Andrew Davis directs Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman and Rachel Weisz in this students on the run from the CIA thriller.

I’m surprised the studio system did not give up on blockbusters after the summer of 1996. Independence Day aside, every big release disappointed that season critically and financially. Take this supposed action thriller with a hot off of Speed Keanu and an even hotter from The Fugitive Davis joining forces to no great shakes. There are two hydrogen explosions for our hero to escape book ending the chase and still it all feels underwhelmingly low stakes and distinctly unthrilling. Keanu stumbles about on a cold, bascule bridge then stops to chat about the plot, then goes on a risk free chase across the ice, then stops to repeat the plot, then slides about on a decommissioned, (therefore highly unlikely to move) indoor exhibition aeroplane, before stopping to repeat the plot again. As a narrative it just stumbles awkwardly forward like our cyphers on the run and it is genuinely hard to tell if a) the lacklustre set pieces have been written first and merely strung together? Or b) the directionless conspiracy plot has forcibly had them shunted in every 10 pages or so for the sake of some action? A young Rachel Weisz is reduced to mere eye candy for the man who likes his babes covered in three thick layers at all times. The classy double act of Morgan Freeman and Brian Cox give their considerable all in some boardroom confrontations while a test audience in Delaware no doubt decided which one will actually turn out to be the villain to get his comeuppance. A shame of a film.

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