It's taken me a while to get around to reviewing 'Survivor' even though I saw it a week or so ago; I've just not thought about it much since. It's that sort of film.
If Hitchcock was alive today he'd be making films like 'Survivor'. It's an espionage thriller in which a falsely accused murder suspect goes on the run, plays cat and mouse with a ruthless enemy and everything builds to a suspenseful finale in a memorable location.
Not that I'm saying that 'Survivor' approaches the level of the great auteur; clearly not. This is just a bit of cinematic fluff to pass the time featuring Milla Jovovich and Pierce Brosnan. It's not 'North By Northwest'; it's not even 'Topaz' or 'Torn Curtain'. I make the comparison only to illustrate that this is the sort of film that studios used to make all the time. This updating of the formula is perfectly serviceable for what it is. It's strange that it has been so savaged across the board by reviewers. It doesn't pretend to be anything other than a lightweight thriller and if you stumbled across it on a movie channel you'd probably stick with it. It's not a very good film, but it's not a turkey. It's a liitle bit more cinematic and slightly more enjoyable than the 'Spooks' movie that was out not so long ago. If this was a Bruce Willis vehicle it would probably have it's fans.
Milla Jovovich is Kate Abbott an American Foreign Service Officer stationed in London. She rides a motorbike, she lost friends in 9/11 and has an artist friend and....um....well....that's it. What a fascinating, complex character she is. We know she's super great at her job because we see her in action refusing to give someone a visa stamp. It's exciting stuff.
Pierce Brosnan plays the world's greatest assassin: The Watchman. He's called The Watchman because he makes bombs....and....get this...makes watches. No wonder Interpol have failed to find him. No one knows what he looks like....despite him looking like Pierce Brosnan. He wears an overcoat, fiddles with gadgets and occasionally wears glasses and/or a moustache. What a fascinating, complex character he is. We know he's the world's greatest assassin because we're told that he is....but all we see him do is make bombs that kill innocent people and miss his targets at close range with alarming regularity. He does stab someone in the ear. It's exciting stuff.
Kate asks too many questions, steps on too many toes and refuses too many visas. The bad guys decide that she has to go. The Watchmaker is summarily despatched to assassinate her. But his cunning plan to blow her and her Embassy co-workers up in a swanky restaurant goes awry because.....she's buying a gift in the shop opposite. The restaurant blows sky high anyway and it is only when The Watchman (a master assassin remember) finds Kate standing in the rubble that he thinks that maybe shooting her would be the best option. He misses and so the chase is on.
Everybody that you think is going to be a double crossing traitor turns out to be a double crossing traitor and pretty soon Kate is framed for murder and running for her life. This forces her to fall back on ingenious spy craft like asking her only friend in London to meet her at a rendezvous with a change of clothes. Before you know it she's being chased through the Underground and trying to break in to her own workplace.
And then some gubbins about terrorists wanting to blow up New York on New Year's Eve or summat.
All in all it's rubbish.... but it's enjoyable rubbish.
Milla Jovovich is an okay actress but is completely charisma free in this. Brosnan has clearly been cast to play against type and give the Watchmaker an aura of "Bond gone bad". He's just bad; a ludicrous unthreatening villain. Robert Forster again makes you wonder how Tarantino managed to get a first rate performance out of him in 'Jackie Brown' because he's clearly just on auto-pilot again here. Bizarrely, Frances de la Tour is in it and she's always good....so that's something.
'Survivor' then: implausible, barely competent but still enjoyable and definitely the best Pierce Brosnan abseiling down a stairwell whilst shooting at lamps film you are ever likely to see.
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