Not beliveable action thriller
930026
Not very believable but fast action paced thriller. Offers nothing new to the genre
752856
Do not, even for a moment, believe that this is an "action thriller" or an "action" anything else. It is a snooze, a slog, and an incomprehensible bore. There is no real through line that you could even call a story. And sweet mother of mercy, could NO ONE manage to make the dialogue comprehensible in post-production? I'd be amazed if I could understand 20% of what was being said, even with the sound cranked to painful levels.

There is one fight scene in the entire film, and it's entirely uninteresting: Statham punching a few unruly soccer fans. That's it. The film contains no suspense, no thrills, no action, no discernible plot, no believable characters, and is an amazing waste of time and talent. The photography, however, is adequate. Which is a shame, as it kept me hoping that this film would eventually turn into something. It didn't. Avoid like the plague!
1278912
Mindless killing.  Story was boring.

There are much better assasin movies out there like James Bond,  Bourne Identity, Angelina Jolie, La Femme Nikita, Leon The Professional, The Last Samurai, Mission Impossible, Jack Reacher.
662666
To be honest, looking back at this 90s action/thriller, i come to think that Hollywood was easily ammused with fireworks, bombs and guns in a storyline. Add some big names into the mix and an acclaimed director and guess what, the movie fails. The Rock, plainly based on the world's fate or San Francsico for that matter, it just about a bunch of guys trying to evade the green rocks from exploding and causing mass chaos and nucleur reactivity.

I admire Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery because their acting can sometimes be of higher class (Adaptation, From Russia with Love), but acting in a thriller with the worst storyline of the 90s changed my mind of watching big names in summer action blockbusters. If you like the 'bangs' and have no moral taste in movies, than surely this is for you. I give it two stars for the mild action sequences provided, not even by the actors but by the stuntmen, without whom this film would be impossible.
790808
"The Killing Machine" (also known as "Icarus") is a so-so action film starring and directed by Dolph Lundgren. The low-budget action film is not actually terrible, but it is not very good, either.

The story is a standard take on the old-fashioned action genre, about one Edward Genn (Dolph Lundgren), currently working for an investment company. Of course Edward, ex-KGB special agent, is not what he seems. As a killer for hire, he travels around the world and does what is required to do, but one day someone seems to have discovered his true identity, and he is forced to fight back, protecting his ex-wife and daughter.

The slapdash script is a concoction of clichd and uninspired set-pieces, but it's OK with me. I thought with Dolph Lundgren as a star and director we can expect something better than an average direct-to-DVD actioner, I mean, some fun. Unfortunately, with the tired narrative devices (too frequent voiceovers and flashbacks), overused flashy camera work and the hackneyed storyline, even Lundgren and his solid direction can do little to save the film. What is worse, despite its rather silly title the film takes itself too seriously and Bo Svenson is sadly wasted, having not much to do.

The fact that Dolph Lundgren is a competent director doesn't change, and as an actor I think he is pretty good as a disillusioned former assassin. (And I suspect that the film was made under very difficult conditions.) However, even his considerable skills as actor and director cannot save the messy script.
3322238
If you like, the Bruce Willis type movie with preposterous and over the top events then you will like the book.  If you prefer the more serious type thriller then you will be disappointed.  I was disappointed.

It should not be too much to ask for an author to do a little research to get some basic facts right.  Like how the Secret Service really works.  If he purposely writes incorrect facts then he must be writing for teenagers.  Either way the book was not for me.
3421439
I understand this is only a movie, but I enjoy thrillers where the mind can be somewhat fooled into believing it could really happen. This is not one of those movies! Keanu Reeves --one simple man --survives despite all the deadly friction he encounters throughout the movie. The foundation of this movie is simply a one-man mafia, with a bunch of shooting, stabbing & neck-snapping... And for what? All over a killed dog & a stolen car. Totally whack plot!
3609977
It started slow and I keep waiting for it to take off and it never did.  Very slow movie and calling this an action adventure is inaccurate.  Basically no action nor adventure.
2621695
One of the reasons I like the first 3 Bourne movies was that they were, with a few exceptions, plausible to realistic. The main plot of this movie is built around science fiction (ad-hoc genetic re-engineering). That just ruined it for me and made it too fake to believe.
1883984
Forsyth does his usual good job, but this is no "Day of the Jackal" or "The Odessa File."
This novel follows intrepid westerners in the "special relationship" (the U.S.A. nd the U.K.) and the use of technology in the "war on terror."
Based on a shred of a hint, Western intelligence agencies learn of the existence of an impending Al-Qaeda attack that with a code name that implies it will be larger than 9/11.
The novel then follows a thin explication of Wahabbism and fundamentalist and realist interpretations of The Prophet being caught up into heaven (there are metaphorical, spiritual, and incarnational schools on this subject).
How this links to the impending terror attack is the puzzle
Sadly, the plot is flawed by too many nine-sigma chances (an overheard remark, a piece of a jet plane crashing in a remote region that happens to be a tiny high security prison, etc.).
The hero is retired SAS officer Mike Martin who attempts to infiltrate Al-Qaeda via his resemblance and command of Arabic and dialects (but not Pushtan) .
The story follows the broad "war on terror" and agencies and efforts, so it is a god thumbnail survey of the military and secret services, but detail as specific as Tom Clancy, which makes reading more breezy nd "thriller" rather than "military procedural."
Unfortunately, the plotting is awkward. Martin once he is "back; in Al Qaida is immediately deployed to the exact plot that he was investigatigating: really really unlikely.
There is some ridiculous silliness about the "security" of the G-8 meeting that sets up the motivation for the plot. Again, highly unlikely.
This is a plot-driven thriller that demands a lot of suspension of reality and probability and the characters are thin "army man!" cut outs. There is some interesting detail and some great location sequences. But with so many contrivances and flaws it is a forgivable disappointment, and not Forsyth's usual standard.
2608913
I've read my share of action thrillers and this book represents the worst. I became tired of it at 44% through and saw no reason to continue.
4972420
Good premise but the continual shoot em up action is over the top and takes away from what was a good plot line.
452322
The first several chapters flowed by really fast and I was anxious to read more. Then the actions became really unbelievable. I do not like to read action that is simply unbelievable.  People do NOT go to prison and then beat up the leaders of prison gangs, and then chastise and manhandle the warden and get away with it. People do NOT get arrested and then escape almost as easily as going out the back door of a bar.  Simply unbelievable activities that ruined this otherwise well-written book. I like Nick Stephenson as a person, from his emails and his actions to move his books, but this one was disappointing for me. I will have to force myself to read another one by Nick.
536228
As has been previously commented by others, it is obvious that Tom Clancy had little to do with this and joins the growing list of authors showing contempt to their readers by out-sourcing.

But this starts off looking and feeling very much like a Clancy - it's a doorstop of a book (750 pages) and tries hard to be a complex techno-thriller. In essence it is about the drug cartels and terrorists working together and an elite US force trying to bring them down. It lacks the pace and tension of a traditional Clancy along with the blend of politics and on the ground action and ends up being overlong and does not suck you in enough. Far, far too many characters confuse and our tediously flawed hero, Max Moore, jets all over the place with as much angst as he has identities.

Maybe in a shorter, tighter, book this might have worked, but it felt too drawn out and as if it was working to a template rather than delivering a good story. Just about deserves three stars but I did toy with two, mainly based on the excessive length and lack of real excitement. But very average and very long.
1455173
The description made the book sound like it was an action thriller.

Instead the reader is treated to a page after page of exposition and explanations given as dialog scene after dialog scene. And when something does actually happen we don't get to see it....instead we get told about it in another dialog scene!

Example: At one point early on a character is kidnapped by what seem to be very dangerous people. Sounds thrilling, right?  No, instead the kidnappers spend something like 20 pages letting the kidnapped character give more exposition. And it goes on and in like that for scene after scene.

This book managed to both drive me crazy and bore me to tears.
3747871
The movie starts out suspensefully but just degrades unto a run of the mill action movie with a totally unbelievable plot. Gerard Butler is actually a good actor, but the script is weak.
138648
This book was basically an average war/action thriller.  It did show a little understanding of life in Afghanistan in the countryside. It also sowed the hypocrisy of the clerics and the establishment over the general populate.