The defence The Adrenaline Seeker
“Momentum is a formal choice.”
The velocity sharpens instinct and tension, making every beat land before self-importance can settle in.
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Bastille Day
Action · Thriller · 2016
Michael Mason is an American pickpocket living in Paris who finds himself hunted by the CIA when he steals a bag that contains more than just a wallet. Sean Briar, the field agent on the case, soon realises that Michael is just a pawn in a much bigger game and is also his best asset to uncover a large-scale conspiracy.
Movie details
Bastille Day
“With law comes disorder”
2016 Action · Thriller 1h 32m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.3 / 10
Community rating
Michael Mason is an American pickpocket living in Paris who finds himself hunted by the CIA when he steals a bag that contains more than just a wallet. Sean Briar, the field agent on the case, soon realises that Michael is just a pawn in a much bigger game and is also his best asset to uncover a large-scale conspiracy.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Bastille Day?
For the defence
The Adrenaline Seeker
“If it slows down, you check your phone.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Auteur Devotee
“You watch the director, not the movie.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Unlocked
Action · 2017
After failing to apprehend the terrorist behind a Paris attack that claimed dozens of lives, CIA agent Alice Racine is forced to live in London as a caseworker. Her mentor unexpectedly calls her back into action when the CIA discovers that another attack is imminent. Alice soon learns that the classified information she's uncovered has been compromised...
Chief of Station
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After learning that the death of his wife was not an accident, a former CIA Station Chief is forced back into the espionage underworld, teaming up with an adversary to unravel a conspiracy that challenges everything he thought he knew.
Cash Out
Action · 2024
Criminal mastermind Mason is about to execute the score of a lifetime when his lover and key member of his crew, Decker, takes the team down and reveals she’s an undercover Interpol agent. Heartbroken, Mason escapes and retires from the life of crime until his younger brother Shawn is out of his league taking on a big bank heist all on his own. Mason has no choice left but to come to the rescue, while Interpol brings Decker in hoping to unnerve him. Before the SWAT teams storm the bank, Mason must use every tool in his arsenal to not only escape with the prize, but also the love of his life.
Erased
Action · 2012
A former agent of the CIA and his estranged daughter go on the run after his employers target them for assassination.
Off the Grid
Action · 2025
After a morally-bankrupt company tries to weaponize a brilliant scientist's revolutionary technology, he goes off the grid to safeguard humanity. When the company sends a strike force to find him, they make their biggest mistake of all – they weaponize the man they are trying to catch.
American Assassin
Action · 2017
Following the murder of his fiancée, Mitch Rapp trains under the instruction of Cold War veteran Stan Hurley. The pair then is enlisted to investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets.
Anna
Action · 2019
Beneath Anna Poliatova's striking beauty lies a secret that will unleash her indelible strength and skill to become one of the world's most feared government assassins.
The Gray Man
Action · 2022
When a shadowy CIA agent uncovers damning agency secrets, he's hunted across the globe by a sociopathic rogue operative who's put a bounty on his head.
Assassins
Action · 1995
Assassin Robert Rath arrives at a funeral to kill a prominent mobster, only to witness a rival hired gun complete the job for him -- with grisly results. Horrified by the murder of innocent bystanders, Rath decides to take one last job and then return to civilian life. But finding his way out of the world of contract killing grows ever more dangerous as Rath falls for his female target and becomes a marked man himself.
Canary Black
Action · 2024
Top level CIA agent Avery Graves is blackmailed by terrorists into betraying her own country to save her kidnapped husband. Cut off from her team, she turns to her underworld contacts to survive and help locate the coveted intelligence that the kidnappers want.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
James Watkins
Written by
Andrew Baldwin · James Watkins
Idris Elba
Sean Briar
Richard Madden
Michael Mason
Charlotte Le Bon
Zoe Naville
Kelly Reilly
Karen Dacre
José Garcia
Victor Gamieux
Anatol Yusef
Tom Luddy
Ériq Ebouaney
Baba
Court is in session
Put Bastille Day on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Auteur Devotee
“Speed as an alibi.”
The film races past its weak spots and hopes acceleration will keep the audience from inspecting the evidence.