It’s a generic but energized out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire thriller that mostly holds your attention. #The #355 #Review #JessicaChastain #Sebastian #Stan #PenélopeCruz #VigorousFormula #ActionSpy #Flick It’s not usually a good idea to grade a movie on the curve of when it’s released. But in the case of “The 355,” one is tempted to make an exception and say: For a first-week-of-January thriller, it isn’t bad. Early January tends to be a dumping ground, because the prestige awards contenders are still opening wide; it’s when you’ll get a shark drama that’s too lousy to be a trashy summer movie. But “The 355” is a vigorous formula action spy flick with an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire plot that mostly holds your attention, periodically revs the senses, and gives its actors just enough to work with to put a basic feminine spin on the genre. I make a point of that because the film does too. The heroines are a quartet of espionage veterans who come from different countries but share a certain rogue mystique. Mace (Jessica Chastain), who works for the CIA, is assigned to retrieve a data-key drive that can do anything (blow up a plane in midair, penetrate any closed computer system) and is therefore ripe to be stolen by an international band of criminal entrepreneurs. In Paris, where she’s supposed to pick up the drive from a Colombian mercenary (Édgar Ramirez), she’s accompanied by her long-time agent colleague, Nick (Sebastian Stan), who suggests that they shore up their undercover identities as honeymooning rubes by actually
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