Assassins

Check Mate?

Sly Stallone stars as an ageing assassin who gets embroiled in a cat and mouse game with a younger assassin who wants to be number one of the trade. Teaming up with a computer hacker, Stallone battles not only his pursuer but also an event from his past that troubles him so.

With Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore in starry support, Richard Donner in the director's chair and the Wachowski brothers on writing duties, Assassins held the promise of a top line actioner. Sadly that promise is not met.

There's clear signs of the makers trying to make something more deep and cerebral, what ultimately transpires is a overly complicated - and way over long - picture. Punctured with great action scenes, none more so than an outr...

A not great movie, but one that it's hard to pinpoint exact ways in which it could easily have been improved. A Stallone/Banderas as cat and mouse assassins sounds promising, but in reality this technoir thriller is... Actually kind of boring. Seems like it needs a ground-up re-working to get a story up to the concept of that team, which sounds exhausting.

Final rating: - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.