grantss A Secret Service agent is investigating the kidnapping of the daughter of a senior politician. His investigations uncover a human trafficking operation.Sub-par. Plot is perplexing and often simply random. David Mamet tries to be too clever for his own, and our, good. Dialogue is all over the place, and often quite hammy.Val Kilmer does his best James Bond / Mission Impossible routine, but doesn't pull it off completely. Just not overly convincing. Bizarre dialogue doesn't help. Supporting cast are good, especially Derek Luke and Ed O'Neill.

shrp01 Nearly ten years on, I decided to revisit this film, and found it riddled plot holes, inaccuracies, stilted dialogue and wooden delivery.Plot holes - Just after the rookie gets shot (again!), he takes apart his pager (who still used those in 2004?) and his Nokia, where he finds what we are meant to believe is a tracking device. Obviously, someone doesn't want him to investigate the house, and is able to plant a bug on his phone. Perhaps you might have wanted to look into that before haring off to the middle east. Later, Val finds another pager inside his knife. Apart from the extreme likelihood of this tracker falling out when he opened the knife, what was the power source? Unicorn's tears?Inaccuracies - Sub-machine guns are not accurate over long distances, and yet the rookie manages to shoot through walls to get his man. A lathe and plaster wall will not provide good cover against incoming fire, but it plays hell with the grouping of your shots, as the rounds will tumble any which way.Stilted dialogue - Clichés in a clichéd movie. There is nothing to get your teeth into here; the entire film is fluff. What would have been more interesting to watch is Val as the bad guy, trying to stop the daughter from reaching safety. Films portraying valiant and heroic rescuers are ten-a-penny, how about some real drama?Wooden delivery -Val has been attempting to portray the strong silent type for a long time, but his delivery is more monotonal than gruff. This may explain his casting for the role of the voice of Kit in the Knight Rider films.Conclusion - Avoid this film. Try Luc Besson's Taken instead.

Maziun I'm a fan of David Mamet's movies (both his and the ones he wrote the screenplay for) . "House of games " is one of the best movies ever made. Mamet's other contributions to cinema are great too (including "The Untouchables " and "Ronin" ). So , I was curious about this one . This time Mamet tries a political action thriller. The result ? Surprise , but a bad one.Mamet has always been a rather weak director . I admit that . Still , his flat sense of direction worked quite well in his movies , mostly because they were very theatrical from the nature of plot. Hell , I think that's why "House of games" has surrealistic , hypnotizing feel to it. The problem with "Spartan" is this is an action/thriller . All the action scenes here lack tension. They look like they were directed by amateur. The movie also never has any sense of entertainment . There isn't a moment when you feel that time is running out for our heroes.What is more surprising is the rather bad plot . The story is very predictable and you don't have to be a genius to figure out most of the twists. Worse , some of the twists are rather forced (the sign , the scarecrow sitting on the chair when you need it ) . There is one really good twist at the end of movie , but on the other hand Mamet also throws a rather forced deus ex machina at the end. The dialogue is also bad , very dour , very forgettable . It's surprising , because Mamet always crafts the dialogues very carefully . He knows how to write a stylish dialogue . Here the dialogues are purely informational. The acting is good . Val Kilmer gives a really good performance , one of best in his entire career (along with "Tombstone" and "The Heat"). He plays his character just like he should (and could) play Batman all those years ago in "Batman forever" . Silent , brooding , tough and honorable. Kirsten Bell has a small , but good role in the movie . It was good to see Ed O'Neill ("Married with children") in a convincing serious role and William Macy is pleasure as always. Overall , the acting is the best thing in the movie.I also like the bitter mood of the movie . The story here sadly feels like something that could happen in real life and it makes "Spartan" different than most Hollywood thrillers .It doesn't change the fact that weak screenplay , bad dialogues and crappy direction make this one a misfire in Mamet's career . I give it 4/10.

Matt_Layden Val Kilmer is an actor I have always been fond of. Sure, he has been in a lot of crap lately, but back in the day he was dedicated to his craft. His last good film was Felon, since then it's been down hill for the poor guy. Spartan, the Mamet written and directed feature was his last big starring role in a film that would have been seen because of him. Much like The Salton Sea, the film was good, seen by few and has a few detractors that take away from the overall enjoyment of it.Kilmer plays Scott, an agent sent to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a high ranking United States government official. Kilmer plays the role with determination, next to no emotion and a sense of realism. He isn't Rambo, killing hundreds of guys without reloading, but he does know his way around a gun. Spartan sets itself apart from those films because it's more interested in the characters and the story than the action. Mamet has a keen eye for dialogue, most people either love it or hate it. Watch Glengarry Glen Ross to see just how good his writing can be. Here it actually sounds a bit off. I don't know if it's the delivery, or the writing, let's just say both. Some of the dialogue the characters would spew had me scratching my head in confusion.The action, very little. Only when there needs to be, the rescue is quick and dirty, no car chase sequences out of the city at the last minute. This isn't a Michael Bay film. There are twists and turns, as to be expected with any film that deals with governments, these twists don't come as a surprise. You know there will be cover ups, double crosses and people who aren't who they claim to be. It's all part of the genre. Spartan isn't great, but it's good enough to dedicated 2 hours to. Kilmer plays a more toned down Jack Bauer type character, not showy at all. Kilmer needs to finally put those low rent direct to DVD crappy films behind him and choose roles that will get him back on the map. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was brilliant and I believe that a film like Spartan, might actually help do the trick.