Focus

PG 13 111 min

OK. I realize I went pretty easy on sucker SUCKER PUNCH.

It was a surrealistic action fantasy about females and revenge that was just so outside that I found it interesting.

HANNA is cut from similar, though not identical cloth.

The first difference is that HANNA features a fairly impressive cast rather than a collection of no names.

This one stars Cate Blanchette Eric Bana (the STAR TREK's evil Romulan) and impressive newcomer Saorise Ronan as the title character.

Also HANNA is more action thriller than fantasy though there's a good dose of science fiction and some offbeat settings.

There's also an especially jarring soundtrack that will get a little annoying as the film goes on.

The plot itself is a little threadbare.(stop reading if you're going to see it.)

In a cabin, hidden I n a desolate snowscape, little Hanna ( Ronan) has been raised by her father (Bana) to be a ruthless and efficient killer.

He's preparing her for an eventual meeting with the dangerous CIA boss Marissa (Blanchette) which will end with one of them dead.

Once having escaped into the real world the deadly tyke makes her way to a preplanned meeting with papa with Marissa and her henchmen hot on the trail. Kind of a deadly NATIONAL LAMPOON'S EUROPEAN VACATION.

Luckily for little Hanna the henchmen are a lot creepier than they are efficient and soon enough the two lassies meet and Hanna's secret is revealed. I won't tell you that secret but let's say it's not all that original.

I guess it's the lack of surprise that kept HANNA from being really good.

None of the fight or escape scenes rose about mediocre and the plot and big secret weren't all that impressive.

Ronan and Blanchette are both good but there's not much they can do to save this one. Sometimes I grade on a curve and here the pedigree calls for a higher standard.

C+

WSS

email westsidesteve@aol.com