why the poor reviews and Box office

I thought it was a pretty poor effort to be honest, poor set up, minimal character development, a few plot holes plus why would you root for Statham when he's killing fellow British soldiers? He's effectively the bad guy. Also claims to be based on a true story but when you read up on it they've taken some massive liberties with the truth.

Had some good action though.

It was half baked all the way.

Four men fire 60 rounds of ammunition at each other in a 50' hallway and not one man gets hit. Two supposedly "highly trained" operatives fire several rounds at a man running 30' ahead of them in a somehow brightly lit cave....and miss every shot.

Jason and Clive, two alleged "assassins" get into a death fight where Owen's character lands five blows to his opponents face, receives several punches himself, gets flipped on to his back but seems unfazed until he gets slapped in the groin and goes writhing like he was tasered with a wmd and then Stratham saunters out, after dispatching an uncredited redshirt with two deadly blows in one second, without so much as a fat lip or unpressed clothes.

After allowing Dominic Purcell into his flat with extreme trepidition, A guy steps behind a hanging CLEAR PLASTiC SHEET to make a phone call so as to keep the fearsome Purcell from seeing or hearing he's making a phone call before he gets Janet Leighed.

A..........CLEAR..........PLASTIC...........SHEET............! A friggin shower curtain!

Yessir....right up there with Heat, The Godfather and Seven Samurari for plot, action and attention to detail. Note all the upcoming work listed for this auteur director after this masterpiece.

What do reviewers know about this based on real,events that never happened masterpiece.!? NOTHING!.

Too much of Yvonne on the cutting room floor.

I thought it was pretty good. It was kind of unique for a action movie. I think it suffered bad reviews and a terrible box office due to Jason Statham saturation.