Chief of Station

One more week, one more straight-to-digital action thriller, and the list goes on. Recently, these typical casts comprise either Aaron Eckhart or Olga Kurylenko, and well so happens that this film Jesse V. Johnson’s Chief of Station has both. (It actually is the movie where it stars Eckhart in the main character and Kurylenko who is not even third supported. But okay, let’s take it as it is.) The following is for a specific type of audience.

There was cinema of such type which used to fill the screens in regular intervals in the 80s and 90s. Middle-range budget pictures, cast and budget inflated thanks to one or two recognizeable but by no means A-list actors.

Or average directors with a certain level of competence who directed the film. These were well made, and competent films. They aren’t always very epic, uncomplicated and serve their purpose well – one such hit is this one.

Eckhart plays Ben Malloy, a CIA Station Chief. Sure, he’s a spy, but he has a very dreamy life with his loving wife, fellow spy Farrah (Laetitia Eido). Where he has motive to knock some LGBTQ heads after she gets all blowed up and sad Dedicates his life to retiring while his son Nick (Chris Petrovski) won’t pick up the phone.

But wait, the death of his wife was not simply due to an unfortunate accident. (From context, I had no idea even a man is a boom supposed to be an accidental term until another man says so, in fact, it appears that such an exercise never happened.)

His endeavor to get to the bottom of what has occurred and possibly save her from being maligned – there is an unconvincing colouration of her having been potentially ‘dirty’ – Malloy capitulates to the surge of reassuming his former playing of espionage games.

Chief of Station can be described as Tom Clancy of watered-down epics, or rather a dad novel turned into…well, this. At once, the story is a chaotic combination of many interlocking plots, changing sides, treason, nasty surprises and narrow escapes. However, it is also swooping and ill-constructed, in it’s appropriate measure.

This is why the script by George Mahaffey is so clear on what is going on- the writer simply loses the plot and just puts it out there: everyone, probably except Momo, is seeking some ‘doodah’ placed on Malloy by his wife and nobody knows where it is or what will happen if any one of them gets their hand on it.

It is as if the writer has put this line “spy stuff happens here” on the page and has never bothered to go back to that page. And all the typical of spies had operatives tropes do happen at a certain point in time or the other.

What a decent film, this one. Johnson takes advantage of Europe locations and has a keen flair for working with dirty, industrial units and factories. All in all, there seems to be plenty of economy in the production which is always lacking on Johnson’s part and he gives it all out on the screen for us.

When the action comes, which it does, it’s as strong as it has ever been—but then the stunt-performer-turned-director is always dependable when it comes to that. Good, there is some action in it but not so much as you will find in some of his movies, especially when paired with Scott Adkins. Instead of building to an emotional climax, this film chooses to do it more of a rising action with a lot of intense and dampening stress. Except none of that is as compelling or exciting as it should be.

The second part of the film opens up really wide despite the fact that 2 or 3 high caliber weapons were on display in the first reel. There are gun battles, a bitching car chase, a pleasant fight, and some other cool things that happen.

This is when Kurylenko comes on stage, at last, maybe it was better this way. Early in the film, there is a picture of Kurylenko on a computer but only at 59 minutes her character appears on screen for the first time. Her single notable sequence, which kicks ass, notwithstanding her character is mostly mumbo jumbo and underused.

Yet again, Eckhart makes an effective, reliable effort in headlining one of these mid-level outings. See this year’s The Bricklayer for another. He has enough charisma and presence that things can be carried along, though he isn’t exactly setting the frame on fire – one can understand why studios at one point had earmarked him for star status, and also how that never really came to pass. But he has found his level in these kinds of genre pictures and has become comfortable with this career path and I am all for such career progression.

The party also saw some of the normal cast of Johnson who endorse the concept of conspiracy several times. This includes, of course, Daniel Bernhardt. However, this is not how it usually goes. He earns one spotlight to demonstrate his prowess as an action performer, one of the oil -golden seasoned performing heroes, until embarrassment retreats back. However, he does look very cool all inked up in Russian criminal tattoos. And James Faulkner in a brief role of elder intelligence agent does level and a half of the meat with ‘intelligence’ giving nothing further.

After lurking after ‘Hell hath no Fury’ by Johnson, she appeared for only a scene and then the buzz was lost. It is structured in a way that suggests that something further than that is certain to happen, but what lies along that side never ever matures whatsoever hence becomes useless. Alex Pettyfer plays his part efficiently as yet another chiropterist who from frame one of every of the films makes you aware that he is the bad guy. You see him and say, ‘Yep, he’s a bad guy.’

There are certain plot blunders like two of us on the sattle, where Malloy indeed states the position of a character that it is relatively quite a few scenes before is pronounced previously, or the bad guys does not appear to be engaged in the shoot out issue and then an explosion on a boat only apprise no more than allons there is wickedness afoot.

Stuck within its cigar and trench coat espionage tale the movie never attempts to break the stereotype — the formula is never changed, synonyms have to be. Once again, however, if you stick around until the very end, there is a good reward.

Chief of Station reads as a film that is going to do crazy numbers on Netflix in about 2 months. It will hit the top ten for a week or two and some click headlines images-movie sites will proclaim ahas action movie that was clicking algorithm down ghosts. Some people will see it anyway and many of them will not even bear the particulars in mind. [Grade: C+]

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