Bastille Day * * *

After a clumsy overstated introduction to the main character (we get it already, he’s a maverick) this film then settles down into a really good thriller.  

Set in Paris it features a CIA operative who doesn’t like to play by the rules (Dirty Harry style).  

Meanwhile we watch the activities of a pickpocket and a naive girl who get themselves caught up in the wrong crowd (read terrorists). The plot is thickening, the action is brutal and fast and then……. It all turns rather silly and becomes hard to take seriously.  

Unfortunately The gunfire and explosions and body counts in the second half are no compensation for the tense situations and dialogue that was in the first half.

But they’ve got you so engrossed in the first half you happily sit through the second half even if you’re disappointed.

But overall it’s a pretty good thriller and worth your time.  I just wish they’d continued with the same level of confidence and creativity throughout the whole thing.