You know that it’s the off-season when lower-budget action thrillers begin creeping into theaters. This week proves to be no exception to that rule, as this week’s subject of review is just that.
“In the Cold Light of Day” stars Henry Cavill, whose family is kidnapped while on vacation in Spain. As a result, he gets caught up in a battle between intelligence agencies as they fight for a mysterious suitcase.
The best way to describe the story is that it’s a lot like “Taken”, except from the point of view of one of the people affected by the events of the story. Although the story has the same amount of intrigue as most spy thrillers, it also suffers from the same clichés. It tries to remedy the usual cliché of “the-person-with-no-combat-training-is-suddenly-the-best-agent-ever”, but it still manages to fall into that trap.
Like other low-budget action thrillers, there’s also a great deal of under-developed elements and moderate revelations that don’t really add up to anything. Some of the elements and revelations come across as a way to avoid other genre clichés.
The cinematography felt pretty standard, but there were two shots in the beginning of the film that were really annoying. They were both handheld 360˚ pans that were shaky and suffered from a strobe effect that results from a shutter that’s moving too fast. These shots were slow and longer than they needed to be. Aside from those two shots, there isn’t much else to say about the cinematography.
As for the other technical elements, they were pretty well put together that they’re not really a focus while watching the film. Once the actual events of the story get underway, you don’t really notice anything aside from the occasional editing choices that are odd yet somehow becoming the norm for the genre.
To the film’s credit, we at least get to see what kind of dynamic the family had before they were kidnapped, but the developments are fairly stereotypical. Sometimes there are details that are told through quick exposition, but most of the key elements are never really explained even by the end of the film.
While it’s a fairly decent action thriller, it’s just a run-of-the-mill film, the kind that’s made every year for release during this off-season time for movies. Some of the elements weren’t fully developed, there are some shot and editing choices scattered throughout that makes this film feel generic. On my personal scale, I give “In the Cold Light of Day” a 3/5.