Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Leofwine_draca CLEANSKIN wants to be a good film. Desperately, in fact. You can feel it in the amount of effort that's gone into what is obviously a low budget production. However, as the story plays out, it becomes increasingly apparent that this is one muddled production with lots of problems and flaws that take the edge off.Take the direction, for instance. As an action thriller, this contains a handful of nicely gruesome fight scenes, but they're muddled due to poor editing which saps enjoyment. At some points you can't see what's going on. Plus, the music is absolutely awful, an incongruous, over-the-top emotive soundtrack that plays loudly when people are walking through corridors and the like. It makes the film feel very cheesy at times.On the plus side, the film features an engaging and well developed villain with strong acting from Abhin Galeya. In fact, he's more developed that the typical gruff hero role, played by Sean Bean. Bean is fine, but his character is largely one-dimensional here. The radicalisation storyline is very interesting although it's an odd choice to dip into a lengthy flashback that runs for half an hour right in the middle of the movie, although it does work, just about. It's certainly better than the sub-plot involving Tuppence Middleton's vacuous, dim character who adds absolutely nothing to the experience other than to pad out the running time a little.

bowmanblue A British film about suicide bombers in London is most likely to be too dark (and a little too much like real life) to be a mainstream success, so many people may be forgiven for never hearing about Cleanskin.Sean Bean plays a Secret Service agent on the trail of a suicide bomber cell in Britain. What could be quite a clichéd film actually turns out pretty good. It's partly divided up into two separate stories - one detailing Sean's quest to track down the cell and the other showing the terrorists themselves. Perhaps the best part of the film even relates to the terrorists. While Sean is your typical no-nonsense tough guy (think Liam Neeson in the Taken films), the terrorists are actually pretty well thought out characters - no 'True Lies' clichéd Arab terrorists here. It takes something pretty well written to make you have sympathy with a terrorist one minute, then be revolted by his actions the next, plus even weave in a convincing love story into the mix.I won't go into too many details about the film's plot, as there are a few twists and turns you might not see coming. Just rest assured, if you're looking for a decent action/drama (with plenty of splendid shots of London from above!) then give Sean and co a go.

Johan Dondokambey The story begins intriguingly by going straight into an action sequence. It then flips back and forth between Sean Bean's character and the man who becomes the 'bride' later on. This kind of approach is a redo to some of the nineties era movie which sees less surprises but greater anticipation as the viewers think they have seen all elements for the story to unfold. But in the end, the story is still able to present quite nice twists, although they're quite predictable just as they're going to appear. The action is not really a high class execution here. But this movie depends more on ruthlessness on the part of Sean bean's character. He is indeed the right choice this his role here due to he can still retain the ruthless character I once saw in Patriot Games.

TdSmth5 In London, some fat guy is transporting something in a briefcase. He's ambushed by a single assailant who shoots everyone, including his two bodyguards, and takes off with the case. One of the injured bodyguards, Ewan, turns out to be an undercover government agent.Then we meet some Muslim terrorists as they blowup a café. Ewan is called in by some shadowy higher-up, Charlotte. He's in trouble for letting terrorists steal what turned out to be explosives in the briefcase, which were used for the attack. Now she tasks him with an off-the-books operation to get the explosives back by any means necessary. She partners him with some young guy she trusts.In flashbacks we learn a lot more about the terrorists, or at least one of them--Ash. He was a law student, but given a hard time by prejudiced white people. He had a white girlfriend who's rather slutty. At some point he met a radical cleric who recruits him. His first mission together with some other kid and an imported killer was to kill a former military. The mission has some problems but it works. So Ash climbs ranks in the terrorist cell despite having some second thoughts about the death of innocents.Meanwhile, Ewan and partner go after the fat guy's prostitute. She was paid to remove bullets from the guy's gun on that fateful day. Ewan sets up a trap for her contact, but they end up killing him and get no info. Next, Charlotte, gives them a location of a guy. They find him, confront him, he knows nothing about anything, but Ewan sets him on fire. Something that will nag him because he thinks the guy really knew nothing of the explosives.As Ash and some other guy prepare for some attack, Ewan arrives, kills the other guy and watches Ash disguised by the helmet escape on motorcycle. Ash runs into his ex and they hook up and for a moment he seems to mellow out a bit. Ewan then gets a tip about the next attack at a hotel. There he confronts Ash but then another explosion hits. As a result of the homegrown terrorist attacks, England elects a war hawkish neocon government. The government claims they had no idea about the attacks.Back at his room Ewan is attacked...by his partner! He then goes trough the jacket that he took from the guy he set on fire. He finds a key. In a PO box he finds files, videos. Turns out the guy Charlotte had him kill was another undercover agent, who was after the radical cleric. The guy also realized that the government was up to no good. That all these operations were to achieve a political electoral goal. Ewan then confronts Charlotte.Cleanskins is an interesting political action thriller so much richer than similar Hollywood movies devoid of any depth and unwilling to offend their favorite politicians regardless of what those do. But it's also somewhat ambiguous. It gives Muslim terrorists a voice and we get to see them as regular folk. But we also get the stereotypical business of the radical cleric who radicalizes these young idealists, who promises them paradise if they blow themselves up. There's no talk of virgins, but interestingly, when Ash asks if he will see his dead family in paradise, the cleric promises that when he sees them it will be as if only a single day had passed. And perhaps that's what motivates Ash more than whatever else he's promised. Too much is made of his relationship with the party girl.I've never been a fan of Sean Bean. This perhaps is a role well suited for him since he doesn't have to say much. A bit distracting are some unrealistic sequences. As when Ewan and partner want to grab a bad guy silently yet run around the neighborhood guns drawn and smoking.But it's the political angle that makes the movie standout. And the courage the filmmakers had, this day and age, and in England no less, to portray the government killing or letting others kill their own people for the sake of elections and for the sake of the war machinery. Coincidentally, I've just been reading reviews of the book JKF and the Unspeakable, which addresses this exact issue and shows that governments aren't exactly reluctant to do just that.