Sunday, July 27, 2014

Covert One: The Hades Factor


Starring: Stephen Dorff, Mira Sorvino, & Blair Underwood
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5 stars

Based on a series of successful novels, CBS decided to turn the Covert One series into a mini-series, and while they got some big names to be in this three hour epic, the story just doesn't transfer well to film. Not every story can be condensed down and still keep the story believable and that's what happens here. Things move so quickly with one twist coming right on top another, making the film unbelievably confusing. The story begins on an army base, when a strange virus, thought to have been destroyed in the Middle East, starts killing people. The FBI, CIA, and mysterious group Covert One investigate and try to stop what they see as a terrorist attack. As I said there are so many different elements involved in this story and while a well placed twist in the story can help a film, too many just confuse things. Half way through this film it was impossible to tell who was working for whom, and what different groups were actually trying to accomplish. Stephen Dorff, AKA Mr. Blue E-Cig, stars and while he's not really known as an action guy, does a really good job. He's paired with Mira Sorvino who is one of my least favorite actresses. There is no doubting the fact that she's beautiful and somehow won an Academy Award, but I've always found her to be unbelievable and far to cold to play most of the roles she's been in. There are also some nice cameos from some people I haven't seen in a while, which could have been a big help to the film, if they weren't also part of the constant twists and turns of the story. I don't know how the novels were, but as far as the film goes, The Hades Factory is extremely fast paced and far too confusing to be worth watching. They had three hours to really engage and entrench the audience in the story, instead they blindfold you and put you on a roller coaster. The story is all over the place, the performances are mixed, and in the end, you'll just be scratching your head.

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