Starring Mel Gibson (and a host of other excellent but bit character actors)
TMG Scale 7.5

If you like Mel Gibson (and TMG loves him) and liked  the Lethal Weapon series and  if you thought Taken with Liam Neeson was great, well you might be a bit disappointed.   But, if you thought Hostage way back in 1996, the Ron Howard directed film with Gibson as an airline owner trying to get his son back from Gary Sinise, you will love this film.  This is just the kind of film Gibson does so very well.  One almost needs to create a new genre and name it after Gibson. We might call it the Walking Tall, Dirty Harry, Action, Drama Grab Your Gut genre. This one is exceptionally stomach churning for any father who has a young daughter.

I had never heard of  Bojana Novakovic who plays Gibson’s daughter (for good reason as she has only had bit parts), but TMG would tag her as due for a big break.  She is awesome and has a terrific name.  Hey, it helps!  While the underlying plot of who should feel guilty and who is really guilty was as  interesting and as fun as any government conspiracy movie, you really did not care that it was not very believable. There is a provocative  movie technique employed in the communication between Gibson and his daughter that at first seemed a bit cheap but plays together well at the end.

This movie had a palpable heartbeat that just kept it moving. TMG warns “Do not read any movie critic or review of this film.” Heck, don’t even watch the trailer. Like most all movie critics and reviews, it will just ruin it for you.  If you like Gibson, do not miss this movie.  TMG suggests an hour at the gun range with a Ruger 9M just to cool off afterwards.