He Who Dares (2014) Review

Verdict
3

Summary

He Who Dares makes the best of its low budget and director Paul Tanter is one to watch with some interesting ideas. The movie has a memorable villain and some decent action but the lack of any character development and the flickering screen effect lets it down.

Plot: A group of ruthless masked terrorists kidnap the Prime Ministers daughter, fortifying themselves in an underground car park rigged with explosives. A crack SAS team are sent in and must take the building one level at a time.

Review: *CONTAINS SPOILERS*

He Who Dares is a low budget, British actioner which has been described as a cross between The Raid and Die Hard. I can see why as it takes place pretty much in the one confined location, to try and create an atmosphere of tension; but that is really where any similarities end.

The movie belongs to the villain Holt, played by Simon Philips and that’s simply because he’s on screen more than any other character. He’s hilariously over the top and the fact that he keeps killing people every two seconds removes any real sense of threat where you’re almost cheering him on. He also has the best lines and just chews the scenery.

Our SAS heroes manage to infiltrate the bad guy’s underground stronghold, where they are holding the Prime Minister’s daughter hostage.

My main problem with this is the sheer lack of any character development for the SAS team and the fact that they all die so easily. Aren’t the SAS supposed to be, y’know… good? They seem to have no tactics at all and just charge in, getting taken out one by one.

The only team member of the SAS we get to see on screen for any length of time is Christopher Lowe (Tom Benedict Knight); he’s in the middle of proposing to his girlfriend when he’s called out with his squad to save the day. He’s also the head of the group and ends up being the only survivor.

He’s the most likeable cast member but I would have liked a more satisfying final battle with him and Holt, which felt like a missed opportunity.

There was a rather annoying stylistic touch added where the image would flicker a lot; I understand it was trying to give the low budget movie a bit of a different look but it was distracting and didn’t add anything to it.

The movie could also have been 10-15 minutes longer with a bit more character development, so we actually cared what happened to the SAS.

It does have plenty of violence though, which is always nice and at 80 minutes it wastes no time in getting going.

Overall, He Who Dares makes the best of its low budget and director Paul Tanter is one to watch with some interesting ideas. The movie has a memorable villain and some decent action but the lack of any character development and the flickering screen effect lets it down.