Unthinkable

When I watch a selected Netflix offering, it takes me 2-3 nights to watch the thing as I have about 30-60 minutes per night depending on how quickly I can take care of the evening's daddy chores of getting the kids cleaned and shined and put to bed.  Because of watching movies in sessions, I passively came into my own quick system of evaluating movies that are subjected to this schedule.  Based on that system, I can roughly gauge how good a movie is by asking myself if I remember what movie I am in the middle of before I begin "watching session" 2 and above.  So for instance, if (in the middle of the day) I can remember the current evenings' fare, it is okay or at least engaging.  If I can't remember what I am watching until I press play and am reminded by that movie, it is ineffective.

Unthinkable was ineffective.  I could not remember what movie I was watching until I got about 15 seconds into it and only then was I able to recall the previous events.  A big thing that the movie did to turn me off was use the threat of killing/torturing kids to shock me into paying attention and emotionally twist me: that is cheap.  Another thing, based on the very real threat we face of a terrorist attack on our own soil, I also felt that this movie was hastily put together to capitalize on that fear and was rushed to box offices (or red envelopes) too quickly: it therefore sacrificed quality.

A terrorist has planted 3 (?) nuclear bombs somewhere in the US.  He sets up his capture and here comes the moral dilemma: with 3 bombs about to go off anywhere in the US, how do authorities get the locations: torture or interrogation?  Carrie-Ann Moss (Matrix stuff) going with the interrogation only mode pitted against Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction and voice of Frozone in The Incredibles) as torturaire extraordinaire.  Moss keeps a good handle on her character but Jackson goes overboard on his.  That was about the only 'off thing' to write about the acting.  Cinematography is cool as was the directing.  The script was fine as well but I would not give this too high a marking as there were too many cheap emotional tugs to pull me in and I got tired of having my intelligence insulted.