A murderous detainee and a damaged C.I.A. agent face off in this uninspired action movie.
Perhaps the most depressing thing about Sophia Banks’s “Black Site” — a dreary, underwritten thriller — is an ending that suggests a sequel might already be in the works. For the sake of its beleaguered star, Michelle Monaghan, I can only hope not.
Playing the bereaved C.I.A. Agent Abby Trent, Monaghan strives to add depth and humanity to a character that, like almost everyone else onscreen, is barely more than a margin note. Assigned to a secret underground facility in the Jordanian desert known as the Citadel (the collective brainchild, we learn, of five English-speaking democracies), Abby oversees the enthusiastic interrogation of suspected terrorists. Just as she’s about to be recalled to D.C., a team arrives with a high-value prisoner named Hatchet (Jason Clarke), a man whose questioning Abby has reason to take very personally.
Whether it’s beefy brutes force-feeding an Arab detainee, or Abby locking horns with a pair of sadistic private contractors, Jinder Ho’s screenplay crumples beneath boilerplate dialogue (“These people are dangerous!”) and hackneyed setups. When, inevitably, Hatchet escapes and begins offing his captors, the movie briefly jolts with shamefaced energy before settling into a tedious chase through a warren of gray concrete. This involves much running around in the dark with guns and flashlights, while a string-heavy soundtrack sweats to conjure an excitement that remains stubbornly elusive.
Cheap-looking and unpleasant — too many scenes boast a sickly green sheen, as if viewed through a haze of nausea — “Black Site” is a pointless rehash of war-on-terror tropes. The more bodies pile up, the less reason we have to care.
Black Site
Rated R for potty mouths and plasma-splattered murders. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Amazon, Apple TV and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
