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**
Dir: Simon West (15, 95 mins)
Duncan Falconer’s series of novels about SBS hardass Stratton are brought to the screen by hack action director Simon West, who gave us the riotous Con Air, the dubious Tomb Raider and the execrable Expendables 2. Superman’s Henry Cavill was initially cast but replaced by the strangely always employed Dominic Cooper with straight to DVD results. Cooper, woefully miscast, plays the titular agent tasked to stop a biological threat released by drone over the city of London. A curiously accented Connie Nielsen is his boss and ex-Harry Potter alumnus Tom Felton, token American Tyler Hoechlin and Gemma Chan round out the ensemble as his team mates, battling funnily accented Thomas Kretschmann. Poorly scripted and executed with a bland leading man, messy action sequences and a cast that look a bit embarrassed, Stratton is a mess rather than a franchise starter.
Opens July 28