#70 STRATTON

Starring Dominic Cooper, Gemma Chan, Austin Stowell, Tyler Hoechlin, Connie Nielson, Thomas Kretschmann, Derek Jacobi and Tom Felton. Written by Duncan Falconer and Warren Davis II and directed by Simon West. Running time 95 minutes. Cert 15.

Dominic Cooper is Stratton, a SBS operative assigned to MI6 on the hunt of Grigory Barovsky (Thomas Kretschmann) a supposed 20-year  dead KGB operative who killed Stratton's partner in a bungled mission deep inside Iraq, or Iran or somewhere in the middle east. Anyway, Grigory has got his hands on a bio weapon called Satan's Snow or something and he's out for revenge. So Strat and his new partner, Marty (Tyler Hoechlin) head off for revenge and to bring an end to Grigory's shit.

Back in 1982 Lewis Collins starred in Who Dares Wins, his showcase to prove to Chubby and Eon as to his suitability to play James Bond. 35 years later and Dominic Cooper seems to be having a punt with this, an utterly middling putt-putt of a spy thriller which jets around the world from Camden, to Docklands to Rome as our very laidback and reserved hero Stratton goes about his job of attempting to prevent Grigory from doing his. It all builds to a very piffling car chase between Stratton's Land Rover SUV and a No. 9 red double-decker bus in a London park.

And that's it really. This is a middling, toothless, non-offensive poottle, mostly through London, which features a couple of casual car chases, some slight blood letting gun battles and a body count in the low teens. Apart from one rather hard-edged interrogation scene this is a rather bland thriller. If you want to see a proper action film about the SBS (Special Boat Services) check out North Sea Hijack, starting the later great Roger Moore as the cat-loving, misogynist marine counter-terrorist expert Rufus Excalibur ffolkes who goes up against unhinged terrorist, Anthony Perkins who's only gone and booby-trapped three North Sea oil platforms with three massive bombs!

STRATTON 4/10
NORTHSEA HIJACK 8/10