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Though raised in Brooklyn, actor turned producer/director Danny A. Abeckaser was born in Israel. Unfortunately, that birthright isn’t enough to lend authenticity to “The Engineer,” which feels very much like an American B-movie stab at turning Israeli anti-terrorist operations of 30 years ago into formulaic action fodder — without much action, even. A miscast Emile Hirsch plays a Shin Bet agent tasked with hunting down the mastermind behind a series of suicide bombings. Arriving at yet another low ebb in Israeli international relations over Palestinian issues, this frequently unconvincing and clunky would-be thriller will have a hard time stirring much enthusiasm in most territories. Lionsgate is releasing to limited U.S. theaters and home formats on August 18.

It begins, with a burst of explanatory onscreen text, in the fall of 1993, as Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Plo leader Yasser Arafat were in Washington D.C. attempting to broker peace under the auspices of President Clinton.

"This is all I fight, brother." Lionsgate has revealed the official trailer for an action thriller film titled The Engineer, the latest from director Danny A. Abeckaser. This is yet another collab between Abeckaser and his writer Kosta Kondilopoulos - they also made I Love Us and this year's Inside Man previously. The film is a pulse-pounding action-thriller based on true events. It follows the biggest manhunt in the history of Israel to find Yahya Ayyash, the mastermind bombmaker who oversaw a group of suicide troops in Israel in the middle of the 1990s. Emile Hirsch stars as ex-Mossad agent Etan who leads an elite, covert team of agents and mercenaries to find the man responsible — the elusive "Engineer." The cast includes Tzahi Halevi, Angel Bonanni, Adam Haloon, Omer Hazan, and Yarden Toussia-Cohen. This looks terrible, even the performances. It just seems like more jingoistic cinema and Israeli propaganda. Can't recommend this.