Nigeria is in a state of chaos after a coupe. Navy SEAL Lieutenant A. K. Waters (Bruce Willis) and his team are sent to rescue Doctors Without Borders physician Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a priest and two nuns. Kendricks refuses to leave the helpless villagers behind. The priest and the nuns stay behind, while Waters leads everybody on a walk to Cameroon. The Catholic mission is destroyed and everybody is massacred. Waters kidnaps Kendricks away on the helicopters while leaving the refugees behind. However when they fly over the destroyed village, Waters decides to return to help lead the villagers to safety. The group is relentlessly pursued by the rebel army.
It's a functional drama that devolves into a blow-em-up action movie. It works as the former but not really the latter. The exodus is nightmarish and the massacres are brutal. I like the savagery because it fits the situation. Kendricks is way too naive. Bellucci is doing too much melodramatic acting. It would be much better to have a younger actress so her naivety wouldn't be so glaring. Willis is able to pull it back by giving the movie its reserved intensity. The Hawaiian jungle looks great and is a good substitute. The final battle is too big and too bombastic. Not only is it too unrealistic but it also takes away the grittiness of the rest of the movie. It's a lot of overdramatized unreasonable action. Dropping a few bombs on a mass of troops wouldn't kill them all, and it's highly doubtful that this 3rd world border has an insurmountable fence.
It's a functional drama that devolves into a blow-em-up action movie. It works as the former but not really the latter. The exodus is nightmarish and the massacres are brutal. I like the savagery because it fits the situation. Kendricks is way too naive. Bellucci is doing too much melodramatic acting. It would be much better to have a younger actress so her naivety wouldn't be so glaring. Willis is able to pull it back by giving the movie its reserved intensity. The Hawaiian jungle looks great and is a good substitute. The final battle is too big and too bombastic. Not only is it too unrealistic but it also takes away the grittiness of the rest of the movie. It's a lot of overdramatized unreasonable action. Dropping a few bombs on a mass of troops wouldn't kill them all, and it's highly doubtful that this 3rd world border has an insurmountable fence.