A Masterpiece!

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Having just watched this with my family, I commented at the end that it felt more like a student filmmaker's thesis, as opposed to a full-length feature film. After reviewing the director's bio, I think that comparison can be safely made. The director, Jesper Ganslandt, is a Swedish film maker whose credits to date consist of 3 music videos for the Swedish pop/dance group Alcazar; 2 short films; a semi-autobiographical film (Falkenberg Farewell) in which the director and other cast members portray people with the same names as the actors,and which takes place in Falkenberg, Sweden (Mr. Ganslandt's birthplace); a documentary about an unknown Swedish topic; and 4 feature films, including this one. With that in mind, the film was fairly well acted, in my opinion. I found Sean's (Daniel Radcliffe's) reactions to be fairly believable, given his circumstances and relative helplessness, while DEA agent's are typical of someone who's trying to climb the corporate/bureaucratic ladder (not caring who gets hurt in the process), and Mallory's actions are those of someone who's just carrying out a job (Mallory is an "troubleshooter"/assassin for a third group). Mallory has been tasked with kidnapping Sean's wife, Jen, to ensure "compliance. He's not sadistic about it, although it would have been easy to write him that way; instead, he's cool and professional, calmly informing Sean of what will happen to Jen if compliance is not met. I did have a few (minor) quibbles with the story though, even keeping in mind the looseness of the plot. First, I disagreed with the simplistic ending Mallory meets at Sean's and Jen's hands; instead of simply drowning Mallory; use the last 2 bullets in your gun (received earlier) to SHOOT the SOB!!! Sean and Jen end up bum rushing Mallory and holding his head under water; how often have we seen "death" faked that way? If you're close enough to hold his head under water, put those last 2 bullets in HIS HEAD and MAKE SURE he's not faking!! Also, the final scene is one where Sean's watching Jen and a toddler (who the audience is led to believe is their daughter) cross the street to meet them in an unnamed location. Without spoilers, how did they get there, where IS "there", and how did they finance this move? I felt this ending left the story open to a future (hopefully better written) sequel.

Earlier this year I watched Wheelman that got not too bad ratings on here and I still wonder why. That movie was about a guy in a car phoning different people every five seconds, and this for the entire movie. Apparently I didn't get it because I thought it was one of the most boring movies I saw this year. If you don't like cars but you do like planes, and you do like movies where people are just phoning during the entire movie then you should watch Beast Of Burden. Because that's basically it, Daniel Radcliffe in a plane phoning different people for the entire movie. 95% of the movie is just a guy in a plane phoning. You have to be a masochist to like that kind of garbage. The only reason I started watching this movie was because of Daniel Radcliffe. I wonder if he regrets accepting this role, because that's obviously a serious downer in his career. If you want to die from boredom watch Wheelman and Beast Of Burden consecutively.

This may well be the worst movie ever made. Undoubtedly the stupidest, hackneyed plot and script ever. Come to think of it, this movie does not have even one redeeming quality. Avoid at all costs.

This did not have depth to the plot in any way, shape or form. It was badly directed and frankly, badly acted. Without giving spoilers other than one which is revealed at the start anyway, there was a thin and vague back story which the film took you back to throughout story, but what you was taken back to was so rubbish and uninteresting, and repetitive, combined with not actually explaining anything besides his wife was ill, that it really was a bit pointless. The lead actor could not carry the film with the focus being of him in the cockpit, his reactions to the situation were one dimensional and unrealistic, as were his wife's. There was no explanation about how each player came into the 'plot', and the vague pointers to it were uninteretsing and did not make sense and there was no conclusion. It was as though someone scribbled the very basics for a movie on the back of small napkin, but forgot to finish it and then the director assumed it was finished and just said, read your lines, it's Ok, I don't think I'll direct today, I'm having a cuppa instead.. Annoyed I wasted my time. I think Radcliffe may do better when he has others to bounce off and maybe some direction and plot.With so many talented writers and directors out there, I don't understand why so much rubbish has money thrown at it or is given airtime.