
Michael Mason, a pickpocket living in Paris, steals a bag with a teddy bear in it. Not realizing the toy contains a timed bomb, he tosses it aside on a busy street. A few seconds later it explodes, killing four people. CCTV footage reveals Mason's face and the French police tag him as a terrorist threat. The explosion, although botched, was set up by a select group of the French Interior Ministry as a decoy so they can make a half billion dollar digital transfer from a bank (... (Full plot summary below)
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Michael Mason, a pickpocket living in Paris, steals a bag with a teddy bear in it. Not realizing the toy contains a timed bomb, he tosses it aside on a busy street. A few seconds later it explodes, killing four people. CCTV footage reveals Mason's face and the French police tag him as a terrorist threat. The explosion, although botched, was set up by a select group of the French Interior Ministry as a decoy so they can make a half billion dollar digital transfer from a bank (closed on French National Day) -- hence the title Bastille Day. In a separate CIA investigation the unruly agent Sean Briar discovers the real story behind Mason's "terrorist attack". The two men, on different sides of the law, collaborate to bring the corrupt members of the Ministry down.
Leave your thoughts about Bastille Day.
| The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe movie sweeps you along with a brisk pace and even dashes of humor. |
| EmpireDan JolinAs spectacular as you’d hope from a sequel to the 1996 planet-toaster, and as amusingly cheesy. You’ll enjoy yourself enough that you won’t even miss Will Smith. |
| Screen InternationalFionnuala HalliganBastille Day is fun, for the most part, but the biggest take-home here is how easily Elba could slip into Bond’s shoes. |
| Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonThe problem is that it all feels like a sixth-form production of the Bourne series. Still, if you’ve ever fantasised about a Luther-Robb Stark crimefighting duo, look no further. |
| Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranBoth impossible to take seriously or seriously dislike. |
| The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinIt ends up playing like a shoddy blend of V for Vendetta and Mr. Robot but without the budget bandwidth or style of either. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeIt’s Watkins’ lean, keen instinct for choreographing and cutting action set pieces that keeps Bastille Day afloat. |
| The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyResurgence ends up falling victim to its attempts to differentiate itself while remaining completely derivative. |
| The Film StageDaniel SchindelDespite all this, Independence Day: Resurgence still emerges as one of the better blockbusters of this summer, and that’s only halfway damning with faint praise. It’s a mess, but I grinned a good portion of the way through. |
| TheWrapJason SolomonsThe spaceships and the destruction are bigger but not better in Roland Emmerich‘s twenty-years-later follow-up, where only Jeff Goldblum‘s sense of humor saves the day. |