Film: The Numbers Station

Director: Kasper Barfoed
Genre: Thriller
Source: USA (2013)
Rating: R
Location/Format: Netflix Instant Streaming
Grade: D

Move along, there's nothing to see here.

In an attempt to determine whether I could watch movies on my iPad before going to bed, I stupidly began with this flat and uninspired John Cusack picture. Cusack is awesome, when he has a character that he can give a little personality to. Here, his CIA agent, suddenly struck by a bad case of conscience, decides for no particularly compelling reason that maybe his life of assassinating people is not the healthiest of lifestyles and is reassigned to apparently the black ops equivalent of a desk job. If you want to see a John Cusack movie about a regretful assassin, you should be watching Grosse Point Blank and ignoring this film completely.

Plot holes, unexplained motivations, poor characterization. This movie has nothing to say and, even at 89 minutes, seems to take a long time to say it. I'm assuming this thing went straight to video, and if it didn't, it should have.

Somebody needs to put John Cusack in a good movie again.

Alternate Film Title: "At Least Malin Akerman Is Pretty"