Unthinkable

Sometimes movies that should have made it to the big screen get caught  up in the studio system, and wind up being churned out straight to DVD.   Other times, those straight-to-DVD movies are barely worth the plastic  they're printed on.

Unthinkable falls squarely within the second category. While it may boast lead performances from the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Sheen and Carrie-Anne Moss, and even supporting roles from Brandon Routh and current Weeds star Martin Donovan, it never manages to escape the shackles of a derivative and unbelievable script.

It just goes to show that you really can't polish a bad screenplay.

Unthinkable relies on one basic premise, and then stretches it  to extremes that would make Jack Bauer blush. What lengths would you go  to if someone in your custody knew the location of three nuclear bombs  on American soil?

The terrorist in question is a homegrown dissident, an American Muslim  previously called Steven Arthur Younger, now simply known as Yusuf  (Michael Sheen). The movie opens with reports of a manhunt, but it  quickly emerges that he has already been caught by a black-ops unit, and  they're convinced that he's planted three homemade nuclear devices in  U.S. cities.

Yusuf appears to be working alone, but he's not offering any information  under usual interrogation methods, so they call in CTU Agent Helen  Brody (Moss) and freelance interrogator Henry Harold Humphries  (Jackson). Brody believes they should treat Yusuf humanely while they  question him. Humphries believes in cutting off his fingers, then  mangling his genitals. They proceed to argue this back-and-forth for the  rest of the movie.

There are a couple of twists thrown in for good measure, but Unthinkable clearly wants us to ask where the acceptable boundaries lie when  millions of lives are at stake. It's a philosophical discussion  masquerading as a thriller, and it ends up falling way short of the mark  on both counts. The debate never extends beyond a simple 'torture is  justified'/'no it isn't' divide, while the thrills are so few and far  between that you'll hanker for the good old days of 24.

As for the performances, the experienced cast do their best with what  they're given, but that really isn't much. Unless you love the idea of  watching Sam Jackson go crazy for 90 minutes, or Michael Sheen screaming  for almost as long, then this movie is never going to deliver. Director  Gregor Jordan (the man responsible for the even greater cinematic crime  of The Informers) should be consigned to his own torture chamber.

It just goes to show that a topical subject and a talented cast aren't  enough - you have to have a plot, too. And while this so clearly wants  to be unthinkable, it ends up simply being unbelievable.

1/5

Rating: 4/5

I really had no idea what to expect when I put Unthinkable on, I only knew it starred Samuel L. Jackson and that it was getting some really positive reviews. So it starts off with video footage, and it looks to be like it is from a terrorist. The man in the footage looked really familiar and I thought to myself, that's Michael Sheen. So I had to pause it and use my great imdb app for my iPhone and see if it was infect him, and it was. Already I was pumped for this film, we are then introduced to the FBI, we have our main lady Carrie-Anne Moss and her crew (including Superman himself Brandon Routh and Gil Bellows), they are after the terrorists. A few strange things happen and we are introduced to Samuel L. Jackson, he is a mysterious man. We don't find out much of what is going on, however suddenly we see on the news report they are looking for a man Steven Arthur Younger (Sheen). This comes as a surprise to the FBI, however we soon find out that he has in fact been captured and he is dangerous. He's planted three bombs, in three cities and they are ready to go off. It is of course unknown where they are, and Samuel L. Jackson happens to be a man who can interrogate people and get the information they need. It sounds more complicated then it actually is, but this film is about how far is too far.

First things first, this film is filled with top notch performances. Samuel L. Jackson is on fire here, we don't get the usual schtick we get from him. He's a man I wouldn't want to mess with, he has to do what he has to do in order to get the correct information and save thousands of lives. We have Carrie-Anne Moss who I think is a great actress and don't see enough of. She is the opposite of what Jackson is, she is the compassionate one, she still wants to get the correct information but they have different ideas of how to go about it. Michael Sheen probably has the most difficult role here, spending most of his time strapped to a chair, getting well tortured. He shows his acting chops, pulls off a decent American accent. I had a hard time believing what he was saying, he is very sincere and you'll wonder about him, you'll sympathise with him and it all works. The supporting cast are all really good as well, I got a bit giddy seeing Brandon Routh in another film. Gil Bellows was really good as well, I always enjoy seeing him too. I giggled when I saw Benito Martinez show up, knowing him best from The Shield as Acevada but he was good as the man helping Jackson. Martin Donovan was good too, maybe a little under used, I would have liked to have seen more of him.

I felt this film has the perfect pacing, it went through all the different scenes perfectly. It built up the tension and desperation, I was almost biting my nails waiting to see how this was going to resolve itself. This film makes you really think, who is right, who is wrong, how far is too far? I like films that actually present these kind of issues and I felt Untraceable did that in a perfect way too. It deals with sensitive issues like terrorism and politics, and this always leaves people very divvied on their opinions and this film will certainly leave you with a lot to discuss afterwards. I also really liked how it was unpredictable, would we have a happy ending? Could these bombs be found and stopped in time? This film I think will surprise you, and that is a good thing when so many films can be overly predictable. I loved the cinematography, the film had a gritty feeling at all the right times, and the place they were situated for most of the film felt like it could be anywhere. On the downside as great as the pacing was, I thought perhaps it could have been maybe 5 minutes shorter. I would have liked to have gotten to know Carrie-Anne Moss's character a little more then we did, as well as Sheen's. But over all I thought this was a great film and I certainly would highly recommend this.

First Published at SuperMarcey.com