"Red Sparrow" which is based on a book trilogy written by former CIA operative, Jason Matthews, tells a long and winding story of a premiere Russian ballerina who is trained to be a spy after suffering a career-ending injury. Jennifer Lawrence brings her "Hunger Games" star-power to this severely sluggish film which runs about 30 minutes too long and saves all of its action and suspense for the ending. I will admit, I have never been a huge fan of Ms. Lawrence (except for "Silver Linings Playbook" which she won an Oscar for) and this movie didn't change my mind too much. I think that she brings all that she has to the role, and even has some shining moments, but the movie overly sexualizes her and wastes her talents on flirting and seduction (as the Sparrows are known to be trained to use sex in order to get information from their targets). The supporting cast shines where they can. Joel Edgerton ("Bright"), Jeremy Irons ("Justice League"), and Mary-Louise Parker ("Red") are the stand-outs in the crowded cast. Mary-Louise pretty much steals the movie in just one scene, the best scene, which should have been the tone of the entire film. "Red Sparrow" tries really hard to be like "Salt" and "Atomic Blonde" but has none of the action that kept those films moving and at least entertaining. Instead, "Sparrow" takes itself too seriously and too sexually to be worth its over two hours running time.