I've seen a few sniffy reviews of Interceptor and half the people on Twitter seem to utterly hate it, but I thought it was pretty decent. It was a solidly made low budget action movie and while the CGI wasn't convincing, the close-quarters punch-ups were. It reminds me a lot of the direct-to-video action movies you'd find in Blockbuster chains. They're definitely working with a tight budget, but it's surprisingly moving too.
The film stars Elsa Pataky as an army Captain assigned to a missile-interception base in the middle of the ocean. No sooner has she turned up than terrorists seize control of the rig, leaving pretty much everyone dead except our rock hard heroine. Sealed in the rig's command centre, she begins a tense back-and-forth battle of wits to save America from nuclear armageddon.
And while it does look as though they've stretched every penny as far as it can possibly go, Interceptor has a surprising depth. The lead's backstory revolves around a promising career ruined by a sexual harassment case, while the themes of rich men failing upward and MAGA talking points uncomfortably on-point.
The key attraction though is the fighting and Interceptor delivers. The gunfights aren't much to shout about, but when Pataky is dodging knives and driving her elbows into bad guy's faces, it's reliably entertaining. There's a couple of gruesome deaths here (although a telegraphed acid kill never arrives) and the film doesn't shy away from decapitations in order to win a lower rating.
At its heart, Interceptor is a meat and potatoes action film. It's got a few things to say about modern American societal attitudes towards things like workplace harassment and that will inevitably rile up the online trolls, but it is a fun ninety minutes of bone breaking. The Chris Hemsworth cameo is overdone though.
The film stars Elsa Pataky as an army Captain assigned to a missile-interception base in the middle of the ocean. No sooner has she turned up than terrorists seize control of the rig, leaving pretty much everyone dead except our rock hard heroine. Sealed in the rig's command centre, she begins a tense back-and-forth battle of wits to save America from nuclear armageddon.
And while it does look as though they've stretched every penny as far as it can possibly go, Interceptor has a surprising depth. The lead's backstory revolves around a promising career ruined by a sexual harassment case, while the themes of rich men failing upward and MAGA talking points uncomfortably on-point.
The key attraction though is the fighting and Interceptor delivers. The gunfights aren't much to shout about, but when Pataky is dodging knives and driving her elbows into bad guy's faces, it's reliably entertaining. There's a couple of gruesome deaths here (although a telegraphed acid kill never arrives) and the film doesn't shy away from decapitations in order to win a lower rating.
At its heart, Interceptor is a meat and potatoes action film. It's got a few things to say about modern American societal attitudes towards things like workplace harassment and that will inevitably rile up the online trolls, but it is a fun ninety minutes of bone breaking. The Chris Hemsworth cameo is overdone though.