Ten years ago in Bogota, Colombia, a couple were gunned down at the hands of a brutal gang. They were the parents of nine-year-old Cataleya Restrepo (Zoe Saldana) who witnessed the ordeal. Now an adult, Cataleya is a sleek, efficient assassin for hire, picking off felons in the United States for her gangster uncle. Secretly, she harbours dreams of revenge, and as she learns more about her parents' murder she moves closer to punishing those responsible.
Action luminary Luc Besson has written some of the most gripping modern films of the genre but unfortunately the rent-ascript used here is closer to his lesser efforts such as Transporter 3. Olivier Megaton was the director for that third episode of the fun but flawed trilogy starring Jason Statham, and teams up once again with Besson here.
The movie is saved in parts by the beautiful femme fatale Saldana, who digs her claws into the role showing feline smoothness and dexterity. However, there is only so much she can do with the mishmashed script and she stands out as one of only a few accomplished actors on show.
This fun-in-spurts action may ultimately need to go down as collateral damage on Besson's increasingly inconsistent CV, but passes the time happily enough.
Colombiana is a Film programme that first aired in 2011 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
