ERASED (2012)

ERASED (2012)

Tagline: Far from home. Far from safe. Far from over.

(Action, Thriller, Would I Lie to You?) [R]

So you’d rather drink a genetically modified bean?

In this one, Ben Logan works for the conglomerate Halgate Group which is a high-tech firm. He is finding holes in their security system and then is charged with patching them up. His daughter Amy has moved in with him after his wife’s death in Antwerp, Belgium. After making a discovery and bringing it to the attention of his boss, Ben’s life is erased overnight. One of his coworkers abducts him and after killing him and escaping Ben and Amy find themselves on the run with no one to trust. Ben also finds the rest of his coworkers are dead and uncovers an entire conspiracy the Halgate Group is involved in that leads all the way to the CIA. 

I picked up this movie as part of a $1.00 DVD grab at a record exchange store in Phoenix. One thing that is great about the combination of the intention of BLU-RAY and streaming services is that a lot of older DVDs are pretty cheap to buy. Anyway- part of what made me buy this was because low and behold, Aaron Eckhart (I, FRANKENSTEIN) is right there on the cover. There are hardly any movies that Eckhart does where he doesn’t just absolutely kill it. This thing is no exception. I also liked Olga Kurylenko (BLACK WIDOW) in this one. To be honest, whenever they give her more than a couple of seconds on screen she really does a solid job. This is closer to the breathing room she was given in WHITE ELEPHANT. 

When we start getting to the rest of the cast Liana Liberato (SCREAM VI) is particularly annoying in this movie as Amy. I want to like her and I want to understand her, but by the end of the first act when she finally realizes that her dad isn’t who she thought he was, she would have been better off just shutting up and doing what she was told for the rest of the film. I wouldn’t normally say that but the character was just very badly written and she didn’t seem to bring any personality to it. I do kind of wonder if they had cast Georgie Henley (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER) who wanted the role of Amy, would have done a better job. Garrick Hagon (STAR WARS) is pretty haunting in this as the CEO of Halgate, James Halgate. He doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but he’s an effective character. 

I think the plots of these thrillers involving the CIA and black ops stuff can get a bit convoluted but this movie manages to keep it pretty simplistic and straightforward. Unfortunately, that is also part of the problem because the intrigue of the plot and what is going on gets killed mid-way through the movie. Part of writing a thriller is maintaining a sense of tension throughout the movie. That just doesn’t really happen here. Another movie that kind of plays out in a similar fashion is NOBODY, but that film still manages to build up a tipping point. This movie feels like we got the tipping point too soon, then the rest of the film is just filler.

So does this movie suck? No, it’s actually pretty solid. Even though the main intrigue of the story was resolved too quickly, I still wanted these characters to survive, I didn’t really find myself even rooting against Amy. I kind of wanted her to get through this and grow as a person. We don’t really get that, but we did get a nice little thriller here with a few fantastic performances. 

This is a 4 out of 7. I’d watch it again, but there are better “wow, look, your life is screwed” movies out there. If anyone isn’t worried about going all digital when it comes to money, this movie is one of those warning shots that you probably should be. 

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