What kind of world do we live in where an Oscar winner and a damned handsome man can co-star together in a film that appears to have gone straight to DVD? I mean, we're at a point where there are competing superhero franchise movies coming out quarterly it seems, meanwhile things like Security happens. Don't get me wrong, this film is straight to video for a reason, I'm just venting aloud to no one in particular.

Written by Tony Mosher and John Sullivan and directed by Alain Desrochers, the film follows a softspoken former Marine named Eddie (Antonio Banderas, Once Upon a Time in Mexico), who is down on his luck and trying to find some work in order to support his family. Nothing is beyond him, so he takes up working as a security guard at a mall. His and his ‘superiors' encounter an eleven-year old girl banging on the doors of the mall, demanding to be let in. As it turns out, she's set to testify in a criminal trial, and there is a group trying to make sure she doesn't. This group is headed by Charlie (Ben Kingsley, Ender's Game), a charming yet cold blooded mercenary looking to get the girl with minimal disturbance unless it's called for. Spoiler? It gets called for.

At first glance, Security seems to play as a straight Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and with sprinkles here and there of Die Hard and a teeny hint of Under Siege. And then from there Security tends to not go out of its skin that much. It goes through the machinations of Eddie striking an emotional chord with the girl he's supposed to protect, because she's the same age as his daughter, and he gets beaten up along with those he works with at the mall. Heck, a third act confrontation with Charlie finds Eddie walking into the room like John McClane did when confronting Hans Gruber! So it doesn't go too far afield of what its inspirations are.

With the film's comfort zone established, Banderas' performance isn't too bad to be honest. He sports a thick beard and it hides some of those cherubic features that make him so dreamy, and it gives him the chance to provide a little bit of emotional range to the character. Kingsley chews on the scenery a little bit as Charlie, but past the surprise work of Banderas, there's little to really take from the ensemble's work in Security. Banderas may have tried to own the role, but his character doesn't get that much to do; some throwaway dialogue about him being in a combat zone didn't sell me on him being a badass leader, and it wasn't until he started getting involved in stellar hand to hand fighting sequences with the baddies when things kicked into action. The transitions were clumsy and the attempted emotional moments are erratic, and the film is generally forgettable, which may make it a good straight to video feature?

For the expectations in it, Security is reasonably effective, but there is a resistance to its own skin at times that you can see onscreen either in the performances or story, that rob it of being anything close to enjoyable. It's nice that we have entertainment choices with actors of some quality, but if you're going to do the kitsch then run, do not walk, to embrace it.

Security gets an AVC encoded 2.40:1 widescreen high-definition presentation and the results are good. Most of the action occurs overnight in a closed mall and the black levels are consistent during most of the viewing experience. Image detail tends to be decent in facial blemishes and hair (Banderas' beard game is strong), and the color palette doesn't really stray from blacks, grays and dark blues. It's solid viewing material.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless surround does a fair amount of work too. The firefights include lots of bullets whirring by and around the viewer, and explosions put a little bit of subwoofer involvement in them as well. In the quieter moments, dialogue is also consistent and well-balanced, and the result is a good old sounding action film sounding good on Blu-ray.

Aside from a digital copy, a making of the film is included (8:11). It covers the usual ground on story, characters, cast thoughts on one another, etc.

As far as a movie that pulls from a couple of different areas to tell its story goes, Security does pretty much what you'd expect it to. That said, I'd much prefer Die Hard over Die Hard-inspired fare and would choose that (or a more polished derivative) over this most every time. Technically it's a minor surprise and the lack of extras is to be expected for what amounts to a decent rental option.