The 355

The cast do great, just a shame the rest of <em>'The 355'</em> isn't up to their level. Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o, Penélope Cruz and Fan Bingbing all produce, all of them give enjoyable performances and never became uninteresting, irritating or whatever to me. They are the film's major plus. I'm struggling for other positives, cinematography at a push? Unfortunately, I came away from watching feeling underwhelmed. The second half really drags, not helped by an extremely lame 'twist'. The first half isn't perfect but does hold potential, once the main bunch eventually team up it's more interesting. The editing is a little iffy, too. There are quite a few talky scenes that aren't worthwhile at all, especially early on with Chastain and Sebastian Stan. Things improve when the action sequences get underway, not that they are anything extraordinary but what we see is satisfactory; it's the bits in between that let this 2022 release down. 6/10, despite the well performing cast; who almost made me give this 7/10.

Pretty lifeless global action-thriller where it seemed co-writer and director Simon Kinberg was attempting to emulate the Bourne franchise (the cinematography and score especially reminded me of that series). The story is thin, predictable and really sounded familiar but can't put my finger on what (thinking Casino Royale with the short selling of stocks at least), but a thin story is fine (a few of the Mission Impossible movies didn't have the strongest plots or villains), if only the main cast had any chemistry which I didn't feel they did, despite a few of them being solid actresses. This yet another film that filmmakers thought would be a potential franchise as it's left open ended for a sequel. I guess there was potential and maybe under a better director would've been at least an entertaining flick, but in the end I found it to be forgettable. **2.25/5**