Classified Review – Slow Start, Strong Finish, Entertaining

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Tuesday, 22 October 2024 11:06

Written by Janet Walker

Classified, from Saban Films, presents a story of intrigue, espionage, and government misuse as a lone assassin has been delivering results for a rogue organization profiting from his kills, until a mysterious MI-6 analyst discovers the truth.

The film begins with our lone CIA assassin, Evan Shaw, played by Aaron Eckhart, receiving instructions for his next kill. We see the sequence repeated in several cities, the pattern is the same, he picks up the local classified section of a newspaper and finds a coded message. He is quick to recognize the message as his instructions through decades of training.

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In each of these cities we also see a female, Kacey Walker, played by Abigail Breslin, watching him. We're not sure, at this early stage, who she is or why she is interested in Shaw. He reads her eye contact as an invitation and closes the option by buying her a drink and sending her a "no, thank you, message.

The next day, after he has finished this stateside kill, he arrives in Spain. He picks up his luggage, and we understand from the pattern, within the luggage are all the items needed to execute this kill. He leaves his room, and returns, and immediately senses something is off. He opens the safe, and its contents are missing. The same female walks out the bedroom pointing a gun at him. We can see, even with the weapon, she is unsteady and not trained to handle a weapon.

She explains that she is an MI-6 analyst, and she has been investigating the unit he believes he works for, and she found that his contact, died. After her impassioned appeal, he, in a snap, takes the weapon from her, and ties her to the chair. He uses the hotel computer to confirm her story and discovers his old CIA boss, Kevin Angler, played by Tim Roth, is dead.

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When he returns to the room, he explains, she can accompany him to Malta to figure out who is behind this fake agency ordering kills for pleasure. And as he has gone rogue, he is now the target of the very agency he had sworn his loyalty to, nearly twenty years ago. We are now in Malta, and as Kacey is a former MI-6 analyst she has information on a safe house, of course, and unbeknownst to Shaw, he was implanted with a body GPS locator, that transmits his location on any given moment, if there is Wi-Fi. This obviously makes escape or privacy impossible, as the mercenaries are always close. Once they are in Malta, the film moves into the finale.

Classified is an entertaining, espionage thriller. The film builds, slowly, into greater suspense and more intense, take no prisoner, high body count, action scenes.

However, that doesn't negate from some obvious glitches in the film. During the first act of the film, the action scenes were choppier, meaning they didn't flow, and the choreography was obvious. Although I'm not aware of the budget it seemed as if the film was in the low range, which dictated the time necessary to get the best shots.

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There were other glitches such as staging Manhattan on a small budget which could have been improved just by using iconic establishing shots. Even when shot in a backlot, creating authenticity on a small budget becomes either a DIY project on an I-phone and editing it in during post or buy footage. And it's not simply the director's mistake, it got past the producers who should have noted these issues, and provided simple, and inexpensive fixes.

Once Classified moves into the second and third acts, the action sequences have greater fluidity, the cinematography is inviting, and the talent, who have strong audience appeal, deliver better performances. And when a film gets to the place where it can be released and reviewed, it is always an accomplishment.

Classified, an entertaining espionage thriller, is available on VOD. See it.

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Country:  U.S.

Language: English.

Runtime: 105 minutes.

Director: Roel Reine.

Producer: Jordan Dykstra, Gabriel Georgiev, Ellen S. Wander.

Writer: Bob DeRosa.

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Tim Roth, Abigail Breslin, Matt Hookings, Marysia S. Peres, Mike Parish, Paul Portelli, Christian Scicluna, Cassandra Spiteri, Steffi Thake, Myles Clohessy, Kim DeLonghi.