Visitors Review

bouzirid (2012-05-25 20:11)

"Hot Chick" but not more...

There is a reason why I do not like this movie.It's not because of the special effects, actually, they are great! Norit's because of the cast - most of em did an good job.The thing I do not enjoyed is, that the director tried to combine 2types of movies - but he missed his goal to 99 %.The problem @ Columbiana is, it wants to be a bit less realistic, butthat for more cool - Yeah, some scenes are! But to try to on the otherhand make the film emotional, is a real bad mistake. In not any scene Ifelt pain or anything else, not even as "Mamma" and the other guy werekilled. They made it too dramatic and when you imagine this "superspecial woman" that can climb under a car like Spiderman and swim in asharks aquarium (with no logic entrance), you do not really believe inher feelings.The director should had made a decision: Even he does an surrealisticmovie like kill bill all over the line, or a drama, like Leon (wich wasa way more realistic, even if not the most realistic movie).One other thing I missed in the movie: I did not laugh @ anytime... anaction based film without any funny scene is really really bad.whatever, if you shut down you brain completely and like hot girls,then you might like it.If you expect an good action movie with some story, you will bedisappointed :(

omnislash_ultimate (2012-05-25 08:35)

Need to add a kilo of salt

OK, we all know this is an action film, so story-line or minor detailcan be ignored. But this film made me very tired while watching it because of themassive illogical details. The actions are normal, full of guns and explode and that's all. Actorsact very cursory like "Okey, we just do it and let's think about thenext film." Anyway, if you watching it while eating dinner, it is fine, but if youseriously turn off the light, make sure popcorn is ready, you will bedisappointed.

FlashCallahan (2012-05-24 15:40)

Besson should start directing some of these....

A young woman grows up to be a stone-cold assassin after witnessing herparents' murder as a child in Bogota.She works for her uncle as a hit-man by day, but her personal time isspent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to herultimate target - the mobster responsible for her parents' death...Yep, another revenge flick, but this time, it's an assassin who wantsrevenge, and she is a beauty, so it's all different from other revengeflicks, right?? From an impressive introduction to Saldana, which isthe films highlight, it goes down hill faster than any 'star' makingvehicle. And loses a lot of credibility along the way.It's not the casts fault, they are all really good, The film does theaction movie cardinal sin, it's very boring to say the least.Megaton showed us he can cope with action, The transporter 3 was theweakest of the lot but was exciting enough, but here he looks a littletoo blasé and lets the film become maundering.It could have been a worthwhile action movie, and in the most extremecircumstance, even a franchise starter,but it falls flat on it face.Boring stuff with a great opening.

Van Roberts (2012-05-24 02:07)

Passionate Flower Power

French writer, producer, and director Luc Besson reinvented the killerchick flick genre back in 1990 with his stylist shoot'em up "La FemmeNikita." Before "La Femme Nikita" illuminated screens, the best killerchick flicks came from a variety of directors, actresses, and genres.Low-budget, indie director Ted V. Mikels helmed "The Doll Squad" (1973)and "Ten Violent Women" (1982). African-American actress Pam Grierempowered women in such B-movie classics as "Big Doll House" (1971),"Coffy" (1973), "Foxy Brown" (1974), and "Friday Foster" (1975). In1973, future Nancy Reagan astrologer Joyce Jillson starred in "SuperChick" as an airline attendant named Tara B. True who held a black beltin karate and thwarted a jet hijacking. Another African-Americanactress Tamara Dobson top-lined "Cleopatra Jones" (1973) and "CleopatraJones and the Casino of Gold" (1975). Most of these movies drew theirinspiration from Asian actioneers where women wielded lethal weaponswithout a qualm, like "Female Demon Ohyaku" (1968), "Okatsu theFugitive" (1969), "Quick-draw Okatsu" (1969), "Blind Woman's Curse"(1970) and "Lady Snowblood" (1971). At the same time, the Japaneseproduced the "Zero Woman" franchise of shoot'em ups in the PinkyViolence Collection featuring: "Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless ToConfess" (1971) "Girl Boss Guerilla" (1972) , "Criminal Woman: KillingMelody" (1973), and "Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch LawClassroom" (1973). Before the violent Asian costume thrillers and theoccasional American crime melodrama, only denim-clad dames in westernssuch as "Johnny Guitar" (1954), "Two-Gun Lady" (1955), "Gunslinger"(1956), and "Forty Guns" (1957) were allowed to pack pistols."Le Femme Nikita" propelled the genre into the 1990s but focusedprimarily on contemporary professional women armed with a modernarsenal of firepower. Not-surprisingly, clones proliferated: "TankGirl" (1995), "Cherry" (2000), "The Silencer" (2000), and "Thelma andLouise (1991). In "La Femme Nikita," the eponymous anti-heroine was aconvicted gal slated for execution who received a second chance at lifeif she performed executions for the government. Besson's charismaticthriller starred newcomer Anne Parillaud and spawned a Hollywoodremake, "Point of No Return" with Bridget Fonda as well as a Hong Kongversion "Black Cat" (1991). Later, Besson made "The Professional"(1994) where an expert hit man, Jean Reno, taught a young girl, NataliePortman, to how to kill the dastards who had murdered her parents. Acable television series "La Femme Nikita" with Peta Wilson appearedfrom 1997 to 2001. In 2010, another version of "La Femme Nikita" hitthe small screen with Maggie Q cast in "Nikita." Cleverly, Besson has recycled some of the best scenes from both "LaFemme Nikita" and "The Professional" to make "Colombiana." Sexy ZoeSaldana of "Avatar" stars as a sympathetic but indestructible femaleassassin who seems prepared for every contingency. Make no mistake; thefilmmakers treat the theme of female empowerment in this seasoned butSpartan saga with few surprises but a surplus of sizzle. If you've seeneither "La Femme Nikita" and/or "The Professional," you can spot theinspiration for "Colombiana." An early scene in "La Femme Nikita"depicts the heroine plunging a pencil into a policeman's hand.Similarly, an early scene in "Colombiana" shows our childish heroinestabbing a villain and pinning his hand to a table while she makes goodher escape. No matter how derivative this suspenseful, high-octane,white-knuckled epic is, "Transporter 3" director Olivier Megatoncompensates with picturesque staging, a cast with provocative faces,and atmospheric locales.Initially, "Colombiana" opens in Bogotá, Columbia, 1992. Ten-year oldCataleya Restrepo (newcomer Amanda Stenberg) watches as the henchmen ofcrime lord Don Luis (Beto Benities) murder her mother and father afterher father tries to leave the organization. Luis' right-hand man, Marco(Jordi Molla of "Blow"), tries to capture Cataleya because she has inher possession a microchip filled with incriminating evidence that herfather had given her as insurance. He tells her that the microchip isher passport to America. Cataleya enters the United States, strikes adeal with the U.S. authorities, and hands them all the information onthe Luis' gang. She escapes from the U.S. authorities and catches a busto Chicago, Illinois, to live with her Uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis of"Training Day") in Chicago.A criminal himself, Emilio lets the young girl sleep in his late son'sroom and trains her to as a contract assassin. In one great scene,Emilio explains that even contract assassins—if they plan to survivemore than five years—must attend public school and display some modicumof intelligence. Besson and co-scripter Robert Mark Kamen fast-forwardthe plot 15 years ahead, and Cataleya has become a svelte killingmachine who has discovered Don Luis has been taken into protectivecustody by the CIA. Nevertheless, the Central Intelligence Agencyallows Luis to continue his business as usual. Neither the CIA nor theFBI, however, can thwart Cataleya when she goes into action againstthem, knocking off one individual at a time until she confronts Marco.After she kills a victim, our heroine draws a Cataleya flower on him toremind Don Luis that he is her prime target. When Cataleya isn'tdodging Don Luis' gunmen, she must keep a step ahead of a tenacious FBIagent, Ross (Lennie James of "The Next Three Days") who believes that aman is responsible for the murder rampage. Cataleya lets her romanticrelationship with an artist, Danny (Michael Vartan of "Alias"),interfere with her plans. Danny has no clue about her line of work,until he exposes her quite by accident to the villains. The scene wherethe FBI and a SWAT team surround Cataleya's safe house generatesconsiderable tension."Colombiana" qualifies as an outlandish, audacious exercise in suspenseand tension that benefits from Zoe Saldana's performance and helmerOlivier Megaton's slam-bang action scenes.

rdbrown-zeteo (2012-05-24 03:18)

I loved it!

I'm not one to ruin my own entertainment of a movie buy being extremelytechnical and all that jazz, nor the entertainment of other people. Asfar as entertainment goes, WOW! This movie was awesome! As far as themovie goes, WOW! It's still awesome! Many reviewers have said that themovie was typical. Meaning, the plot was typical, the action wastypical, and whatever else.The action is really good. The fight scene at the end - sure I'll giveyou that - was nothing you've never seen before, but that doesn't meanit wasn't fun to watch or entertaining.The action, explosions, guns. Really cool stuff. What I liked mostabout the movie was the drama behind it all. Its a fast movie andleaves little room to establish strong connections to the characters.But, you aren't left feeling completely emotionless for the characters.In addition to what I really enjoyed about the movie was the suspense,chases, and the spy-espionage-like stuff. Example: the main characteris moving around stealthily getting from one point to the next, and hercharacter is really smart.Sure, there was a chase seen at the beginning of the movie. What madethe chase scene original (except for the overdone element of having achase scene) was the camera work.Also, the acting was better than what a lot of people were saying, andthe script was not stale. It was a good script. I don't find myselflaughing at some of the lines the characters say in the movie becauseof how pathetic the lines were, or cliché or stupid or whatever... thenthat is a bad script (kind of like in the Fast Five movie, some of thecharacters had some truly lame and cheesy lines that were trying to becool but were far from it - though I still liked the movie).I'm sorry to say this... but with there being very little originalityleft in the world, even though there's nothing completely originalabout this movie's plot and it might be bit predictable (maybe it wasnever intended to be unpredictable... the only reason why this wouldupset you is if you were gullible enough to believe it was supposed tobe unpredictable.) but it takes the borrowed concepts and what-not andadds a different spin or flavor to it and that makes it interesting.Anywho, I didn't like all of the other reviews out their... though theywere not entirely negative reviews, it just seems pathetic when youhave more negatives in your review than in the 6-7 stars that theyrated the movie. If you are going to rate the movie above 5 stars(which 5 would be like zero in concept and anything below that is inthe negatives) so if you have more positive stars in your rating...then there should be more positive things to say about the movie thanthe negative things...Sorry, for the rant.I recommend this movie for the enjoyment and entertainment of it. Itsnot an academy award winner... but In the category of movies that arenot released for the purpose of winning awards but for entertainingviewers... this movie is near the top.

denis888 (2012-05-23 23:46)

Awful

Awful. This is unbelievably bad, shallow, full of goofs and mistakes,plot holes, weak moments and terrible gory scenes. Say, this is LucBesson? This is not his best movie, for sure. Weak plot, strange camerawork with all those jumps and quick changes that make your head goachy. And then, what else do we see here except for Zoe Saldana almostnude, in very short shorts, in bra, in body suit, in almost nothing?Yes, she is fir and slim. Great. What then? Nothing. A shallow, tritestory of revenge, silly dialogs, absolutely unbelievable twists in plot- no, it does not convince. After the scene in the jail, you alreadylaugh, and even all the killings do not make this gory film serious. Iam sorry, this is bad. Bad

Avianashaw (2012-05-22 18:30)

Don't believe over analytical critics!

This was an amazing action flick. I do not often write reviews onmovies but I hate that this one is getting a bad wrap for something sosmall as the opening scene doesn't depict Bogota the way some criticswould have liked or that there wasn't enough blood or fake doctored upfight scenes. I like the fact that Zoe Saldana, in her fight scenes,was believable! She appeared to actually be fighting without "strings"attached. Her performance was definitely worth saying she can play anaction heroine or character. The story was well rounded the endingwasn't disappointing at all. It was also realistic to me. If you haveever lived in a poverty stricken or violent area of the a city (which Imyself am from the south side of Chicago), you will know that thethings occurring in this movie are more than possible and happensregularly in these areas. Overall it was a great story executed wellwith a brilliant performance by Zoe Saldana.

MisterMovies1 (2012-05-22 11:18)

See it half-price or wait for the DVD

I'll begin by getting the obvious out of the way. This is your typical'out to get revenge' type movie and what makes it worthwhile is theincredibly good looking Cataleya (Zoe Saldana).The opening chase scene sets the audience up for what to expect for theduration of the movie. A young Catayela, who has just witnessed themurder of her mother and father, miraculously evades a horde of angryColombian mobsters by scaling buildings, then flies to America,outsmarts American authorities who have her in custody, and finallyhops on a train from Miami to Chicago and finds her uncle in a backalley somewhere in the inner city.The scenes following the opening were just as filled with unbelievablesilliness. Her uncle, in an outrage that young Cataleya wants to be amurderer to get revenge on her parents' killers, proves to her that shecan't just be a murderer but instead has to learn the ropes of 'life'beforehand so she never gets caught. To prove his point he standsoutside a school shoots up a moving car, lets bullets reign into a busyintersection, and then asks Catayela to choose a backpack or a gun asher current life choice. They both walk away from the crime scene andthe police, which we see on scene, do nothing to stop them.I know, this is your typical action movie only instead of Segal orJolie, we get Zoe Saldana. This is precisely why I went to see it on aTuesday night, as it was half-price at the theatres.There was very mediocre acting from this 40 million dollar film andvery little character development. The script wasn't much to write homeabout either, but like I presumed, what should I expect from a genericrevenge movie such as Colombiana? The ending scene didn't cut it for meeither. I thought Don Luis being eaten alive by dogs was just cheesy,especially after we've recently seen another man eaten by sharks. Thisis hardly a believable plot line.Lest we forget, this movie is punched full action, as we should come toexpect from writer Luc Besson (The Fifth Element, Taken, andTransporter). It may be worth waiting for it to come out on DVD or doas I did and watch it on a half-price ticket night. There are lots ofguns and explosions and little blood so I'd say it is appropriatelyrated PG-13.Enjoy.

Scarecrow-88 (2012-05-21 23:32)

Colombiana

By the numbers (…but fast pace and adrenaline-rush camera-work help)vigilante actioner with Colombian born Cataleya (Zoe Saldana, intense,athletic, and sexy), transporting herself to Chicago after seeing hermother and father killed in front of her by a drug-lord, trained tokill by Uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis, reliable as always, in a complexrole which doesn't categorize him as a hero, but has a certain bit ofintegrity and honor about him), becoming a precise hitwoman as anadult. Cataleya is what the FBI call a "tag killer", she leaves a "callingcard" on her victims, an artistic image of a cataleya flower that growsin Colombia. Although the FBI know about the tags, they have kept thisquiet from the media, but in an act of desperation, decide to releasethis information to all news outlets hoping the message reaches itstarget. Jordi Mollà has the heavy part as Marco, the lieutenant for DonLuis (Beto Benites), a drug lord taken out of Colombia and placed in asafe house by the CIA for his connections in the drug trade. Luis knowsthat she is alive and wants Marco to find her before Cataleya findsthem. Easier said than done. Meanwhile, FBI agent, Ross (Lennie James,not bad) is out to catch Cataleya, soon inadvertently helping theexpert assassin get to Luis. Good action scene at the opening with young Amandla Stenberg, asCataleya at age 10, stabbing Marco and successfully fleeing from hismen within the Colombia city (I think Mexico City is a substitute forColombia, but it is a believable replacement), having to evade certaindanger around every street corner, actually leaping through windows ofpeople's houses sometimes. Like all vigilante films, Saldana has asimple goal, despite the hitwoman baggage, and that is to eliminate theman and his posse for taking her family. Also predictable is thecertain outcome that harm will befall her remaining family membersleft. The film does a surprisingly successful job of dodging any bloodshed,the editing style cleverly avoiding explicit gore. This left medisappointed as I like red meat, but to accommodate those wanting alarge audience release, the filmmakers make concessions and the resultis very much a PG-13 action film. The creeps she is paid tocontract-kill are pretty loathsome, even after briefly described to us,so their demises leave little grief, but her challenge to Ross to helpfind Luis' hideout, by threatening his family is certainly in bad tasteand casts a sour stench over her character's heroism. Certainly, thisfilm wants us to sympathize with her situation, but to threaten Ross'family is one step too far. The love interest of artist Danny Delanay(Michael Vartan) is one of the film's weaker aspects as it seems as ifthis is used only as a tool for the FBI to get closer to nabbing her,in essence giving away her location. It does provide a nifty escape forCataleya who much torch her place, but in another storage area, she hasan arsenal similar to watch you see on an army base; it's really funnyall the machine guns she has to her disposal, including an armored vanto carry them. Oh, and Cataleya has two pet bulldogs she feeds red meatto, with a special command to "Eat" which they do immediately upon hersaying so…yep, you can imagine this is a set up for a big scene later.The fight scene between Cataleya and Marco is right out of a Bournefilm, but her jailhouse sequence, where she gets in through a cleverdisguise, uses her ingenuity and small frame to get to a well-guardedmark, executes him, frames a US Marshall who is supposed to be keepingan eye on him, and flees, safely returning to her prison cell, israther awesome. The plot isn't exactly noteworthy, and everything goesthe way you expect.

smokerider49 (2012-05-21 20:01)

A movie full of fakes

Since I've been in Colombia lots of times, I was interested in watchingthis movie. Well I was very disappointed, first of all the Colombianspresumably in Bogota are speaking English, ?? and with a bad accent.You would think the film crew would know that Spanish is the languagespoken there, it get even sillier when they greet one another with theword "hola" and then says the rest in English. This is just as silly asin the movie Valkyrie where all the Germans speak English.I don't know where they shot the Bogota scenes, but it's certainly notin Bogota, anyone who lives there, or has visited Bogota will seestraightaway that this is not the correct place. It turns even moresilly, when the scenes changes to Chicago, when they start to speakSpanish, as if it's the custom there. When they screw up in these basicand logical elements, it does not matter how cute and elegant ZoeSaladana is. By the way she's from New Jersey USA.

fatsamuraireviews (2012-05-21 12:54)

Besson's actiony goodness

As I watch more movies I have noticed that film makers have signaturemovies they work really well with. Luc Besson uses the same elements inthis movie that worked well in others. If you take a Dash of DistrictB13, mix in some elements of Leon: the Professional and finish off withLa Femme Nikita, you have Colombiana. Yes, you might look at thisopening line and think "so nothing new or original". Some of the actionis the same but this movie does stand out as it's a different storywith these elements not a rehash. I know… I know, you are thinking "howcan you have the same elements and not be a rehash"? Well let's look atit this way. Action scenes can only be done so many ways, and there areno new ideas. The only newness to them is how you string them together.Besson uses these elements like a master chef blends togetheringredients that everyone loves. This movie gets a green light from me.I truly enjoyed the ride this film took me on.To read more of this review go tohttp://fatsamuraireviews.blogspot.com/

sgtpepper915 (2012-05-20 18:43)

Lots of potential.

I was excited to see this movie. The cast seemed strong, the premisehad a lot of potential, and I love Colombia. At best, I thought, itcould be entertaining.Unfortunately, this film had a lot of holes in it, and didn't feeldeveloped at all. Cataleya was mysterious enough, but to a fault. Wherewas the transition from child to assassin? Characters were introducedand disappeared without any introduction.Also as a side issue, though the title was "Colombiana" and started offin Colombia, there wasn't much other thought given to the country orculture. They could have at least taken the time to use some Colombianmusic throughout the film. I was especially disappointed that thecharacters didn't speak any substantial amount of Spanish in the film,and instead all spoke with a generic "foreign" accent in English. Thismade the film very inauthentic.For the most part, this film was mildly entertaining. It had a lot ofpotential, and delivered in some small ways, but not enough. It neverreally had me at the edge of my seat, which I think is important for anaction film, and I never felt that Cataleya was put into any reallytough situations.

ThreeGuysOneMovie (2012-05-20 12:50)

Might as well watch Leon the Professional

I am actually a little bit embarrassed to admit that I even watchedthis movie. It was co-written by Luc Besson of Leon: The Professonialfame so I let myself get sucked into it. Live and learn. The movie isabout Cataleya a young girl who witnesses her parents get murdered by adrug cartel in South America. Cataleya escapes and flees to the UnitedStates, where she meets up with her Uncle who trains her to be anAssassin. Eventually she seeks revenge on the people who murdered herparents.Basically, this is the same plot as Leon: The Professional and about a100 other movies. It reminded me of O-Ren Ishii's back story in KillBill Vol. 2. You know the whole sequence that Tarintino does as acartoon? Yeah, that's this movie, only sucky. I should mention that Ienjoyed Zoe Saldana in the lead role in this. I think that she did alot with very little to work with. If you had to force me to come upwith a reason to watch this movie, that would be it. Otherwise,Colombiana is largely derivative mess of a movie. There are some scenesin this film that are just laughable. For example, at one point CliffCurtis, who plays the uncle, pulls out a hand cannon in the middle ofthe street and shoots at a passing car multiple times. The driver, nowpresumably dead, crashes the car in front of a slew of onlookers. CliffCurtis then proceeds to have a conversation in the middle of the streetwith young Cataleya about the benefits of going to grade school.Eventually after several minutes they just walk away, apparently nobodyhas noticed them. You get 108 minutes of that. Don't waste your timewith this movie. If you want to see a great example of this genre thatbrings some freshness and originality check out Hanna an underrated andgreat movie from last year.

scottylans (2012-05-20 01:03)

Several pieces of poor plot but definitely watchable for action fans.

Summary covers it, a couple of dumb, illogical things but honestly I'veseen much much worse plot holes or poor plot devices, overall thoughthe acting and script was certainly not terrible. As a pure actionmovie, I felt it was surprisingly good. If you're willing to switchyour mind off, look past a couple of blatantly dumb things, it'ssignificantly better than a lot of crap action movies. At least worth awatch for gun fans who like things going bang.Also Zoe does a good job acting overall in this movie, despite being anaction flick she shows several ranges of emotion in the film and Ienjoyed it. 6/10 (but I'm a realistic reviewer, that's not a shabbyscore)

davideo-2 (2012-05-18 21:55)

Nonsensical, morally empty action toss

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning** Sunday Night * Monday Morning As a young girl, Cateleya (Zoe Saldana) witnessed her parent's murderat the hands of drug cartels in her native Columbia, and was taken inby her uncle Cliff (Emilio Restrepo) to whom she confesses her desireto be a killer. Years later, she's achieved this aim, remaining withher one true intention to find her parent's killers. But closing in onher trail is Agent Ross (Lennie James) with whom she engages in adeadly confrontation.Colombia's reputation as one of the most violent, lawless places onearth provides an impressively suitable back drop for a high octaneaction film, and you wonder why it hasn't been used in many othersbefore it. The trouble with Colombiana is, this morally chaotic, vacuum of a worldis absorbed seemingly into the story, which lacks any sort of humanlydecent centre, with a young girl aided and abetted into a world ofkilling for money by adults who should know better and who grows up tobe a 'heroine' who threatens the lives of the children of lawenforcement agents and fails to get any sort of comeuppance.The action sequences are decently done and entertaining enough, butthey are so ridiculous and unbelievable that they infuriate rather thanentertain. Olivier Megaton's film is just one big, long style oversubstance, morally vacuous non-entity, that does about as much for themind and soul as it does for the Colombia tourist board. **

ChipperX (2012-05-18 09:33)

Columbiana Will Be Legendary.

Seriously. Kicks. A$$. Really. I don't understand what all the fuss isabout - I walked into the theater expecting to see a poorly made,crappy movie where all the actors are uttering cheesy one-liners anddoing unbelievably stupid stunts that did not add to the plot of themovie - this is what I was led to believe by all of the negativereviews. In fact, I almost did NOT see this movie in the theater atall. Boy, are all of the critics who posted horrible reviews of thismovie WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.Columbiana, starring Zoe Saldana as the titular character, is a hotbedof action which steam-rolls through from beginning to end. Incredibly,the killing and other violent activities which form the basis of themovie do not bump the flick up from a PG-13 rating - how they did this,I will never know, because the movie is very, very violent. People talkabout the lack of character development in this movie - that is just abig, steaming pile of horse manure.Here's why: As most of you must know by now, the main character andprotagonist, Cataleya Restrepo (Amandla Stenberg & Zoe Saldana), is thedaughter of a kingpin in the drug trade. When Fabio (Jesse Borrego),Cataleya's father, decides to leave the particular drug cartel he isassociated with, the cartel's Don or father, named Don Luis (BetoBenites) orders Fabio and his entire family killed. Fabio discovers thekill-order, and attempts to flee with his wife Alicia (CynthiaAddai-Robinson) and daughter, 10 year old Cataleya - but they are toolate. Unfortunately, the parents are killed in an off-screenstandoff-cum gun-battle inside their home while Cataleya sits terrifiedat the kitchen table. She does not see her parents killed, but sheknows what has happened. THIS IS ALL THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THISTYPE OF MOVIE NEEDS. The violent murders of Cataleya's parents createsa thirst for vengeance which will not be sated until all partiesinvolved suffer a similar fate. This is the movie's moment of truth: Itdefines the way the story is treated from that moment forward.Critics have complained that the audience was not shown HOW Cataleyadeveloped her childhood "parkour" or speedy obstacle navigation escapeskills. That's just silly - first, the child of a drug kingpin inBogota, Columbia would most likely be taught by her gun-wieldingparents SOME type of self defense - which NEED NOT be part of thefilm's scope - second, any child who plays with other children knowshow to run, jump and hide - and third, a terrified child is usuallyuniquely capable of eluding pursuers for a short period of time ifgiven enough of a head-start.I have also read complaints regarding Cataleya's lack of a personality- that's ridiculous. She is simply a vengeful bitch who does not losefocus - ever since escaping, her ultimate goal has been killing thoseresponsible for murdering her family. We even get to see her interactlovingly with her uncle, Emilio Restrepo (Cliff Curtis), hergrandmother, Mama (Ofelia Medina), her boyfriend, Danny Delanay(Michael Vartan), her adopted family, and her dogs. The movie iscareful to show that while these parts of her personality are importantto her, Cataleya cannot truly move forward with her emotionaldevelopment until she has exacted her revenge.Critics of the movie have complained about silly little cosmetictouches like Zoe wearing a black leotard, Zoe dancing in front of thecamera, and Zoe sucking a lollipop. REALLY? Are these the things thatmake a movie BAD? Get real. The most important aspect of the movie forme is that Cataleya is forced to see that her single-minded focus onvengeance directly causes the remaining members of her family to bemurdered. She is also forced to see what she has become when she facesFBI agent Ross (Lennie James) and threatens the lives of his family inorder to assure his cooperation. Once this happens, and once Cataleyafinally kills the man who ordered her family murdered, she is able tomove forward with her development - and her life. The story has a neat,tidy ending, perhaps leaving the audience with a feeling asanticlimactic as Columbiana herself must have felt. Do yourself a favor- do not listen to the critics - see this movie and judge for yourself.Columbiana is a legendary piece of action filmmaking.- Chipper F. Xavier, Esq.***This Review was also posted on Metacritic by ChipperX @http://www.metacritic.com/user/ChipperX***

bcnewell88 (2012-05-18 00:06)

How can people like this movie? The action wasn't even that good.

**Spoiler alert** (If you could call it that).I didn't expect this movie to be a very artistic and moving film atall, I expected it to be an action movie, possibly along the lines ofLeon or Taken. Sadly it was even a terrible action movie.The plot wasn't terrible, but only because there was almost no plot tobegin with. I would normally say spoiler alert, except I can't becausethe plot is already spoiled. The main character is a girl who's parentsget murdered and she goes to America and becomes an assassin. Weessentially have no understanding on why her parents were killed otherthan her parents were in a shady business with the antagonist, and ithas something to deal with information on disks that is somehowrelevant to the U.S. government or something. These points are about 30seconds of the movie in total. She obviously attempts to exact herrevenge a few years later yet the antagonist has protection from theCIA for some reason unexplained. She assassinates people and eventuallyis able to threaten enough people to find her parents killer. Meanwhileher love interest knows absolutely nothing about her, (she literallyjust appears at his apartment and they have never gone out on a date)and he's apparently in love with her. At least something like Taken hasa little plot; Liam Neeson's daughter is taken for slave trade and hemust go around chasing clues of corruption.Aside from the plot, or lack thereof this movie was still bad. We areleft so many times tilting our head to the side and thinking "Really??Really???!?" This includes almost the entire movie. Such things includeher not being seen while hanging from a maybe inch wide pole right onthe side of a building when the police look almost directly at her, toscenes where her uncle opens fire near a school district, police showup in 15 seconds, and police don't even come after him while he remainsjust standing there. This also includes a kill where she stabs someonewith the top of pistol into what appears to be the right clavicle(collarbone). I'm assuming it was supposed to be his neck, but itdefinitely didn't look like they even tried to make this lookrealistic. Oh, and it's impossible to leave out the body morphologicalsoftware which is able to match her photo (randomly, it wasn't eveninformation added to the casefile at all) to a very unconvincingsurveillance video. Please waste your time with another action movie.Go watch Die Hard again for the 1,000 time before you see this, you'llbe much happier.

devd_nj (2012-05-17 11:58)

Colombian revenge drama of the American kind

At the beginning the audience is given a panoramic view of a hillyhousing jungle of Columbia and you expect to witness a story of revengeset against a violent sub culture of Columbia. And then you realize itwill be an all American action movie with many Hispanic actors. So our warrior princess Cataleya (Zoe Saldana from New Jersey) is thesuper Heroine of the Columbian kind. She can do anything, literally.Her stunts feel more suitable for a cat woman and her use of weaponswill put Rambo and Commando to shame. Before becoming a killer; she is just a small girl with incrediblepotential to be a future assassin. She witnesses the murder of herparents by the mafia with whom her father worked with previously andshe manages to chase away the killers off with impeccable precision.She reaches the US embassy and vomits out a micro-chip that her fathergave her to return it to the embassy official. The Americans take her to USA, where she escapes from the officials andreaches to her uncle's place in Chicago. Her uncle takes her under hiswings, tells her the importance of school before becoming a killer, byshooting at a random car outside the school in broad daylight, withoutgetting arrested by the police that arrives at the crime scene. Shelearns her lesson and the audience learn their lesson that this will bea campy affair from here on. So our girl finally becomes an assassin and takes on the crime world.She has a high security house, a storage place for weapons where twobeastly dogs do as she orders them to do and a lover who is such a pushover that he does not even know her real name and drops off the idea offorcing her to reveal, as soon as she removes her first piece ofclothing. Before we witness her entry on silver screen; Cataleya hasalready committed over twenty murders without giving FBI any clue. Noone knows who is committing these murders even when she always tags herkill with a drawing of the flower Cataleya grown only in Columbia(Awww...). All these murders are of someone who is related with herparent's murderer; so that they would receive the message that thegoddess of death from Columbia is coming over for them. These mafiakingpins have now settled in Miami under the protection of CIA; hencedefinitely no Columbia anymore. So will she reach them before FBIcorner her and arrest her? To know watch Columbiana, the very averagenineties style American action movie with a cool name to make audiencebelieve that it is more than a revenge drama; which it is not. Cataleya gets the things done in her fashion quite easily and has notroubles getting to the conclusion; other than a personal tragedyinvolving characters that had already vanished from the storyline. TheFBI is shown powerless and is more or less shown as good old fashionedinvestigators who are always late to save the unlucky victims. Whenrequired the movie tries to posture as an intense drama and when neededwith an escape route for Cataleya; it brings humor to the actionsequence. Cataleya will stop for no one and will get her revenge sothat the audience can go home. Apart from Zoe Saldana's singular act; everyone's a prop to make herlook better. These are the kind of summer movies with pumped up actionballoon that fizzles out from the audience's mind; right after the endcredits start to roll. In the end, there is no Colombia in Columbiana,but just a Colombian flavor to an American movie diet.For more reviews visit http://cinemadose.blogspot.com/

mellowliving (2012-05-17 08:54)

cliché after cliché cliché after cliché cliché after cliché cliché after cliché cliché after cliché

Title says it all, cliché after cliché sums this movie up prettynicely. In the beginning of the movie where the 2 head gangsters arehaving a meeting, I said to myself, if one of them kills the other thenthis movie is going to be horrible. And what do you know, he does.Also this movie had people making so many stupid mistakes that someonein real life would never make. Also the very small details in moviesand pretty much everything in the world make all the difference. Firstoff, the plot is so empty and basic. I know, this is supposed to be anaction flick but comon. You are an assassin but yet you leave yourtrade mark all over the crime scene? Stupid.The director tried to make the main actress show raw emotion, butcompletely failed. She is a bad actress. I felt no sympathy or anythingfor her in the scenes where I was supposed to.Also, since when where there micro SD cards back in the 90's? A memorymodule of that size, even if it existed could only store like 100kilobytes of information. And also since when can you still read thecard after it's been inside your stomach for a couple of hours? BS.Bottom line, do NOT rent this movie even if its offered for a dollar.If you really want to see this movie wait til it shows up on TV like Idid, you will be SUPER glad you did.

CinemaPat (2012-05-16 21:19)

Don't waste your time.

Luc Besson is what I would call a "fun" movie maker. His films likeDistrict B13, Transporter franchise, From Paris With Love were allmindless "fun". Great action, some impressive hand to hand combat andsmart but cheesy stories.Colombiana was NOT one of these films. He is listed as a writer andproducer but his style was not present at all really. The film shouldbe an embarrassment to French filmmakers. The script was awful, theaction was lame, acting was terrible, editing was frantic and didn'tflow. WORST FILM I'VE SEEN IN YEARS! Don't waist your time or money onthis pile of crap.