User Reviews

This move pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting a rather mindless 'lets get the terrorists' themed action film but was instead treated to a film that, to a limited extent, tried to explore the motivations of the main characters whilst still maintaining the feel and pace of an action movie.

On the action side, it was quite good. The fight scenes felt quite real and were not over the top but still managed to have quite an impact. Where the film fell short however, was the other side, in the explaining motivations. It almost seemed to me that a 30-45min chunk of the film was left out in the middle. The part of the movie that drew me in the most was the bomber and how outside influences as well as his own personal feelings pushed him in the direction he ended up going in but, it needed more of that. As, to me at least, I couldn't attach myself to the leaps he made along the way which overall, ruined what would have otherwise been a very very interesting exploration of the subject.

Perhaps I'm asking too much of an action orientated film, but, I think the film makers in this instance, were doing the same.

I recently caught this film, billed as an action/drama/suspense flick, quite by accident, and immediately wondered why I saw no promo for it...

First off, it was nice to see Sean Bean, who has played some bad ass bad guys (eg. Patriot Games, Goldeneye), get to play the bad ass good guy, Ewan. No other actors were known to me, except for Charlotte Rampling, who was in the short Ghost Recon: Alpha. This was not a disadvantage as all the major and minor characters played their parts well. Rampling in particular did well as the pseudo "M" character.

The movie begins with more drama than action, and enough keeps going wrong, that you begin to wonder if Ewan still should be in this "game." But his ruthlessness (again, pseudo Bond) proves that he should. The plot is heavy with the middle east and terrorism situation and there is a considerable amount of socio-political undercurrent; there is plenty of ruthlessness to go around.

A fair amount of time is used to build suspense and establish motivations, all going to show once again how violence for revenge sake, or any sake for that matter, perpetuates. Pay attention to where there are flashbacks or you might get lost in the details.

The fight scenes seem graphic, not because of blood and gore, so much as for the sound effects. And when the action finally begins to build, it is punctuated with plot twists that underscore the complexities involved.

While ultimately enjoyable to view, the movie is ultimately less action and more drama, and the more realistic for that reason.

A rough, tough and extremely violent movie that sees Game of Thrones star Sean Bean swap doublet and sword for civvies and gun to play a British secret service agent who's ordered to going under cover to track down some missing Semtex explosive and the home-grown Islamist suicide cell possessing it. The title is spy-speak for terrorists with no criminal record, so unknown to the secret services that they're almost impossible to trace. Sean Bean is his usual tough minimalist self, but keeping into account he's the star of the show, he's not on screen a lot - a case of too much terrorist, not enough secret agent. The story certainly has ambition and there are some memorable fight scenes, but it also lacks the extra boost that could have pushed much more Bean's action-movie career.

A great performance from not only Sean but also the girl (Tuppence?), and it was nice to see Peter Polycarpou back on our screen!

cleanskin will appeal to a wide audience, not just those who are still recovering from 7/7 (which i couldn't stop thinking about whilst watching) and it's helpful seeing the side from the "good guy" and the side from the "bad guy".

having lived in London when i was younger, it was nice to see some of the landmarks i visited as a kid, so it seems they really went out of their way to keep the realism in the film. it could have easily been filmed in a film studio but it wasn't, which makes it home more for me.

Still the scenes linger in the memory after i watched them.

I saw this film in my local Tesco store, the misses saw Sean Bean on the cover and before I knew it, it was coming down the conveyor belt. I was quite impressed with this movie, considering I had not seen it advertised previous. It has a lot of action and some of the stunts are better placed in one of the bigger US flicks so was really impressed by those. Sean has such a natural ease at playing these sorts of characters, and almost felt sympathy for both the hunter and the hunted as the film progressed. There are also a couple of other recognisable stars which almost play a lesser role considering their wider film experience, this was quite an interesting casting approach. We both agree that it was money well spent, but will probably go for a softer more light hearted movie in the weeks to come, good insightful viewing though.

what a great film, especially as I really was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It did not start off like your usual kind of terrorist, hunt and eliminate movie. Almost a few stories going on at once, I thought it was good character development, you have to concentrate to keep up in between the present and past sequences, but that's what made this film different in its style and approach of the topic. I sure we can say that the main terrorist is certainly dead, no no chance of bringing him back, but I would like to see the character of the secret agent continued in a secondary movie with a new task at hand and a cleaned up loyal team (not to give to much away). for my part, I enjoyed this film, like the opening scene, and the end conclusion especially, didn't see it coming at all, although i'm probably not the quickest film analyst on here. Nice, gritty British thriller with an attractive directing style and plot build up.

I was given the opportunity to view Cleanskin in Cannes Film Festival. And I can assert without question that Cleanskin absolutely sets the standard and quality level of a top action film. If you really enjoy action movies Cleanskin is not to miss. The (only) two things that distinguish Cleanskin to a Hollywood movie is the personnel and the City of London where the actual film was shot, as most Hollywood movies are filmed in the US. The film is very intelligent as it clearly elaborates the catalyst of the vengeance. And you would see why Ash (Abhin Galeya) found no place for remorse in his heart. Plus you will learn certainly not all criminals are illiterates and secondly, some people can go an extra mile to avenge their nation. Among many action movies that I have watched in the past, Commando by Arnold Schwarzenegger remains on top of my list. However, there is this thing in Commando and that thing in Cleanskin that make both films somehow different but brilliant in so many ways.

A British film about suicide bombers in London is most likely to be too dark (and a little too much like real life) to be a mainstream success, so many people may be forgiven for never hearing about Cleanskin.

Sean Bean plays a Secret Service agent on the trail of a suicide bomber cell in Britain. What could be quite a clichéd film actually turns out pretty good. It's partly divided up into two separate stories - one detailing Sean's quest to track down the cell and the other showing the terrorists themselves. Perhaps the best part of the film even relates to the terrorists. While Sean is your typical no-nonsense tough guy (think Liam Neeson in the Taken films), the terrorists are actually pretty well thought out characters - no 'True Lies' clichéd Arab terrorists here. It takes something pretty well written to make you have sympathy with a terrorist one minute, then be revolted by his actions the next, plus even weave in a convincing love story into the mix.

I won't go into too many details about the film's plot, as there are a few twists and turns you might not see coming. Just rest assured, if you're looking for a decent action/drama (with plenty of splendid shots of London from above!) then give Sean and co a go.

My wife purchased the CLEANSKIN DVD for me recently (despite asking for a Sean Bean film of a different name!) and it turned out to be an enjoyable watch. The theme of terrorism and radicalisation trends throughout the world, and the July London bombings of 2005 suddenly come flashing back whilst watching CLEANSKIN, so you find yourself cheering for Sean Bean quite loudly during the film.

Equally, you also find yourself in the mindset of the terrorist Ash's head, and you pray that he won't go on and want to commit such atrocities. He gets pushed and pushed by the terrorist recruiter Nabil until there is no going back.

Keep your eyes peeled for a snippet of Mr Bean on the TV screen, great timing really given that he showed up at the Olympic opening ceremony recently!

This movie is a bizare mishmash of themes. It was marketed as some sort of sean bean action movie turns into a love the terrorist drama then a conspiracy theory anti government thing. Oh and has ultra violence to boot. What idiot though anyone who liked one of these things would like the whole??? And so it starts as a gritty British action movie. Okay cool if a bit slow for that type of movie, about 20 mins in and me and my mates are like "what the . . . " did we change channels, weren't we watching a sean bean film, who is this guy and why did the movie just end.

Seriously, they just stop following the action story and start on a new tact for like 30 minutes of explaining away terrorism drama, then go back to the action movie bit and then go government crazy.

I seriously don't get who wants to watch an ultra violent action movie and an terrorist apoligist drama at the same time.

Must be an audience of like 5 people in all of the UK.

Truly bizarre concept, and the marketing was horrible, tell me its an action movie and thats what I expect.

Watched the movie with low expectations. However, from the first moment to the last one, I could not take my eyes off the screen. The way the story evolved, the relationship between Ash and his girlfriend, and many more details that can be added, they were all unexpected performances. I loved it. What was more surprising for me was the director whose name I've heard for the first time in my life. I hope and believe that Hadi Hajaig shoots many more films...The taste for me was very much like Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski which was another shocking performance for me anyway...So many beauty and delight in the film makes me ignore small details that could have been put or said in a different way. Strongly recommended.

I enjoyed this DVD, good music, action, story and the best actor. I enjoyed the way this film go started, straight away there was action and suspense in the opening shoot out.

Not sure why some people said it was not that good, I followed it very well, the on screen direction of present day and previous year captions helped keeping up with the flashbacks.

Good stunts, although one stunt topped them all!, worth watching for this bit alone. Nice production, although the name could have been different but it does make sense towards the end of the film so ties in nicely.

When watching a well structured movie, the characters are built up and the plot has convincing connections. This is where the movie falls short. Not enough character and plot detail. Too much time spent on relatively boring meetings between loosely connected characters which fail to make a convincing push for the plot as a whole. Ironically this makes the film more realistic. But it does not make it entertaining.

What I liked about the movie was its honest account of the identity crisis for angry British Muslims caught between two cultures and feeling powerless in a war of words in the media. Inexperienced, they want to stand up for something righteous, but get sucked into terrorism. I particularly like the scene where the two main protagonists on either side are questioning right and wrong, and the dialogue emphasises the betrayals faced in modern times, as they both come to terms with their chosen roles.

The plot twist is interesting and adds real weight to the storyline. However, the ending is clumsy. The same scene could have been managed better. No need for the evidence at the scene for example. Characters were a bit weak too. The audience needs to have some empathy with the characters for the movie to be entertaining. In this film the characters are mostly cold and hard to empathise with. Not easy I guess in a serious film about lives in terrorism.

Considering the small budget, from a visual point of view the film was well directed. If it had been scripted with a bit more substance and flavour, it could have been a strong film rather than just an average one.

Still worth watching as it is both honest and controversial.

What I enjoyed most about this films that it showed both sides of a very British story without being preachy, one sided or have an agenda. What made me watch it all the way through is that it was all built into the thriller format.

What I have found in many films dealing with this subject matter is that they all have been either heavy handed but mostly too worthy. Cleanskin gets on with telling a story and just observes and keeps a distance from the issues, simply presenting them asthey are.

It was good to see the process of how a man born here in the UK is turned to the road of murder and how people use him for their own reasons and benefits. Very refreshing to have a film show the process and treat the character of Ash objectively but showing all his appalling faults.

It was Sean's Beans best performance for many years, I'm not too familiar with all his films but I thought he did a very good job with this film as he did on Game of Thrones. The good thing about his character is that he wasn't the standard angry soldier, he had a history and motivation.

My favourite scene was when Ash is about to commit his attack he visits the Cleric, Ash wants reassurance about heaven and the cleric reassures him then hurriedly goes to his sons birthday party leaving Ash alone to commit his act while the Cleric is enjoying himself elsewhere. I think that scene sums the film up, very poignantly written.

STORY:

The film starts begins with secret service agent Sean Bean being tasked with stopping a terrorist cell. He plays a tough veteran who bares a sort of resemblance to Liam Neeson in Taken. Naturally I assumed it would be 100 minutes of a government trained superman killing lots of baddies and was set to rant on about how this film has nothing original about it. Then it surprised me about twenty minutes in by cutting to the other lead character played by Abhin Galeya and follows his gradual path from student to suicide bomber. He isn't made out to be inherently evil like many TV terrorists are but instead just a kid who is slowly turned and brainwashed. The is juxtaposed with Sean Bean's brutal tactics including torture as he searches for him, making it very difficult to find a 'good guy' or a 'bad guy'. The story here, whilst being easy to watch and follow, is also very controversial and isn't afraid of going into issues that many film developers fear to tread. The overall idea may not be original but the story makes it stand out from many other films. 4/5

EXECUTION:

Having never heard of any of the actors apart from Sean Bean I was surprised at how good the acting was all round, I must give particular mention to Abhin Galeya who plays the young student turned suicide bomber exceptionally well. This film was made on quite a low budget but I respect that and although at times it is noticeable without all the special effects of other modern films, it did not affect the quality of the film. In fact it proves that you don't need cars exploding everywhere and mindless action with stunts and chases like many Hollywood producers seem to believe. Instead, this film relies on its writing which is believable and genuinely thought provoking. The action, in itself, is gritty and intense and certainly not glamorised with all the special effects which suits the style of the film. There were a few clichés and the ending of the film was executed poorly in my opinion but that did not take much away from the overall experience. 3/5

VERDICT:

I think many will agree that the Bourne trilogy was good but that we don't need hundreds a poorly written copies of them from lazy Hollywood producers. Cleanskin takes that formula and turns it on its head with an original story that mixes gritty action with realism. This is a film for those who want to watch a gritty action film but who appreciate a thought provoking story with subtleties which you just don't see in many other films these days. How this film sneaked in under the radar surprises me as it is definitely worth checking out as even if you don't enjoy it, you will certainly appreciate the controversies in this film. 4/5 + 3/5 = 7/10