Erased (2013)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

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.

Ben Logan (Aaron Eckhart) works for a security testing company in Belgium. His teen daughter, Amy (Liana Liberato)attends high school. One day when Ben goes to work he finds out his company is missing and never existed.Being a former CIA agent, Ben investigates. He ends up on the lam battling the CIA, authorities, and a corporation that all want him and his daughter dead. Amy quickly goes from a snarky teen to Internet sleuth.The film consists of a lot of double agents. The twists are shown to the audience which takes away from any mystery aspect. It is the "Bourne" type of film with one man against the system. This one has the addition of a daughter.This is a fairly decent film for those who like the "Bourne" type of film, especially if your thirst was not satisfied with that latest 4th "Bourne" installment.

ERASED is your latest garden-variety Bourne knock-off which copies the plotting, style, choreography, and even the music of the Greengrass-directed Bourne movies. This one stars a rather bland Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA agent who finds himself on the run with his estranged teenage daughter when his former employers decide to get rid of him.The plot is almost an exact copy of THE BOURNE SUPREMACY in which the protagonist is framed for a crime they didn't commit and then people try to silence them throughout. There are fight scenes with assassins, shoot-outs and chases, and the action is quite fun for what is essentially a B-movie rip-off. Certainly it's hard-hitting in places and the R rating is a refreshing alternative to the usual PG-13 thrills and spills.Unfortunately, ERASED falls down when it comes to the writing. The characters are flat and certain ones, like Olga Kurylenko's (QUANTUM OF SOLACE), have zero presence whatsoever; you wonder what on earth they're doing in the film in the first place. Even worse, the main character is saddled with one of those bratty teenage offspring whose only purpose seems to be to intentionally irritate the viewer. It spoils what is otherwise a workable if derivative thriller.

Whilst the movie has a good plot.. The character of Amy (the daughter) is awful and I kept thinking she could benefit from a good old fashion spanking. This in turn made me want to stop watching it.At some point they should have written into the story where she (Amy) becomes more compliant and therefore more believable as a character in the movie.The acting itself for the character of Amy was extremely annoying and if I wasn't an Eckhard fan I would have stopped watching it.However, I must say the action sequences were quite good and Kyrelenko is always a good addition to any movie.

The story premise is just one of the clichés, an experienced operative and his loved one get framed for something so they run while at the same time they try to uncover the truth. The movie's story builds it's case well enough by revealing details one at a time. But that's essentially it, there's nothing more that this movie offers. the action sequences are just standard action without anything special. The plot twists and ending are not strong enough. Those things makes it even harder for the movie to balance its cliché and predictable premise and plot. The acting is just below expectations, although I wouldn't say that it's bad. Aaron Eckhart can have his acting better here, though I think that it's the director's incapability to make him do so. Olga Kurylenko should really work on her expressions since she only presents the same face in almost all her scenes.