Dirty Angels (2024) Movie Review
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Just because action movies need violence by their very basic intent doesn't mean all violence is worth showing. Dirty Angel reminds us of this in its opening scene, when two teenage girls are thrown off a school roof by terrorists. Stream this movie on Flixtor Movies.
The act is horrific, of course, but director Martin Campbell doesn't simply depict it. He lets the camera follow the first girl as she falls from the roof to the ground, then looks up to see the second girl fall to the ground. Her death. It's a little visual trick that feels showy, and in this particular context the film is as unsettling by its attitude as it is by what we're watching.
The film also contains other moments of deliberately disturbing violence, clearly intended to emphasize the gravity of post-war Afghanistan, where it is set, and the ruthlessness of the villains, a group of ISIS fighters, who are trying to seize power in the country. The backdrop and the antagonists suggest that the filmmakers' intentions go beyond typical action movie material. Then we get to know the superficial characters, get a glimpse of a rudimentary plot, and witness several executions filmed in a way that seems to revel in the bloodshed, making it clear that this is just a routine action movie. Moreover, it often comes across as tasteless.
The opening scene, in which Jake, a secret agent played by Eva Green, is stoned to death but is saved by a military rescue mission, also doesn't help matters much. Jake and her team are captured by ISIS soldiers after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the terrorist leader Amir (George Iskandar) forces her comrades to throw the first stone, to avoid killing innocent locals. As she is evacuated by helicopter, the camera turns around to show Amir shooting every member of Jake's team in the head.
Of course, the violence itself is not the problem. The problem is that it seems exploitative - to serve the story, to create as much horror as possible, to show how gory and spectacular Campbell can make this violence. There is no great ambition in the blood, story, setting, characters, or anything else in this film.
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