Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating *

Cast: Gerard Butler, Gary Oldman, Linda Cardellini, Toby Stephens, Common, Adam James,  Cory Johnson, Henry Goodman, Carter MacIntyre, Shane Taylor, Kola Bokinni, Mikey Collins, Will Attenborough, Kieron Bimpson, David Gyasi, Michael Nyqvist, Caroline Goodall, David Yelland, Stuart Milligan.

The land of cliche is under constant threat of never being allowed to die in peace, to be remembered for the small annoyances, for the large discomfort felt, a hero must be seen to stand tall and have the attention of the audience, but they must be seen as being more than a two dimensional caricature which sends a signal to the audience, that the land of cliche is being primed and prepped once more for boarding.

The problem with the formulaic is that once it is witnessed in the opening act, it becomes hard to ignore all the other waving crowds of chestnut scenes and tired expressions sitting down on the dock, waving their placards, throwing the party streamers as if welcoming home another film that manages to scrape the bottom of the sea floor.

There are few actors that seem to have had such a bad run of form when it comes to being cast, or choosing films, that neither stretch what could have been a wonderfully demanding career, or at least kept him out of the running for the Golden Raspberry Awards. The issue becomes noticeable, and for all that Mr. Butler is a genuinely honourable man and sincere in thought, the films he has been in of late could quite easily never been made and the world of cinema would have better for it. When an audience can place Hunter Killer into the same mould as Geostorm, Gods of Egypt, London Has Fallen and Playing For Keeps, then you know for sure that good guys never really win, only sink lower with each passing release.

It perhaps is unfair to put all the blame on Gerard Butler, for in Hunter Killer nobody in the main cast, none of the big names, with the exception of Michael Nyqvist, who sadly passed away after completion of the film, comes out with any true sense of accomplishing art, of being able to say that this was, if not their finest moment, then at least didn’t get bogged down by the feeling of boredom. It is a strange feeling seeing the great Gary Oldman resort to delivering lines of almost strangled sayings, of playing a man so wrapped in the gung-ho and lacking any real depth. The same though can be said of Toby Stephens, and unfortunately of the normally always reliable Linda Cardellini, who had shone brightly with sublime and anarchic poise in A Simple Favour, but in this comes off as just as stereotyped as her colleagues.

A film that may have principled ideas, but in the end should be seen as a washout, one that misses the point of the modern age completely, of leaving the heroic looking too chiselled jawed, of relying on a script that could not float, and regrettably being one of the most unloved films in cinema history.

Ian D. Hall