We seem to have a trend in 2016 for thrillers set in Europe where only CIA or intelligence operatives from the USA can save the day. Following the ludicrous but fun London Has Fallen and the very silly The Criminal, we now have Bastille Day.
A young woman, Zoe Naville (Charlotte Le Bron) agrees to plant a bomb in Paris, on behalf of what appears to be a left-wing action group, believing that it will explode in an empty office. When she realises that it will potentially kill people she changes her mind, but before she can dispose of it, a thief (Michael, Richard Madden) steals her bag. It explodes and kills four people. CIA operative, Briar (Idris Elba) has to locate Zoe and Michael and get to the bottom of the ongoing conspiracy.
The central idea is quite nifty – create a terrorist incident to distract from a gang’s actual objective and the sequence of the bag being stolen is a very tense. There is also a great rooftop chase scene that wouldn’t have staged any better in a Bond or Bourne film. The finer details of the plot do not stand up quite as well, and the revelation of who is behind the plot is way too obvious. Also the hashtag obsession feels very odd and will date the film very quickly.
However, the film moves at a cracking pace and the script has enough funny lines to lighten the tension. The leads are all fine. It is a shame that Kelly Reilly is so underused as Briar’s boss.
Rating: 7 out of 10