The Cold Light of Day

Reluctantly, Will (Henry Cavill) travels to Spain for a family vacation. His small company is on the verge of bankruptcy and he should be spending every spare minute trying to save his career. But instead, he's now stuck on a yacht with his constantly nagging father Martin (Bruce Willis), his mother, and his brother and his brother's fiancée. Will is convinced that the whole situation couldn't get any worse. But he is sorely mistaken. Because when he returns to the boat from a quick trip to the next town, he finds that his family has been kidnapped. And apparently he has been targeted by the kidnappers as well. When he meets his father again on his escape, he learns that Martin is no simple businessman, but an undercover agent whose dangerous assignment has now put his entire family in danger. And Will, of all people, now seems to be the only one who can save his kidnapped family.

After Mabrouk El Merci was able to celebrate a real surprise success with his film JCVD, which has now become a real cult hit, the successor was naturally awaited by genre fans with great anticipation. With The Cold Light of Day, the filmmaker now ventures into a much bigger production that can score with good action and an exotic setting. But where JCVD could score with self-irony and originality, The Cold Light of Day disappoints with an extremely weak story and an arguably unimaginative staging.

One of the film's problems becomes apparent after just a few minutes. Because it seems to be common practice at the moment to promote movies with Bruce Willis in which the star is barely seen. Like last time with the DVD premiere Setup, where Willis' name and likeness graced the cover, even though the mimi was only seen in the thriller for about ten minutes, here again the Die Hard hero is advertised in a big way. And without giving too much away it has to be said that this is simply mislabeling. This action thriller is not a Bruce Willis film, but a vehicle for future Superman Henry Cavill, who struggles through the story with a rather petrified mine.

Sure, some of the car chases and action sequences are well directed and quite gripping. But it quickly becomes apparent that good action alone is not enough to provide good entertainment. Since the script is extremely weak, the characters are really just walking clichés and the staging even seems a bit loveless at times (the fact that a young woman in a skimpy skirt can skid along the asphalt on her moped without so much as a scratch on her pretty legs is just ridiculous), it almost completely ruins a lot of the good elements of the film.

The entertainment factor and show value of The Cold Light of Day are high enough to warrant an entertaining DVD evening. For a major motion picture, however, the film simply has too little story, too little suspense, and too little Bruce Willis to justify buying a movie ticket. For those who are satisfied with well staged car chases in an appealing scenery, this weak thriller can still be recommended.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp