[wpdevart_youtube][wpdevart_youtube]Qd9xcQj78Sk[/wpdevart_youtube]
Dir: José Padilha (12A, 106 mins)
A sluggish docudrama that squanders the talent involved, this retelling of the 1976 hijacking of an Air France jet and the subsequent hostage rescue attempt fails to grip. Daniel Bruhl and Roasmund Pike star as two German radicals who, together with two Palestinians, find themselves very much out of their depth kidnapping 250 hostages, many of them Israelis. They end up in Uganda, attempting to broker a deal with dictator Idi Amin. The action moves from the plane to an airport compound where the Israel commandos ultimately mount a raid.
The machinations between Eddie Marsan (under heavy prosthetics) as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Lior Ashkenzazi’s Yitzhak Rabin form an interesting diversion, but a tenuously-placed dance number by the Batsheva Dance Company does not. Brazilian director Padilha made the excellent Elite Squad and its sequel, (and the rather perfunctory Robocop remake). This, however, seems bereft of the tension of his earlier successes. Its attempt to be even handed is laudable but dull and the final raid is blandly staged. Bruhl and Pike are dour throughout and cannot lift the film from its by-the-numbers presentation.
Opens Apr 6