Bastille Day

Cop thrillers are two a penny on TV. Directors need to understand that they cannot copy-and-paste when it comes to feature films because they are different. James Watkins wasn't listening.

Bastille Day is a CIA surveillance flick in Paris rather than L.A. Sean Briar, Idris Elba's maverick agent, could have been played just as well by Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, except our man from The Wire is showing off his 007 moves just in case.

Talking of modern cliches how about corruption in the force? You have tripped over bent coppers more often than you care to remember. Who do you trust? Not Ghostbusters! Not anyone in uniform.

Michael Mason (Richard Madden) is the fly in the ointment. He's a pickpocket who could have been busking his skills as a street magician but finds wallet and mobile phone extraction more profitable.

Zoe Neville (Charlotte Le Bon) has been groomed by a greasy faced activist to leave a bomb in a suitcase at the offices of some political party after hours when no one is about. She goes to the venue only to discover that the night cleaners are at work and so leaves immediately. Outside, on steps above the Seine, the suitcase is snatched by You Know Who, with explosive consequences.

Essentially this is a chase movie with Briar who seems to have psychic powers and Michael M whose skills are valuable in a tight corner and Zoe who looks pretty enough to disguise a cotton bud for a brain.

The enemy is a squad of granite jawed special ops gendarmes whose boss has ambitions for national domination which makes for a series of violent encounters, a twist or two to liven up the already lively proceedings and a feeling that you have been here before, and before, and before...

The secret of crash bang movies is to make you care about the characters so that enduring the wallop becomes an emotional experience as well as a visual going over. It doesn't happen here. You watch the action and in that tangent drifty teenage way wonder whether Idris has the finesse to play James.

Message to M: 5/10