Do not try acting bossy towards Idris Elba, because he will look and hunt you down, and he will wow you with his continues actions…and you must be quite aware about it by now, right? Britian does shoot-shift with Bastille Day, placing a blonde hot Brit in the modern euro-thriller who plays ask-no-questions-social-mavericks who shoot-first.
It’s never going to stop one stuffy deskbound cop few notches out of control intelligence operative Sean Briar singlehandedly foiling any attempt to out a bomb on France’s national day celebrations. Not the paperwork reducing middle management and return barely occupational risks to him limiting the regular whupping he dishes out to a number of repulsive, expendable goons; and absolutely not the arguing imbecilic brutes themselves, whose well laid schemes are anchored on stirring the hornet’s nest through the use sociopolitical websites and the like. “The hashtags will do it!”, one of the bad guys enthusiastically says this famous phrase; he is even so witty that does not know how easy it is for Gen Y to do activism online nowadays.
Still, it is from one such sulky millennial that Briar expects to get assistance – the US pickpocket Michael Mason (Richard Madden), who by accident steals the bag with the bomb inside, which is timed to go off and with just such luck sets off massive and illegal unofficial Bastille day fireworks he is the main official suspect for these alleged imaginary fireworks.
Charlotte Le Bon’s morally conflicted ass, Zoe, is carrying out the orders reluctantly and that makes her a criminal as well, which is why the bag is stolen from her by Mason. As such, Briar tries to scoop the duo in the nick of time before both the French police and the bad guys trap, all the while trying to determine if the terrorist group’s master plan has been lifted from Die Hard, The Rock or some other caotic picture produced by Luc Besson. While it is apparent that the universe is indeed being portrayed on a much smaller canvas than what is expected of a jason bourne or a john mccalane film, on a technical aspect James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman In Black) and his crew surely squeeze out a lot of woah for their euro. An initial chase sequence set on the rooftops is superb, confidence is high and it is remarkably fast, racey and aware of its environment. Many modern day action directors fall short this is one that got many who achieve action scenes from a different medium. An active ruckus occurring east of a bar in the dead of night took place. And then series of misconnections ¬–leads to a spontaneous counter part to bar. The music is cheeky and fits why random pickpocketing occurred on a bar counter towards the very end of the participants of the chain reaction scene. Elba’s burly presence makes a good contrast too, with Madden’s more limber, fluid physicality. Visually, they are a good odd couple.
A little relief perhaps because when they do speak, sadly, all we hear, or for that matter even in the case of practically any character, is reiterated cinema clichés. This character calls at least one of them out for wearing ‘tighty whities’ as a distinctly subjugated Elba is seen doing in one of the introductions. Pessimism aside, it has been fascinating when they pinpoint Mason from a videotape, what follows is a bit self-satisfaction after absurdly reading what flash info they bring, it is the lazy sort of reading at best which is supposed to be out of a government document.
Watkins has made clear which films he would want to recreate, including the hardboiled crime stories of the ‘70s, such as The French Connection, and the action buddy comedies of the 1980s. This, to be frank, is insane. The only French connection is the Parisian backdrop and if one were to use 48 Hrs as baseline shouldn’t there be a frantic fast- talking Eddie Murphy style hero? Or at least some comedic breaks? Madden is ok, but a foul mouth wise Cracker may run dry on humour. And surely now, after Kit Harington’s dull activity Spooks The Greater Good and even more horrible Trmn8r Jenysis Emilia Clarke the time must come to stop inserting Game of Thrones actors in cheap action films – you are young, you are sexy, the winter will not come too fast this time so no need to hurry.
As with its claimed cinematographic diction, it can be said with some certainty that the embellishments are what in the end brought the greatest peril to the film – the crunching dissonance between what was planned and how it was implemented. Though made before last years’ nasty events of Charlie Hebdo or the Paris attacks, Bastille Day does not come off as too much of a cash grab owing – that first it actually tries to explore some sophisticated topics of nation’s callousness, resurgence of extreme nationalist sentiments and xenophobia. Then eventually the plot becomes so bat-shit insane that to expect any resemblance with the Bataclan events and to comprehend that as a rational post-Bataclan genre film would be equivalent to waiting for 007 to save the day in the Cold War.
And coming back to Bond, probably some laurels would be extended to the viewers wondering if Elba’s tough guy performance got him the role of another lady’s man hunter working for Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Since he’s given a character that is so insubstantial that when one thinks of how Liam Neeson’s character in Taken was Oscar bait and not an action film as is Bastille Day, this movie is not the one to judge him over. Still, no one would imagine getting shot by one man even a handsome and charming one out of these two does manage to sneak through (he even does an end credits song – the odds on a bond role and a theme tune is double duty come on), minutes after, they ask if it is crossed him the pointer of the 3rd and last Olympics game featuring Elba and Madden’s Lee buddy flicks (Anzac day? St.patrick’s Day??? Hashtag non merci.
In Decision
Awash in highs and lows, containing well thought out ideas and yet completely terrible scenes in a Bastille Day review one cannot help wielding about, It is not wholly overused as has sought to be more whether jig or no Euro-thriller.
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