Title: Erased
Directed by: Philipp Stölzl
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Liana Liberato, Olga Kurylenko,Yassine Fadel
Running time: 100 minutes, Rated R
An ex-CIA agent working at a corporation as a securities expert in Antwerp is now raising his estranged teenage daughter after his wife dies. After taking his daughter to the hospital when she suffers effects of a peanut allergy, he stops by his office only to find it has been cleared out and his identity has been erased – emails, bank account, any documentation showing reason why he moved to Belgium. He thwarts several assassins attempt to murder both him and his daughter, and then he discovers he is part of a large conspiracy to cover up a robbery of documents at CIA headquarters and a high profile accident his former employers were trying to cover up. He must admit to his daughter who had no knowledge of his past as a CIA assassin when he discovers the CIA is in on the conspiracy and them being marked for death, and they realize they only have themselves to depend on to get out of their situation alive.
Cut to the chase: This film is a mash up of The Net, Taken and Bourne Series but without all the witty dialogue and cool action/fight scenes.
Negative: I didn’t like any of the characters. For an Ex-CIA agent, it sure takes him a long time to subdue the bad guys. All of their attackers get their guns back prolonging the lame fight scenes and the irritating daughter just cries and hides in the corner. If I watched my dad save me from being murdered by killing the attacker, I would’ve thought “Cool, my dad’s a badass. I should trust whatever he says. Maybe I should pick up this gun and help him,” but cliche rebellious teenager keeps fighting her dad at every turn. She talks back to him like he’s an idiot, but then cowers when he’s doing his best to save both of them. He says “stay put,” she goes off to look for him and almost gets caught. Somebody slap her upside her head. I got frustrated on how many stupid mistakes were made by everyone. Movies like this one show you what not to do in this type of situation. They’re also supposed to be in a majorly French speaking country and almost everybody seemed to have an American accent (could’ve been Canadian since I didn’t hear them say “about/aboot.”). It was either a huge oversight or the filmmakers just didn’t give a damn about the details.
Positive: Many people will ignore what I said in the negative and take it as an okay suspense thriller. Aaron Eckhart could add more action films to his resume if he had some better fight choreography.
This is a low budget action flick that will attract some audiences, but for me it lacked intelligent characters and a plausible plot which in a thriller are necessary in story telling.
Reviewed by: JM Willis
Total Rating: C-
Action: C
Acting: B
Story: C-
