Honestly, this movie is pretty bad. It is full of cliched characters and the plot is so unoriginal it literally made my eyes bleed. The only reason that I haven't given it a 1 is because the acting was half decent, which is somewhat surprising considering a bulk of the actors happen to be 'professional' wrestlers. Then again, they are wrestlers, and as we know, the whole wrestling scene are little more than scripted acts with no actual skill involved. Actually, I worked that out pretty quickly when one of the scenes was actually set at a wrestling match (and the sergeant was inordinately buff). Oh, and don't even get me started on the racial profiling.
So, we have this cop that can't work with anybody else and likes to do things his own way (pretty cliched, I know), and he busts open a Russian gun smuggling ring but it put on suspension because he shot his partner just to prove that he was not a cop. Anyway, another Russian sends him a message with a video of a boy held hostage with a bomb strapped to him, and says that if he doesn't get millions of dollars he will blow the kid up. Oh, did I also mention that the bomb has a timer, so when they shoot the kidnapper, they then have to race against time to find the kid and defuse the bomb. Yep, pretty cliched.
Oh, and there are some pretty unrealistic scenes in the film as well, particularly when he bursts into the Russian consulate, shoots up half the guards, and then not only beats up the ambassador but shoves a pen in his leg. Sure, the Russian crime boss comes after him later, but for some reason I don't think that has anything to do with the consulate because he had already upset him earlier in the movie. Oh, and not to forget that the Russian consulate happens to be a front for a gun smuggling operation - you see what I mean by racial profiling, the thing that I get from this film is that basically all Russians are crooks.
Yeah, there really isn't anything about this film that sets itself apart from the multitude of other police dramas out there. Okay, I won't actually say that it is boring, but really, it certainly didn't suspend my disbelief. Oh, and need I mention that once the film is all done and finished, he actually doesn't get into any trouble, despite the fact that he beat up half the police in the station, and even kicked his captain in the nether regions. You see what I mean?
Review of Countdown
