All the Old Knives is a difficult movie to watch. This wasn’t a failure of acting, it was a failure of philosophy. That, “You have to have a gunfight (or other action) within the first minute to hook the view” philosophy really ended up tanking this movie. Because they started out with the terrorists killing a stewardess while hijacking a plane, they painted the film into a corner.
Bushel Basket of Back Story
The story is all about the back story. Honestly, the hijacking is almost incidental . . . you just don’t know that. To have any idea you needed the back story. Trouble is they had a bushel basket full of back story and they were trying to feed it to you one un-announced spoonful at a time.
The whole “unannounced” part of back story bleeding is why All the Old Knives can be difficult to watch. I know they tried to make it like the human mind works, mid-sentence your thoughts drift back to some other time, but it is damned annoying when you do it that much.
Not a Failure of Acting
Honestly Thandiwe Newton delivers a phenom performance. She has been in many other things but this is the first time I looked her up. (Looking her up is also how I found out she has been in many other things.)
Chris Pine, well, he is kind of the same between Star Trek, Wonder Woman, and this. It’s kind of like he has found a center lane and is laughing all the way to the bank. More power to him. At least it didn’t suck like The Contractor.
Summary
This movie would rate much higher if it was re-cut. Maybe they would have to add one or two more short scenes to tie things together, but the relentless flashbacks really piss off a movie watcher. Smiley’s People this was not! That’s sad. It had the potential to be another one of those.
For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.
