Welcome Surprise

Briefcase, briefcase, who’s got the briefcase?

All we knew about The Cold Light of Day when we went to see it recently was that it was a thriller, and it had something to do with a briefcase. And, that was good enough. Usually, I pore over the reviews, then our band of movie fanatics cuss and discuss why we do/don’t want to see something. So, for us to venture into a dark theater with so little information was, appropriately, an adventure.

We got there for the 4:05 matinee, bought our respective snacks and/or drinks, and headed into the theater. Not a soul in there. Too bad for the folks who didn’t go. What a treat this was. I just hope that it did well.

Starts off casually, dad and younger brother picking up older brother Will Shaw (Henry Cavill) at the airport, dad (Bruce Willis, still one of my favorite action heroes) driving. Kind of a chilly drive, too, and I don’t mean the temperature. Destination, the family sailboat (yacht, actually), parked somewhere off the coast of Spain, for a long-overdue (if slightly tense) family reunion.

There’s an argument between older brother and dad, older bro heads off to town to cool off. When he comes back, boat’s nowhere around. Climbing a cliff for a vantage point, he spots it in a cove. Once he makes it back onboard, everyone’s gone. Bruce, mom, brother, brother’s fiancé… all gone. Looks like there’d been a tussle or two aboard.

And, that’s all I can tell you. Otherwise, I’d have to… well, you know.

What follows is a fun, 2-hour thrill ride, with just enough properly placed lulls so you (me, actually) can take a bathroom break. Eventually, we see another of my old favorites, Sigourney Weaver, in a great bad-ass role. And, she does those so well.

We have elements of everything from Bourne to Marathon Man, The Amateur, Leon: The Professional, Three Days of the Condor, and Target. Many of these are gone but not forgotten, and seeing this makes me want to dust them off and pop them in.

Other than Bruce and Sigourney, I wasn’t familiar with any of the rest of the cast. Just found out that our protagonist, Henry Cavill, will play Superman in the upcoming Man of Steel. Gotta say that when I saw an earlier photo of him wearing the red and blue jammies, I thought, nah. But, now, I’m thinking, yeah, the boy can act, and he’s got the right body build, so they don’t have to pad him up much. He first showed up back in ’01, according to IMDb, and he has range. He never had much of an opportunity in Cold Light to do happy, but he did fine with the angry, tortured, confused, sad, and determined.

More on Mr. Cavill later.

'til next time... Adios.