Black Site  ★★½

AUSTRALIA became a bit of a handy location for filming quick-fire action movies during the Covid years.

Spiderhead and Interceptor are two recent releases that come immediately to mind. Unfortunately neither was particularly good.

Black Site is another one and it’s probably the best of the three. Like the other films it is almost wholly set in a single location and features decent actors struggling to make lacklustre scripts work.

In contrast to the others, it’s better acted and has more realistic action, including some impressively gory stabbing scenes and one with an oven door.

Michelle Monaghan may not have the physicality of Elsa Pataky in Interceptor, but at least she can act. She plays the lead character, CIA officer Abby Trent who is returning to her position as second-in-command of The Citadel, a remote black site in Jordan, after suffering a traumatic personal episode.

Trent’s task of regaining confidence and reasserting her presence over the staff is made more difficult by the news that an infamous serial killer, who is also suspected of being a potential high-value asset, is being brought to the facility for interrogation.

Jason Clarke plays Hatchet and, while he doesn’t have a lot to say, his menace and moments of almost Korean-style frantic violence provide the highlights of the film.