Reviewed by: Kris

Directed by: David Mamet

Produced by: Moshe Diamant, Art Linson, & Elie Samaha

Cast: Tia Texada, Ed O'Neill, Val Kilmer, Kristen Bell, & Alexandra Kerry

Released: March 12th, 2004

Thriller 1 hr. 46 min. Robert Scott is a career military officer working in a highly secretive special operations force. A man hardened by years of brutal service, he is respected by his peers and elders in the world of espionage. When Scott is recruited to find Laura Newton, the daughter of a high-ranking government official, he is paired with novice Curtis, who becomes his protégé. Working with a special task force comprised of Presidential Advisors, the Secret Service, FBI and CIA, Scott and Derek stumble upon a white slavery ring, which may have some connection to Laura's disappearance. As the story unfolds, the straightforward search-and-rescue mission becomes complicated by the political ambitions of those in high places--like Stoddard, a political operative who may know more than he's telling about the clandestine circumstances surrounding Laura's abduction. Scott and Curtis are at the brink of tracking Laura's whereabouts when the mission comes to an abrupt conclusion, with the m! edia issuing reports of the girl's death. Scott returns to the quiet life of landowner in a rural location and awaits his next assignment in relative peace. But Curtis can't rest. In his naiveté, he seeks out Scott to confide his belief that Laura is in fact alive. If she is, their continued unofficial investigation will put them as well as Laura at the center of a dangerous conspiracy that reaches the highest levels.

I remember seeing Val Kilmer on all sorts of late night talk shows when Spartan was first released, and it made me want to see the movie.

Kilmer talked about it like it was a great movie, and he made it sound interesting. However, after finally seeing Spartan, I am extremely disappointed. It just left too many things open for me, and I don’t like it when a movie does that.

Val Kilmer is Scott, a military man, hired by the Secret Service to find a girl named Laura Newton (Kristen Bell), who was kidnapped. Newton is the daughter of an American politician, which makes her a priority to find. Scott and his partner follow a number of leads, which always result in at least the death of one person. Finally, Scott tracks down Laura and she tells him what happened, which is much more than anyone expected.

It sounds like a pretty good movie right? It definitely would be good if the plot didn’t have so many holes and if it didn’t confuse the viewer so much. We are kind of thrown into the story without any background information. I had no idea who Scott was other than some guy in the military, and I still have no clue as to why he was called to find Laura Newton. Too many things happened in this movie where I had to go “huh?” at because they just made no sense at all, and weren’t explained until later or not at all. There were just too many loose ends for me to enjoy this movie.

The acting wasn’t awful in this movie, and it’s probably the only thing that kept me watching it. Kilmer did a decent job in his role as Scott, but at times it seemed like he wasn’t trying. There were a few scenes where he just seemed bored with what he was doing, and his lines were delivered that way. Kilmer kind of eclipsed every other actor in the film, including William H. Macy, which is normally tough to do because Macy knows how to carry a role. Overall, there weren’t any amazing performances by anyone, but all the actors were decent in their roles.

Spartan is an attention-grabbing movie, which you might enjoy if you like action. If you are a Val Kilmer fan, then you would probably like it. He is normal Val Kilmer, and carries the movie. You won’t like it if you don’t care for confusing plots with holes everywhere. I would recommend seeing something else, unless you actually want to think about what happened in the movie after you have watched it.