The cast lured me to this poorly-titled espionage thriller, but even with solid contributions from Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, I am quite disappointed with the result.  Based on the way that the American spies disrupt the city of Madrid, rampaging around with guns blazing, this should have been called “The Ugly Americans” or something of that sort.

Henry Cavill (soon to be seen as the new Superman) reluctantly attends a family vacation in Spain, only to find that ol’ Dad (Bruce Willis) has a few secrets that are quickly coming back to haunt him — and his family.  Cavill, suddenly on his own in the middle of a plot he doesn’t understand, is chased, captured, tortured, let loose, chased some more, captured again, tortured some more, and so on and so on.  Very little in this story, which is supposed to be mysterious, makes sense even to the characters chasing each other around the city.  Mabrouk El Mechri’s movie is primarily an excuse to stage ridiculous gunfights and car chases in an exotic locale, and even this fails, since Madrid looks pretty much like any other city with a plaza.

There’s actually a fair amount more to the story, and in firmer hands perhaps it might have made a decent thriller.  But El Mechri emphasizes the wrong elements, undermines logic and even goes for laughs at inopportune moments.  It is fun to see Sigourney being wicked, and Bruce Willis definitely impresses while he is on screen. Yet The Cold Light of Day generates no heat and should probably remain in darkness; it isn’t very good.  ☆ 1/2.  20 September 2012.