Ewan is a secret service agent faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a suicide bomber and his terrorist cell.
A brutal, unsparing thriller, if a little on the long side. Director Hajaig's should be applauded for striving to show a balanced view of the radicalisation process and the campaign against terrorism. Sean Bean should be applauded for kicking several shades of ass.
Could have been a British 24 but is undone by terrible plotting, implausibility and lack of excitement.
A decent calling card, but next time round Hajaig must recognise a good thing, and then run with it.
It plays like a lad-mag fantasy of counterterrorist work, juxtaposing mediocre action sscenes with a lot of deadly serious Islamist rhetoric.
Hajaig stages the fights, chases and explosions with flair, but the plotting grows so preposterous and the direction so heavy-handed that all nuance and subtlety are soon squashed.
It’s a measure of how bad the film is that you’re actually on the side of the suicide bombers.
Cleanskin is weighed down by an unwieldy flashback structure and by way of conclusion falls back on an improbable and unsatisfying 'strategy of tension' explanation, whilst its target audience is almost certainly itching for more mano-a-mano combat.
Contentious stuff, then, which makes the clumsy execution especially troubling.
It's a competent, conventional thriller, but there's something suspiciously unbalanced going on here.
Laughable stuff, if it wasn't for the wall to wall stereotypes, the dodgy acting, the general bad taste and some appalling scenes, many of them involving women.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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