Momentum

Dir: Stephen Campanelli

2015

*

The money a film makes has no baring on its quality and I stand by that statement. Avatar was the most successful film of all time for many years but I think few people would argue that it was the ‘greatest’ film ever made. Some of my favourite films didn’t make a penny, low budget masterpieces like 1992’s Eddie Presley came and went without anyone noticing and it was utterly brilliant. So just because Momentum came and went in 2015 without anyone noticing doesn’t mean that it’s a bad film. So it only made £46 at the UK box office, probably not surprising given that it had no advertising and only played for one day across just ten cinemas. People just see the headline ‘Film makes only £46 at the UK box office’ and assume the worst and that is wrong, just as people think films that make ridiculous amounts of money are automatically great. Real film fans know that there are many straight-to-video gems out there and Netflix should also tell people that a big financial cinema release doesn’t guarantee quality each and every time. I think I’ve made my point. However, 2015’s Momentum is a dreadful film and I feel sorry for those people who left the house and spent £46 between them to go see it. I’d want my money back if I were them. A great cameraman doth not necessarily make a great director, and while there was a touch of flare in Stephen Campanelli’s debut, there wasn’t much of anything else. The film opens up during a bank robbery, although you’d be forgiven for thinking you were watching three sex gimps playing laser quest. Our protagonist is Alex (Olga Kurylenko), a trained ex-military agent-turned-thief, who gets pulled by her former partner into a high-tech bank heist, her ‘one last job’. During said heist, which of course goes wrong, she accidentally steals a valuable flash drive containing incriminating evidence. Alex is then relentlessly pursued by a team of agents led by Mr. Washington (James Purefoy), who has been sent by an anonymous Senator (Morgan Freeman) to retrieve the flash drive. While involved in a violent and frenetic cat-and-mouse chase across the city, Alex tries to uncover the conspiracy behind her pursuers. I have to admit I love a good bank heist movie but this isn’t a good bank heist movie. The robbery is so high-tech it’s utterly ridiculous, flashing lights equaling clever stuff my tiny brain could never understand. Olga Kurylenko is not a leading actor and nor is she an action star. She’s barely an extra. There is something to be said for James Purefoy’s camp villain but it certainly cannot be taken seriously - Vincent Cassel was clever to jump ship when he did. Freeman offered his services to Campanelli for his directorial debut based on their prior working relationship, when he was a cameraman for Clint Eastwood but looking at most of the films Freeman has made over the last few years I’m starting to think that he owes someone a lot of money, possibly the same person Nicholas Cage and John Travolta owe. There is never an ounce of intrigue or suspense to be had, although I did wonder what the hell was going on for the first half of the movie – which doesn’t count. As a thriller it is never thrilling, the action is too mediocre for an action movie and it is far to predictable to ever be entertaining. I’m all for switching off to some mindless action but if one switches off too far then they fall asleep and that is what I felt myself constantly battling against. The real joke was that it was intended as an entry point to a franchise. Perhaps that was the origin of its failure – it was written with other films in mind and not enough time was spent on simply getting the one film right. It’s a bit obtuse really, and it failed because of it. It is deeply ironic that it was called Momentum as that was the one thing it was severely lacking, especially for a self-proclaimed action film. It’s the sort of thing even Milla Jovovich would pass on – and that’s saying something (although I still love her). Cliché, predictable, formulaic, boring….I have very little else to say about it.