Synopsis – Alex, a mysterious thief, is pulled in by her former partner for one last heist. She quickly finds it was never just about the diamonds. A brutal murder sparks a cat and mouse chase between Alex and a master assassin. Now she must uncover the lies behind the heist and discover the secrets behind the men who have made her a target.

My Take – The success of films such Liam Neeson starrer Taken (2008) & Scarlett Johansson starrer Lucy (2014), has led to a sudden rise of action driven films without much character & story going for it. This Stephen S. Campanelli directed film falls in the same category of films. Honestly I had no idea what I was getting into or what to expect from this film. I had not heard of this film and had never seen the trailer either. Luckily for me, the film was good enough to keep me hooked for 96 minutes. Leaving the lack of creativity and choppy action aside for the sake of argument – which you really shouldn’t do with this sort of movie – it’s at least put together nicely. The directorial debut of Stephen Campanelli has characters packing heat, and is packed with a few familiar faces. Director Stephen S. Campanelli has spent many years as an in-demand camera operator for films such as Tomorrowland, American Sniper, The Maze Runner to name a few , but most notably as Clint Eastwood‘s “A” guy, & and he certainly shows the expected good eye, adding the occasional flourish to the film and setting scenes nicely enough, and while the South African-based production is not elaborate, it never looks like corners have been cut. The story is pretty standard, we have our tale of a thief/femme fatale, who has a major slip-up and ends up getting her friends killed for making such a careless mistake, and then vows to get revenge. Then we have a trench-coat wearing villain who’s as ruthless and efficient as they come, complete with his own philosophy of violence and necessity, as well as his sadistic pleasure with his line of work.

The story follows Alex Faraday (Olga Kurylenko), one of the four people involved in a robbery at a Cape Town bank. In order to stop one of her partners from killing a hostage, loses her disguise, the result of which she is forced to go underground. Before she really has a chance, her partner and ex-boyfriend Kevin (Colin Moss) attracts even more unwanted attention, as the safety deposit box they stole from belongs to a U.S. Senator (Morgan Freeman) which contained important data along with a few million diamonds. He sends a cleaner “Mr. Washington” (James Purefoy), head of a presidential-themed squad, to take out everyone who might have seen the contains of the box, right down to Kevin’s wife Penny (Lee-Anne Summers) & his young son. Thus begins a cat & mouse game between Alex & Washington. Armed with her own set of lethal skills, Alex looks to exact revenge for her murdered friends while uncovering the truth. A simple plot, perhaps, but it gets the job done for Stephen Campanelli’s South African thriller that largely eschews massive action set-pieces in favor of intricate plotting and smaller scale battles between mere handfuls of people. Competently made, the film doesn’t really bring anything truly original to the table other than Purefoy’s turn as Mr. Washington. Hands-down one of the most compelling villains I’ve encountered so far this year, he blows Kurylenko out of the water, overshadowing her with effortless charisma propelled by a single-minded love for his murderous line of work. The bread-and-butter action scenes satiate the appetite but never blow the mind. As expected some of his camerawork is pretty good but his directorial work unfortunately leaves a lot to be desired. And the story too actually, which starts off looking pretty cool and leads you on into thinking you might be in for something interesting but then as the minutes pass you find out there’s nothing special coming up. There were even moments where I felt that some of the scenes were completely unnecessary. One that quickly comes to mind – during a car chase through a parking facility and about to exit it there’s a scene where the car Alex is driving suddenly drives over a security car, there’s no preceding shot to show where she came from in order for her to drive over this security car she just does it. Campanelli almost fumbles the car chase sequences with overly frenetic editing and camerawork. But mercifully they never reach the absurd extremes of Olivier Megaton. Some of the plot twists stretch the audience’s suspension of disbelief, particularly one sequence where it’s revealed that Alex planned on getting a) clumsily captured, b) tortured, and c) allowed to live by the nearly sociopathic Mr. Washington so that she could lead him into a trap. Revelations like these demonstrate a common failing in modern action movies and thrillers: filmmakers believing that their work will only be remembered if they can pull the rug out from beneath their audiences like The Usual Suspects (1995) or any of the Joker’s Gordian Knot-esque plans from The Dark Knight (2008).

Thankfully, even with this egregious twists the film keeps you engaged. Olga Kurylenko who first gained attention when she starred in Hitman (2007) and then fame when she starred alongside Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace (2008), she was also in Oblivion (2013) with Tom Cruise playing Julia the pilot he discovers in the hibernation pod and even with Russell Crowe in The Water Diviner (2014). So you know she’s got talent if she can act with those guys. Olga Kurylenko is quite able to hold things down on her end, looking pretty capable physically and playing well off her action chops. James Purefoy, though, who chomps through the script, seeming to be having a grand old time. He really took on the antagonist role and made it look good. He seemed very comfortable playing it, even looked like he was enjoying it immensely. I thoroughly enjoyed his work. He definitely gave the character life in my opinion. Why do British actors make such good villains? Where does Morgan Freeman fit into all this? He plays an American Senator who hired Mr Washington to get the thing that Alex has on her. Yes, Morgan Freeman plays a bad man in this movie! A role so beneath him. Don’t know how successful the makers think this film would be to guarantee a sequel, as ahead of its ending there is a plot hole that led to the “cliffhanger”. On the whole, ‘Momentum’ is a one time watch action flick – fast-paced, straightforward and to the point, but you have to decide if you’re willing to spend your time with it and enjoy the ride. Momentum seems like a film that would go entirely unnoticed since it won’t be getting a huge release, and will only be viewed by those who took the time to actively keep up with the film’s development. Fans of lesser known action-thrillers might find the film somewhat satisfying and enjoyable since the action is frantic and non-stop.

Directed – Stephen S. Campanelli

Starring – Olga Kurylenko, James Purefoy, Morgan Freeman

Rated – PG15

Run Time – 96 minutes