A Secret Service agent is investigating the kidnapping of the daughter of a senior politician. His investigations uncover a human trafficking operation.Sub-par. Plot is perplexing and often simply random. David Mamet tries to be too clever for his own, and our, good. Dialogue is all over the place, and often quite hammy.Val Kilmer does his best James Bond / Mission Impossible routine, but doesn't pull it off completely. Just not overly convincing. Bizarre dialogue doesn't help. Supporting cast are good, especially Derek Luke and Ed O'Neill.

Terribly directed and written by David Mamet, the dialog, direction, and ultimately direction of "Spartan" deep-sixed a potentially interesting plot and story. Characters whip through their lines and dialog has the feel of being written by a singular voice. There's no variety in tone. Later in the runtime the dialog and story burns up in flames. By the last 20 min of runtime, I didn't care anymore and was laughing at the depth the movie had sunk. The actors involved are more talented than what this director fashioned; indeed Mamet aims for little to no emotion and the movie seems like a paranoid ramblings from a mental patient. 4/10 laughably bad.

I enjoyed the film thoroughly. It is plot driven and still finds an emotional reality for almost all characters. The action choreography is believable and engaging. But something I have always admired about Mamet's scripts is their plausibility. My favorites, like "Glengarry Glen Ross", could be taken directly from life. It was pretty enough to not shock the mainstream public but stayed true to Mamet's world. The number of people involved is small and this supports character development as well as the inevitable deceptions and twists. Even a criminal crew might perpetrate a careful plan as in "Heist".Here, as on his TV show "The Unit", Mamet steps into Jason Bourne or 24 size conspiracies and cover ups that don't pass my smell test. Don't get me wrong, conspiracies and secret murders are real, but I couldn't swallow this one in contemporary America. Although every detail is not spelled out, it seems that in the story, a gigantic rogue element of the US Secret Service decides that the politically expedient thing is to fake the accidental death of the President's teenage daughter while at the same time arranging for her to disappear overseas as a sex slave. Not completely clear is whether some of these events were unplanned. It is felt that since the daughter hates her father, she must vanish for him to be reelected. Then why not simply kill her in an apparent accident or suicide? And the plan goes off seamlessly, if not for one incorruptible super soldier plus a couple of short-lived idealistic assistants. This is wacko stuff like the Clinton murder theories and 9/11 conspiracies. It takes me out of immersion. The mere clear definition of bad and good guys ruins some of the Mamet magic. Your opinion may vary.By Hollywood spy action standards, it's still relatively realistic. It doesn't insult the viewer like a Mission Impossible or James Bond. That's a good thing. And maybe Mamet felt he had to up the ante in order to get the kind of budget that an action movie requires.Unfortunately it was no box office hit. I suspect that Kilmer's name didn't help even though it's one of his very best performances. And this was very much a film for adult men, limiting its marketability. It maybe broke even after DVD sales.I was so much more convinced and therefore engaged by Mamet's next film, Redbelt. Check that out by all means. Chiwetel Ejiofor was mesmerizing before his breakthrough "12 Years A Slave" turn. Sadly Redbelt also failed to find an audience and lost a lot of money. Maybe Mamet, like some of my other favorite directors Todd Solondz and the Duplass brothers, does best with ultra low budget outings that can turn a profit while grossing less than $5M domestic box office. I would hate to see Mamet unable to get projects made due to financial performance. His earlier work like House of Games and Spanish Prisoner looked cheap but they are mesmerizing and bear repeat viewing. I have to think they stand up better in the back catalog.

Val Kilmer is an actor I have always been fond of. Sure, he has been in a lot of crap lately, but back in the day he was dedicated to his craft. His last good film was Felon, since then it's been down hill for the poor guy. Spartan, the Mamet written and directed feature was his last big starring role in a film that would have been seen because of him. Much like The Salton Sea, the film was good, seen by few and has a few detractors that take away from the overall enjoyment of it.Kilmer plays Scott, an agent sent to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a high ranking United States government official. Kilmer plays the role with determination, next to no emotion and a sense of realism. He isn't Rambo, killing hundreds of guys without reloading, but he does know his way around a gun. Spartan sets itself apart from those films because it's more interested in the characters and the story than the action. Mamet has a keen eye for dialogue, most people either love it or hate it. Watch Glengarry Glen Ross to see just how good his writing can be. Here it actually sounds a bit off. I don't know if it's the delivery, or the writing, let's just say both. Some of the dialogue the characters would spew had me scratching my head in confusion.The action, very little. Only when there needs to be, the rescue is quick and dirty, no car chase sequences out of the city at the last minute. This isn't a Michael Bay film. There are twists and turns, as to be expected with any film that deals with governments, these twists don't come as a surprise. You know there will be cover ups, double crosses and people who aren't who they claim to be. It's all part of the genre. Spartan isn't great, but it's good enough to dedicated 2 hours to. Kilmer plays a more toned down Jack Bauer type character, not showy at all. Kilmer needs to finally put those low rent direct to DVD crappy films behind him and choose roles that will get him back on the map. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was brilliant and I believe that a film like Spartan, might actually help do the trick.