The Cold Light of Day (2012)

Director: Mabrouk El Mechri

Starring: Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Sigourney Weaver

After his family is kidnapped during their sailing trip in Spain, a young Wall Street trader is confronted by the people responsible: intelligence agents looking to recover a mysterious briefcase.

‘The Cold light of Day’ is a forgettable action thriller with underdeveloped characters, implausible events and a plot that never really becomes clear.

Henry Cavill stars as the film’s protagonist, Will – a character I don’t fully understand. Bruce Willis stars as his Dad, Martin – a character I don’t fully understand. Sigourney Weaver stars as the film’s antagonist, Carrack – a character I don’t fully understand. Get the picture?

So, Will joins his family in Madrid for a yachting vacation. When he gets upset with his Dad, he swims to shore to go to town. On his return to the beach, he finds the yacht gone. But don’t worry, he finds it just around the bend – with his family gone. He then learns his family has been kidnapped. His Dad, however, managed to escape and Will learns secrets about him. If you see Will confused, I assure you he wasn’t nearly as confused as I was…

Essentially the film revolves around a briefcase. Martin and Carrack were apparently working together at some stage and came in possession of the case. This case was “sent up the ranks” and is “gone”. The rest of the movie sees Will being chased by the bad guys, and there’s always talk about the case. Blah-blah-blah-blah.

The climatic chase scene was good. But that’s as much as I liked about the film. (And off course every time Henry Cavill took off his shirt. Just saying…). Nothing here was believable. And I have a HUGE problem with the ending. And here’s SPOILERS, so stop reading if you haven’t seen the movie yet and plan on watching it.

Everything here happened BECAUSE of the briefcase. But we NEVER find out what was in that darn briefcase!!!!!! All this chasing, and sitting through a movie just to be let down by this absurd ending??!!! Seriously, writers, you had no idea what could or should have been in the case??? It renders the movie pointless!! I mean, what the hell?!

Would I watch it again? What? Sit through the movie again for nothing? You’re kidding…