Antonio Banderas is one of the great actors of the last 30 years so it’s really had to see him submitting himself to schlock like this. It’s not unlike the character he plays in the film who is an ex-military captain who has to slum it as a minimum wage security guard. Where is Robert Rodriguez or Pedro Almodóvar when you need them? who are directors who understand Banderas strengths as performance and know he is talented enough to do anything.

Security is being sold as “Die Hard in a shopping mall” and it’s basically that but without any of the wit or stunning filmmaking of the first three films in that series. It’s all in a non-descript mall which looks way smaller than it should be and it’s clearly a poorly mocked up set in Bulgaria where the film is shot. It has no sense of believability which is what made Die Hard such a masterclass in filmmaking. The license plates of cars are totally generic which makes it’s sense of reality lessen even more so.

The villain of course has some dodgy “European” accent which is SIR Ben Kingsley doing what sounds like a Welsh accent but it’s all over the place and totally distracting. The rest of the supporting cast are nobodies and I doubt this film will be a great launching pad for their careers. Banderas tries his best but like Kingsley I bet he is enjoying the paycheck. Luckily the film is only 87 minutes long so it’s finished pretty quickly but it’s a film without any tension or thrills which is kind of a point of an action thriller.