Starring Frank Grillo, Bruce Willis

Directed by Edward Drake

Altitude, available now

After a disastrous first contact, an elite force is put together…

“This changes everything.” “They say that about a lot of things – but I still pay my taxes and the sun still rises.”

That exchange, coming about a quarter of an hour into Cosmic Sin gives you an idea of what to expect from this SF action thriller, that does rather more talking about what its stars can do than demonstrate – a function, I suspect, of the budget.

It must be Frank Grillo Week, as he stars in this, and the Boss Level Hulu movie arrives Friday – although he’s in Cosmic Sin for the first half, then vanishes for some time. Bruce Willis is present on screen, but it’s definitely not his finest hour – even his bar-fight at the start feels rather perfunctory. The rest of the group put together to carry out the mission fall into various tropes, with co-writer Corey Large probably the most delineated, but they’re rather more watchable than the named lead! It’s not the Predator homage it could have been, but sensibly keeping to less than 90 minutes means that there’s no real time for any quieter moments in Cosmic Sin – or for the audience to do more than sit back and enjoy the ride.

Verdict: Had Willis been more engaged, this could have been so much more, but it makes for an undemanding hour and a half. 6/10

Paul Simpson