ACTION; 1hr 48min
STARRING: John Cena, Aidan Gillen, Ashley Scott
Game to go: Cena
Miles Jackson (Gillen) is a man you don’t want to mess with: as clever, deadly and unsettlingly self-possessed as any self-respecting criminal mastermind. But even masterminds have their off days and on one of his, Miles is no match for New Orleans flatfoot Danny Fisher (Cena), who apprehends him in an involved sting in which Miles’s girlfriend (Taylor Cole) is killed.
One year later, patrolman Fisher is a detective; Miles has escaped from prison and with revenge foremost in his diabolical mind, has kidnapped Danny’s fetching fiancée (Scott). To win her back, Danny must pit wits with the enemy by struggling through a bunch of brain-teasing assignments in a “game” of 12 rounds.
Some game. As a movie, though, what with pro wrestler Cena toughing it out and Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin in fine chase, crash and burn form (not to mention Gillen as a smirking supervillain with bang-up troublemaking talent), the hardboiled corn churns beefily along with barely a pause for breath. No one is likely to doubt its destination. But that doesn’t put a damper the cut-throat ride.
