Colombiana

UK Release Date. 9 September 2011
Certification. 15
Running Time. 1 hour 48 mins
Director. Olivier Megaton
Cast. Beto Benites, Cliff Curtis, Zoe Saldaña, Amandla Stenberg, Michael Vartan.
Rating. 59%

Review.

After witnessing her parent's brutal murder, nine-year-old Cataleya flees Columbia and escapes to the US. 15 years later, Cataleya is a stone-cold assassin who has sworn revenge on the individuals that slaughtered her parents. A sleek and sultry Zoe Saldaña is impressive in the lead role of Cataleya.

Colombiana was directed by Olivier Megaton and written by Luc Besson and regular co-contributor, Robert Mark Kamen. If the plot sounds familiar, think of Colombiana as a 21st-century reboot of Besson's earlier female assassin offerings, Nikita and Léon. In fact, Colombiana was based on an early version of a script that was meant to be a sequel to Léon before studio politics got in the way.

 

The two opening set pieces promise much of Colombiana. Following the murder of her parents, a nine year-old Cataleya (played by Amandla Stenberg in her first film role) evades her parents' killers with an exhilarating parkour sequence through the streets of Bogota. The second opening set piece is a nail-biting assassination of a prisoner in a police station holding cell.

However, as Colombiana progresses the early promise dissipates as a consequence of a sketchy plot. The end result is less than satisfactory and somewhat run-of-the-mill. 

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