“Dirty Angels”, directed by Martin Campbell, is a bland, run of the mill hostage thriller based in Afghanistan that gives the viewer a sense of de ja vu from the mid 2000s. The weak plot, flat characters and over generalization of Middle eastern culture surely help with that. Blood and gore seems to be the only consistent theme throughout as people either get their neck slit or a gun butt to the head in some of the horrendous scenes. The dialogue is equally disturbing as it is tough and unrefined as Alissa Sullivan Haggis and Jonas McCord wrote the script. Strong language was a staple in this movie which caused constant bickering and arguing amongst an all-female cast who were professional commandos.
The American accent mixed with Eva Green’s rough voice gave life to the character Jake who was a strong and rough soldier haunted by her past. Green acted alongside Campbell in the 2006 drama series Casino Royale and was infamous for her begging abilities as well as her character and the development she received throughthe show. Many would agree that the character was reminiscent of Jodie Foster with a distinct copper bob, sharp eyes and a deep voice. While the energy was certainly present, the outcome was nothing short of disappointing.
The audacity of those who form the ISIS terrorism squad was on full display when they kidnapped school girls in international schools in Pakistan but thankfully Jake had assembled a powerful unit to get back these innocent girls at any cost.
They borrow their titles from their assignments: Geek (Jojo T. Gibbs) is the IT specialist, The Bomb (Maria Bakalova) deals with any detonative devices, Shooter (Emily Bruni) is… well, she is the shooter. And many more. Travis (Christopher Backus) is a veteran associate who brings Jake into this job and off he goes to perform the tasks, while Malik (Reza Brojerdi) and Abbas (Aziz Çapkurt) are local siblings who supply expert vehicle maneuvers and crazy forced comic relief.
In the same way, the surrounds here are quite varied rage filled chases and shoot outs to offensive macho banters to random pop culture references that are somehow usefully employed to help understand these people. Ruby Rose plays a character described as Medic and has a flirtation with a doctor called Doctor Mike, played by Edmund Kingsley, which has no role to the story at all.
That is not to say, however, that Amir (George Iskander), the evil Taliban general who conspired the abduction, has been sitting and twiddling his thumbs waiting for this to happen. He seems to be devoid of character development that allow him to be intimidating, hence he goes about his business in a risk free manner capable of resorting to violence when the need arises and there is a reason behind the action, to him it’s just another Tuesday.
Constructively put, yes there are lots of bloody and brutal scenes in this film, starting from unending gun fights, and burst Humvees.
For those who enjoy that sort of mindless throwback violence, “Dirty Angels” meets their expectations. If only it weren’t such an exercise in tedium.
In practice, the team of highly trained fearless women who have to wear burqas for heavens sake in order to save women should appeal to the sensibilities of female viewers. Unfortunately, they are portrayed as a clichéd female version of a 90s male mercenary. But when they’re in danger because they are off to save these girls who are being oppressed by fundamentalist men, you’d think they’d have the weight of that incident on them, but no they’re surrounded by so much shooting and loud explosions that nothing and the message is garbled.
Particularly at a time when United States and globally speaking women empowerment is under threat “Dirty Angels” seems to have been a missed opportunity to make an impact despite the rampant violence.
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