SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE
US, 2012, 95 minutes, Colour.
Christian Slater, Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, Dominic Monaghan, Colm Meaney, Oksana Korostyshevskaya, Charlie Bewley, Ryan Donowho, Freddy Rodriguez, James Cromwell, Gennadi Vengeroc, Sarah Ann Schultz.
Directed by Maxim Korostyshevsky.
This action film lives up to its title, a focus on soldiers of fortune, first seen working in Afghanistan, Christian Slater as a commanding officer with a skill for eliminating the enemy, rescuing his friend played by Freddie Rodriguez.
They are sent home from Afghanistan and spend their time idle, playing cards. However, they are recruited, high pay, to take on mercenary training of a group of wealthy men, played by a range of character actors, Dominic Monaghan is the youngest, an expert in video games getting a taste of reality, with James Cromwell as the oldest.
There are taken to an island in the Black Sea to set up camp. However, the woman who has set them up has vengeance in mind, coming from Black Sea Island, taken over by a tyrant and his sister, exploitation and arms deals. The squad is meant to attack the exploiter and eliminate him and his trafficking.
Colm Meaney is seen in the Afghan sequences, allegedly as a CIA agent. He is not, but an arms dealing business contact. He is now the advisor to the tyrant on the island.
The film spends some time on elaborating the different characters and their backgrounds, Sean Bean is something of a playboy, some Wall Street business executives. However, there is a traitor amongst the group in contact with the arms dealer.
The group is a collection of men rather spoilt by their wealth. There are lots of scenes of their training and the demands on them.
Eventually, there is confrontation, action, the boss and his sister, Colm Meaney again, fighting, some deaths, the buildup to a clifftop confrontation, Slater versus Meaney.
There have been many such films with action leads like Jean- Claude van Damme, Steven Segal, and films about such groups as The Expendables. While this one seems far-fetched, it is nevertheless geared for an action audience.
