New Orleans policeman Danny Fisher intercepts super-smart villain Miles Jackson during a million dollar heist and Jackson’s girlfriend is accidentally killed. A year later Fisher and his partner have been promoted to detectives and Jackson has escaped from prison. The bad guy then snatches Fisher’s fiancée and holds her to ransom. He sets the detective twelve deadly tasks around the city. If he successfully completes them all then he can have his beloved back. But the criminal mastermind isn’t planning on playing fair…

Harlin tries to be inventive by kicking off with lots of grainy surveillance footage complete with onscreen grids and viewfinders as FBI agents track the villain through the streets. He uses hand-held cameras with rough pans and zooms to try to inject some excitement into some sequences. He frantically cross-cuts between possible victims and the hero during every task in an attempt to create tension. Then of course there are the multi-angle slow-motion explosions, which are the real stars of the show. However, there’s no semblance of suspense because the plotting is so predictable and the hero appears virtually indestructible. So you’re never under any illusion about the outcome. Harlin’s attempts at character development are pitiful, comprising a handful of saccharine flashes of Danny’s relationship with his fiancée Molly. They don’t make you feel for the characters, they just make you look at your watch and wonder when the next explosion will be. Admittedly with little plot to get in the way, the pacing is swift and the hundred-and-eight minute running-time flies by.

The screenplay by debut writer Daniel Kunka feels like a real back-of-a-beer-mat idea; the most basic race against time story played out several times with bigger explosions on every occasion. The vengeance subplot is so badly under-written that it’s easy to see the twist in the tale from miles away. Any whiff of plot is merely a way of marking time until the next action sequence. The puzzles and tasks are far too easy to solve so there’s no real mystery. Because what the story is really about is blowing up as many things as possible in as short a period as possible.

Wrestler John Cena looks like a beefier version of Matt Damon and acts about as well as the puppet Damon from “Team America”. He’s a square-jawed action man with a po-faced default expression that never changes. He throws himself into the action with gusto. But there’s no suggestion of anything going on from the neck up. Aidan Gillen clearly relishes playing the bad guy as Miles Jackson, but not matter how he attacks the role, the writing simply isn’t strong enough to make him more than a generic villain. Sure he’s vicious and mercenary, but he doesn’t have anything that marks him out as a memorable baddie. And he tends to come across as cocky rather than menacing.

The original music by Trevor Rabin adds to the 80s’ action bonanza feeling with plenty of chugging synthesizers, synth strings and rising brass. Chase sequences are accompanied by electric guitars and pounding percussion. Miles Jackson warrants his own arrangements of tense strings and percussion and thoughts of Molly are underlined by syrupy Spanish guitar. Unfortunately, in line with the rest of the movie, the composer goes for the bigger, louder, more approach, smothering almost every second of the production in cheap music that loses its impact because of its ubiquity.