In the vein of "Groundhog Day", "Edge of Tomorrow" (aka Live, Die, Repeat), "R Point" and a few others, comes a story of consequences of action.

There is a team of Mercenaries who are given a set of orders, which includes ensuring no one in the enemy camp is left alive. Unfortunately this includes a woman, who we later find out is a witch of some sort, once she is killed, the cycle of action/reaction/action starts.

While this is good in theory, you have to have a solid cast of writers to give the cast something to build on, and in this case you don't. Not completely anyway.

I like what the writer/director was trying to do, but it felt too long, with too many decisions of the actors (a fault squarely laid at the feet of the writer) lacking in common sense, especially for a military squad, who should know better.

All the same, once the team starts figuring out what is happening to them, things move at a good pace toward a pretty realistic ending.

A solid effort by a director still trying to find his style. I'll give it a 5 out of 10.

The Ascent is not what I thought it would be (and when a film has three titles, it is seldom a good omen of quality). I assumed it would be some mysterious staircase encountered on a mission by our intrepid special ops group, but it just turns out to be an officeblock. Saves on sets, I guess. We also get to see earlier scenes replayed many times, which is a treat. Also, the Eastern European country where the special ops action tales place is strangely blue (perhaps everyone involved was a big Eiffel 65 fan?). So, is watching a group of characters wandering up stairs, while periodically stopping for existential chats and the odd pointless fight while trying to keep apace of a demonic force while rave-style lights keep a-flashing exciting? Well, I'd rather be stuck in a timeloop endlessly watching a Shayne Ward concert than watch this film again.