struggles to be the lead. Campanelli is trying make the jump from camera operator to director. A simple thing like more specificity to Freeman's character would help. The movie often stalls when the action gets stuck in one location. It becomes static especially for an action movie. The camera work may be correct but the directing is unimaginative.

Spoiler Alert: Possible spoiler points mentioned, don't read this until you have seen the movie.First up was the introduction. There was a brief moment of hope with Morgan Freeman's excellent delivery of some lines, then it started to go down hill with the burglary scene.Yes the action was impressive, however it didn't justify this movie. The film 'Lucy' has already provided a terrific action film with a great female star, did we need more of the same just for the sake of an action film? For this viewer, we really didn't.My favorite moments in the film and the only reason I continued to watch it after almost switching it off and returning it directly to my local movie shop, was that there was the sudden appearance by 'James Purefoy' who for this fan is the face of 'Joe Carroll' from the TV series 'The Following' starring 'Kevin Bacon'. He's an amazing bad guy and certainly didn't disappoint in this film.Aside from that the movie really did play off as pointless and even Morgan Freeman's declaration at the end which suggests a possible sequel down the track, didn't add anything more to the film.It's an action movie with a women who seems to have super human abilities and an endless supply of bullets, nuff said.