I TEND TO BE SKEPTICAL BY nature. This may have come about from having experienced trust issues in the past. The bottom line though, is I do not always accept what has been presented before me. Case in point, on my recent trip we visited a palace from the Ottoman empire. Because the area had been the sight of several conflicts where they were victorious for part of them, they wound up as the protectors of a collection of ancient artifacts. We entered the building and all around us were glass cases filled with an array of different items. In one case on display was Moses’ staff. Of course, I took a photo of it as soon as it was possible; however, as I stood there looking at it, I had to question if this was real. I would have expected the staff, after all these centuries, to be in some form of decay. Let us face it, it was made of wood and to the naked eye it looked too new to have come from Moses’ time. With a reddish-brown color, there was a dull shine bouncing off it, as if it had been waxed or polished. It just did not look real to me, yet there it was propped up in its glass case with a multi-language label affixed to the front of the case. There were other items in this room where I had to question their authenticity.      AS WE MADE OUR WAY THROUGH the displays, we encountered several individuals who stood quietly in front of cases and prayed. I absolutely accepted their belief that the item was real, but when I came up to see the item they were praying at, I could not believe that this strand of hair from an ancient religious leader’s head survived all these centuries; let alone, that someone back then had the fortitude to take and keep the strand of hair, then have it passed down from generation to generation. It was too hard to process such a concept. Maybe my feelings are tied in with how I establish trust. It is something I just do not hand out; it must be earned. For example, I met the sibling of a friend of mine. On the surface they were sweet but there was something about them that sent up a red flag in my mind. As it turned out this sibling had promised to give my friend their portion of an estate that was in probate due to the death of the owner. It did not happen; the sibling kept saying there was little cash, yet they suddenly were planning elaborate vacation destinations. It goes to show you, do not always trust what you see and/or hear. This was an issue that was plaguing the main character in this action, mystery thriller.      WHILE INVESTIGATING A SERIES OF BANK heists, a detective discovers a clue about his young daughter who went missing a few years prior. His investigation would lead him to a plot that included a government agency. With Ben Affleck (Air, The Tender Bar) as Detective Danny Rourke, Alice Braga (Repo Man, The New Mutants) as Diana Cruz, JD Pardo (A Cinderella Story, Mayans M.C.-TV) as Randy Nicks, William Fichtner (The Space Between, Black Hawk Down) as Lev Dellrayne and Dayo Okeniyi (Rise, Shades of Blue-TV) as River; this movie had a familiar vibe to me for some reason. It reminded me of a poor man’s version of the film Inception. I had a hard time following the story, though I was intrigued with it. More so because the locations where the story takes place were areas where I had visited recently. The scenery was incredible. I enjoyed Ben’s and Alice’s characters individually; it was a shame they did not have any chemistry between them. There were some scenes that did not make any sense to me and after a while, I stopped trying to figure things out and just let the action play out. Sadly, this film did not hypnotize me. There were extra scenes during the ending credits.

2 stars