Security

When you think of Antonio Banderas do you think action hero? I’m not sure I ever have done but, when you look back over his career, he sort of is. He’s been quietly building up a back-catalogue of action movies, although moving forward he’s due to play Versace and Lamborghini, though not in the same film, obviously.

Anywho, Banderas is back in Security. He plays an ex-soldier who is obviously suffering some kind of mental stress from whatever he’s been involved with in the past. He needs a job and he’ll do anything.

He winds up taking a minimum-wage security job at a mall in between two towns with high crime rates. That, however, turns out to be the least of his problems.

As he’s being shown the ropes by Liam McIntyre (The Flash (TV), The Legend of Hercules) a young girl arrives at the mall doors, begging to be let in. Banderas does so, much to the chagrin of McIntyre.

When someone else arrives at the doors claiming to be her father, the obligatory British bad-guy, Ben Kingsley (Schindler’s List, Hugo), Banderas smells a rat and, despite being offered $1.5 million to turn over the girl, he refuses and so begins the shopping mall war.

Security is a movie where no-one really has names and, if they do, they’re of little importance. Kingsley, sporting some bizarre accent that I couldn’t place, is fun as the bad guy as he arrives at the scene with an overkill amount of henchmen, and women.

Banderas too plays his role well. He knows what he’s doing, clearly more so than McIntyre who is supposed to be in charge, and a sweet side-story about him not seeing much of his own daughter adds a bit of emotion.

The teenage girl in question, the daughter of a mob-bosses accountant – naturally, is Katherine de la Rocha (Ruby Strangelove Young Witch) who seems to settle into this world of guns and death a little too easily for my liking.

There are others but they don’t really add much, other than maybe Gabriella Wright (What Lies Within, The Transporter Refueled), as the hung-over security guard who, it transpires, can kick some ass with a bow and arrow.

Throughout Security I couldn’t help but think of The Bourne Identity series. Now, I’m not saying that this is as good as the first Bourne, but, what I am saying is that, as a starter, I could see Banderas’ character coming back, being explored further.

I could also see Security doing quite well on the streaming market, much like the original Bourne didn’t do well at the cinema but it was DVD rentals and sales that pushed it into the main stream.

Security has its flaws, if the shopping mall isn’t a set I’d be mighty surprised. Also, we’re in a shopping mall, in the US, yet it doesn’t sell guns? Seems far-fetched, don’t you think?

The characters could have done with a little more development and back-story too. But, Security is a fun action film the type of which rarely get made these days. It’s a hark back to the 80’s style flicks. No-nonsense, shooting, deaths, silly car and bike stunts. But it works.

NB: I know that production and distribution companies are trying to do all they can to stop piracy these days, I get that. However, I had to watch this review copy of Security with the words ‘Property of Company X’ emblazoned in large letters slap-bang in the middle of the screen.

It wasn’t even remotely opaque and was incredibly distracting, almost rendering the movie unwatchable. I know this is ‘boo-hoo, whoa is me, 21^st century problems etc’, but if I asked you to watch a movie with 25% of the middle of the screen blocked out, it would change your opinion of that film. It seems the fact they’d burned my name across the bottom of the copy wasn’t enough, surely there’s got to be another way these days?