The Cold Light of Day Movie Review

The Cold Light of Day
                                              

The Cold Light of Day is an action thriller released in 2012. It is written by Scott Wiper, John Petro and directed by Mabrouk El Mechri. The major roles of The Cold Light of Day are played by Henry Cavill, Bruce Willis, Verónica Echegui and Sigourney Weaver.

The Cold Light of Day tells the story of a busy executive, who goes to spend vacation with his family where suddenly he gets separated from his family member, discovers the hidden identity of his father and finally learns about the conspiracy which is threatening their lives.

Henry Cavill and Bruce Willis in The Cold Light of Day

Plot:
A guy named Will goes to Spain to spend the holidays with his family (against his will). His father apparently works for USA embassy and right now, posted in Spain.  He, along with his parents, brother and brother’s girlfriend goes for fishing in the sea. Will is continuously busy with his works and that causes an accident which injures Will’s brother’s girlfriend. Will’s dad throws Will’s phone to the sea. To make some important calls and to get some supplies, Will swims to the shore.

When he returns to the beach, he sees that their boat has disappeared. Finally he finds the boat abandoned with no one in it. He runs to the local police station. After knowing his name, the police take him near the boat and another man comes there, who wants to take Will to the place where his family is. Sensing danger, Will tries to break free and suddenly his dad appears. Together they fight the police and escape. Will then learns from his dad that his dad’s job is not what it seems and his actions are the reason behind the kidnap of his family.

Will’s dad takes him to a CIA agent and he tries to find a briefcase, which, the agent said, is passed to other hands.  While returning to the car, his dad is shot to death by a sniper. Will takes his dad’s phone and gun and runs for his life while that sniper keeps chasing him. He manages to enter U.S. embassy. The people of the embassy can’t help him, moreover, they frame him for killing a police officer. Then the CIA agent (lady) comes to the embassy and offers him her help. But sensing danger again, Will runs away from the embassy.

Will gets a call on his father’s phone from the kidnappers who address his father as Tom. They give Will a timeline to return the briefcase. Then he sees a name on the dial list for several times. He calls that number and finds an address.

He goes to that person’s office and finds a girl there who is the niece of the person whom Will wants to find. The man from the embassy appears there and tries to kill them both, but Will manages to kills him. Then they go to the girl’s uncle’s home but find him dead there. The CIA agent comes there and while escaping from there, Will gets shot. But he, along with the girl, finally manages to escape. The girl takes him to a nightclub and the people at the  nightclub (the girl’s friends) help them.  The girl gets surprised to find Will’s father’s photo in his phone. Then they find out, she is Will’s sister.

Will then goes to meet the kidnappers at their scheduled time and place. He finds his family there with the kidnappers. The kidnappers are Mossad agents and after they become sure that Will is innocent, they tell Will the facts about the briefcase. Will learns that the CIA agent is the culprit behind all these. The Mossad agents hold Will’s family for the briefcase and also warn him, they have no reason to keep Will’s family alive once the briefcase has been sold to wrong hands.

To get the briefcase, Will then lures the hitman to him in the nightclub by using the girl’s credit card. The hitman is then caught by the nightclub’s bouncers. But they fail to get any information from him. According to Will’s plan, they let the hitman escape and then follow him, which takes them to the CIA agent. 

The last part of the movie is all about securing the briefcase, Will’s attempts to save his family and to get revenge of his father’s murder.

My reviews about The Cold Light of Day:
First of all, I’ll mark The Cold Light of Day as an average action movie.

The plot of The Cold Light of Day is good enough, there is no question about that. But this movie is a little weak on acting and special effects. There are not much flaws on acting, but still it could be better. A better reputed actor at Will’s character could take The Cold Light of Day higher. The make ups and the dialogues were just okay, nothing special. 

I have another complain about the casting. When you start an action movie with Bruce Willis’s name on it, obviously you will have some high expectations. But the death of the character who is being played by him in just about half an hour from the beginning of The Cold Light of Day, was a big turnoff for me. 

The screenplay of The Cold Light of Day seemed good, but the direction felt a little weak to me.

The Cold Light of Day has almost all the things you’ll want in an action thriller, such as powerful villain, good plot and car chases, but almost all of these lacked good special effects. You will specially feel it at the car chasing scenes at the end.

The Cold Light of Day also lacks a romantic touch. The main female character is the sister of the hero. It would be better to watch if that was not the case and the girl was somehow got attached with Will. 

It also looked ridiculous to me that a highly trained evil CIA agent who could shoot to kill a handful  of Mossad agents at the end, missed Will who were just a few feet away from her at the middle of the movie.  

Although The Cold Light of Day doesn't contain any nude scenes, still it doesn't give any reason to watch it with kids. 

So, I won’t recommend this movie to action movie lovers. But still, its not so bad, so if you are looking to kill your time, Watching The Cold Light of Day can be an option.   

If you want to know more about it:

IMDB Link: The Cold Light of Day IMDB

Wikipedia Link: The Cold Light of Day wiki

What are your opinions about The Cold Light of Day? Share with us in the comments.

To buy or rent this movie from Amazon, or to watch online, click here:  The Cold Light of Day Movie