Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It starts with a mysterious man going about placing bombs in several places of Sri Lanka. He even has the intestinal fortitude to go to the police station, make a complaint of a lost wallet so they actually see his face, and plant a bomb in the toilet of the police station. Is he gutsy or just plain crazy? Well, stick around, we'll find out.He has some technological expertise because he calls using several cell phone and switches cards so they can't pin him down. And he calls and gives advance information to a young news reporter so all of his escapades are broadcast to the public. He wants some terrorists released from prison or the bombs will go off. When the police are reluctant to cooperate he tells them where to find the one in the police station. OOPS, now they know he is not joking.Suspense builds as we see the faces of the people close to the bombs on a bus and a train. We begin to identify with them, they are no longer just one of a thousand faces in a crowd. We are left wondering if he will blow them up if he is unable to free the terrorists. And we are quite certain they will probably just go about killing more innocents.There are of course problems getting the right people on line to arrange for the release of the prisoners, but eventually it happens and the bombing terrorists are loaded on a plane and sent on their way. I won't tell you how it all ends because that would totally destroy the plot of the movie.Early on I was guessing how it would end and I was right. Nothing like you might expect.If you need numerous explosions to entertain this might not appeal to you. But if you like suspense, and a bit of a chess game plot, this will keep you entertained.

This movie sucks so bad that my eyes couldn't believe!. I mean, come on!, the whole movie was filled with clichés like the tough guy wearing sunglasses (even in the dark) and fist fights so poorly acted. Sir Kingsley, I hope you are reading this and if so, you owe me one and a half hours of my life...and i want them back!. BTW, the way they speak through the entire movie reminded me of those English dubbed Chinese movies.It's very difficult to understand how a man who played such a profound role like Gandhi can perform such a terrible movie like this one. Overall, worst movie ever...and Mr. Kingsley, i mean it, i want my wasted time back!

This movie was so terrible that I was so surprised that how could it turn out to be, with an actor like Ben. But then I realized that the whole production team and the cast was just horrible, so there's no surprise that it was an epic failure.Made me wonder whether they did have a casting session before selecting the cast or at least even read the script twice! Why didn't they go for Sri Lankan actors? Instead, they had to go for people who called themselves actors, only god knows from where they were picked up from.Major blow to Sri Lanka and as a Sri Lankan, I am quite crossed about making this movie. I hope people will not think bad about Sri Lankan movies, because we produce many good movies which goes and wins foreign movie festival awards. But among them, here this is, smearing mud on our faces.Absolutely horrible. Cannot give 0. So I'm giving 1 out of 10.

"A terrorist plants several bombs throughout the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka and threatens to detonate them unless prisoners are released."That's the brief synopsis of this movie. That, and the poster art for this movie would lead you to believe it is an action-packed thriller. It isn't. It is a c-grade movie from Sri Lanka made for the direct-to-DVD, American market. Sri Lanka isn't known for its film industry, at least in the United States. Considering that it isn't a terrible movie. It just isn't the quality American film goers expect when plunking down $4.99 to view it from the local cable company.I'm not going to discuss the plot except to say --- think Die Hard without the special effects, decent acting, or passable dialog. I selected this because Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross had the leads, surrounded by a cast of Sri Lankan filmmakers and actors. The Sri Lankan film industry is young and the money isn't there to employ the film techniques the U.S. film industry has invented and perfected. So A Common Man gets some forgiveness here. It's a decent attempt to cater to the U.S. market. But most of the U.S. Audience will be disappointed by its overly amateurish feel.In this first place, as a struggling (read: hopeful) screenwriter, I was not surprised by the formalistic plot. All principal characters, and a few irrelevant ones --- included, no doubt, to create drama and/or a layer of unpredictability --- are introduced during the first thirty minutes. Unfortunately, the middle --- the place where characters are developed, the plot rises to its dramatic peak, and the way out presented --- is largely absent. In very real terms the movie goes from Act I to Act III with a cup of coffee in between.The dialog was rudimentary. Well, really not very good. One scene that stands out is a discussion between the principal character, played by Academy Award Winner, Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and the tele-journalist, Dilky, played by Numaya Siriwardena, where Dikly is objecting to being used to facilitate the "crime" being perpetrated by Kingsley's character. A young journalist is being given the biggest story of her career and she is prattling on about the morality of it all. To top it off the dubbed dialog suffered from some very serious synchronization issues.The special effects were ... well ... not special. The camera work was a cross between a hand held wielded by someone with a neurological disorder and a stationary unit that did not permit Ben Cross from moving around apparently, to prevent him from walking out of the shot. The soundtrack was mediocre and frequently played over the actor's lines.The Sri Lankan actors were somewhat less-skilled than an introductory college theater class. Unfortunately, both Bens (Cross and Kingsley) sowed up, walked through their lines and left. Other reviewers on other sites have trashed these two fine actors for their somnambulistic performances. In reality, that's all that can be expected when two extraordinary actors are placed in the hands or a director who is very much less extraordinary and/or in a film with a paltry budget.Given all of this I still recommend this film. It is instructive not for the incompetence of the production crew --- for they are hardly that --- but because much can be learned from this early foray into the U.S. market by a foreign film industry in it's, by our standards, infancy.Recommendation: Watch but, with understanding eyes.