derirre357 Reviews

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009)

A fine movie, 10 out of 10

[10/10 · 11 November 2009]

Wow. I am not gonna describe the plot, everybody can read about it on the main page... I thought this was a great movie. The cast is good, the dialogue is good. I didn't pay much attention to the cinematography or the music because the story got me hooked immediately. My only minor complain is the old movie cliché - we all know one cannot ignite gasoline by throwing a lit cigarette in it - the cigarette simply goes out, but since so many movies have that it is OK I guess. A couple of words about Michael Douglas. While he is not the lead he shines with the light of thousand suns. Watching him on screen feels like watching a fat, lazy shark. Or a snake. Dripping slime. He is confident and calculating, not once does he raise his voice. His performance reminded me of his work in "A perfect murder". Wow, what an actor, he really knows his stuff. If you liked "Fracture" with Anthony Hopkins chances are you are gonna like this too.

Streets of Blood (2009 Video)

This flick can't quite deliver...

[4/10 · 3 July 2009]

I saw this movie because I was interested in the plot and the cast. The "dirty cops" premise is lately becoming an exploitation, to mind come "Training day", "Dark blue", "Narc", and "Dirty". Unfortunately all these are far superior than this mess. The cinematography is nothing special, sometimes OK, sometimes awful. The story is quasi-complicated and fails to bring any tension whatsoever. The acting is not bad, but nothing special either. Val Kilmer, Sharon Stone and Barry Shabaka Hennley have little to work with. Biehn is pretty enjoyable. To me the biggest surprise was 50 cent - he wouldn't win any award for his acting here, but let's be honest, if I didn't knew he wasn't an actor but a gangsta-rapper I would have never guessed it. His character is supposed to be torn apart between right and wrong, but we don't really feel for him or never do we really see his inner struggle. This is however due to bad writing and is not Jackson's fault. He is not worse than any of the other actors in the movie, this could be due to the thin story, but still he does OK, no complaints here. Of course to all who know something about 50 cent, fans or haters, it is hilarious to hysterical to watch him run around dressed as a patrol cop. The dialogue is average. Now the action on the other hand, if not on par with films as "Heat", "Ronin", or even Michael Bay's flicks is actually quite well executed. The viewer is never confused who is shooting at whom and why, no guns firing 100000000 bullets without reloading either. The ending doesn't make much sense. The editing is good, no MTV-style quick cuts. Overall it is just a movie to kill some time with, but don't expect anything above average. If You are interested in the cast feel free to watch it.

Identity Theft (II) (2007)

Low budget identity swap movie that was worthy of my attention.

[6/10 · 1 May 2008]

I was tricked into seeing this after reading the plot outline, which sounded interesting enough for me to check it out. It is as You might already know about a illegal Mexican who needs an opportunity to stay in the USA. This opportunity is given to him when a shot up drug dealer with American citizenship dies right in front of him. Francisco (the illegal) goes through his wallet and leaves with his ID, which he uses to get a new life. In the meantime Diego - the dealer survives and is sent to jail. After he gets out he tries to go straight, cause a woman gets him to change his thinking and ultimately turns him into a better person. Since there are two people with the same social security number things get mixed up pretty bad - Both Francisco and Diego find themselves neck deep in problems with the DMV, the IRS and revenge thirsty gangsters. This movie has its problems, but it is ultimately saved by 1.the story, which while not too original is clever enough, 2.by the characterization - while both leads are one-dimensional they evolve and go from good to bad and vice versa; and 3. by the sometimes witty dialogue. On the bad side the movie looks like a cheap TV-production, the actors are either wooden or overacting (especially Diego doing an rather laughable Scarface impersonation during the drug deal). Since for most of them this is the first time in front of the camera I am more than willing to forgive them. On the good side is the characterization - Diego (sporting an awful Tony Montana haircut with blond strains in it) comes out pretty enjoyable if hot headed, while Francisco in the beginning is a really nice guy and becomes with the time more and more cold and calculating. Despite the bad acting they somehow manage to pull it off. I didn't have to question the motives of any of the characters. The picture quality was pretty good for such a low budget movie. I liked the gun-play too, people shooting without aiming and actually not hitting much... reloading when they have to... Diego for example is being shot through an armchair, and in any Hollywood blockbuster the hero would find a pretty good cover behind one of those... Diego also looks pretty confident wielding a handgun, looks like the actor knows his guns. Francisco on the other hand is more than hesitant when he has to resource to an firearm, being an opportunist whose previous occupation was parking cars. I am not usually a fan of low budget movies and I am seldom able to sit through one... But this one didn't have me checking my watch hoping for the credits. I can't say this was not predictable, but to be honest I couldn't guess whether the lead will live or die in the end. I am maybe giving "Identity theft" more credit than it deserves... Just know that if You are not willing to forgive its shortcomings You will probably hate it. I can't say I loved it, but it was OK and entertained me.

Hero Wanted (2008)

Pretty solid movie

[8/10 · 17 March 2008]

This comment may contain spoilers !!! I liked this movie a lot. The reminds me of a few others - "Before the devil knows You're dead" and "Death sentence" come to mind. The non-linear structure of the movie makes the story looks more clever than it actually is. I found it OK though, nothing to complain about. The acting is solid for the genre. There are some unrealistic moments - major injuries have much lesser effect on the guy who sustained them... On the other hand I liked very much the gunplay because in real life not many people are good shots, especially when in combat situation i.e. when the target is in fact shooting back. The characters were reloading often enough, the slides were remaining in rear position after the last shell has been ejected and shooting both guns simultaneously resulted in hitting nothing. Cool. There is even a moment where a guy is teaching the main character how to shoot and tells him "forget about the movies.... now support the bottom of your gun with your left hand and don't pull the trigger.. squeeze it!" I actually thought that the movie was gonna pretty bad and I was pleasantly surprised. Definitely worth watching.

Slasher (2007)

The German Chainsaw Massacre??? THI Comment CONTAINS SPOILERS

[1/10 · 16 February 2008]

THIS COMMENT CONTAINS SPOILERS !!!

This German slasher follows the standard slasher formula which shouldn't be a surprise from a movie called "Slasher"... It is hard to believe that this movie is so bad. It is actually ludicrous. Now I know that we can't expect that every German movie is gonna be a masterpiece like "Der Untergang", but this is the exact opposite. This makes "Feuer, Eis und Dosenbier" looks like "A beautiful mind". The acting from the principal cast is average... I've seen worse. The lead actress is at moments OK, but mostly from bad to worse. At the end of the movie I thought her big b-utt is her only redeeming quality. The supporting cast (which is basically three people with about 25 lines altogether) is overacting really bad. I won't comment on production values or effects because the budget obviously wasn't very big, so I give them credit for the execution, and there is a really good moment where SPOILERS !!!! the blond chick (Maya) is tied to a chair and the killer waves his chainsaw around... It has a very grindhouse/Hostel feel to it - unfortunately this is I guess the only good moment in the whole movie. There are goofs - like for example Maya gets out of the lake and puts her dress on - and she doesn't bother to put any underwear, when she is captured shortly after, however, she is wearing panties, but that is a minor complain compared to the real problem with this so called movie. The story, on the other hand is unforgivable. I have no idea what idiot came up with this: SPOILERS AHEAD !!!! - Erin (that's right - just like the Jessica Biel character from The Texas Cainsaw Massacre - and she is wearing a very similar outfit too) and Danny (her boyfriend) are trying to escape per car, but suddenly the killer appears on the road in front of them. Instead of running him over Erin stops. Then the engine dies. It turns out they are out of gas. Erin gets out of the car, pops the trunk and searches for a canister. Meanwhile the bad guy stands there, 20 feet away and waits. She finds out there is no extra gas, but that's OK because the bad guy (wielding a chainsaw) is out of gas too. He carries a canister with gas with him and proceeds to fill the tank of his chainsaw. Erin waits patiently till he is done and then starts to provoke him. He chases her, thus leaving her boyfriend alone (he got hit with an axe in the belly so he is sitting in the car, bleeding). Erin runs away and the killer stops chasing her and starts cutting some trees - not trees in his way, he just stops and turns around and starts cutting trees, like he is doing it for a living and some chick is really not worthy of his attention, despite the fact he was chasing her for.... I don't know how long - from the editing one couldn't really tell - could be 15 minutes, could be hours!!! Now this guy must have a grudge against trees cause he does this on a few more occasions. Then Erin hides under a tree stump and actually falls asleep there. This is at night. She wakes up and the sun is shining. After a minute or a few the killer appears and chases her again. After a few minutes of running time - must have been around 5 - it is night time again and she is still running. I will save You the rest of the chase and I cut to the end - so far we don't know what is going on with Danni - but hey, he appears and he is still able after a blow with an axe in the stomach (or lever or whatever)and more than at least 16-18 hours without any medical attention to hop around looking for his girlfriend. She helps him and carries him to safety. Next morning - HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD - turns out that she was a killer in some subplot that I didn't really catch, or really care for.... but it turns out that she killed four people and they had to be five... and Danni should be the fifth. She kills him in the ambulance and leaves. Now what I don't get is if she wanted to kill him why save him in the first place????? And trust me the whole thing looks a lot more stupid when You actually watch it. Save your money and time - the great German horror movie - this is not.

Payback: Straight Up (2006 Video)

Payback - straight up to the roots!!! The genuine cut. POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

[10/10 · 25 June 2007]

After watching "Point blank" I decided to check out the new (and hopefully improved) version of Payback. I just finished watching it and I must say WOW!!! While I liked the theatrical version I found it to be trying too hard to be too cool. After the first half or so it became pretty much a different movie. It began as a hardcore movie in the spirit of the 70s and ended as a standard popcorn 90s cinema. I was kind of disappointed, because Porter was a tough guy and in the end became sort of Martin Riggs character which would be OK - but in a Lethal Weapon movie.

To make a long story short - what I miss from the theatrical cut is the blue filter, the soundtrack and maybe the voice-over. This is not a major problem and on the other hand all the things that annoyed me are missing as well - gone is the comic relief (I have enough of action-comedies, it is nice to see a major star like Gibson in such a gritty, grimy, cold and misanthropic film, in a role like nothing he's ever done except maybe for Mad Max), gone are all the funny faces that Gibson used to make, gone is the whole third act - instead we have a few shootouts more and a completely different and ambiguous ending. Porter is much more brutal and cold blooded (like killing a guy over something he said), much more like Lee Marvin - very aware of his environment and not committing stupid mistakes anymore. Gone is also the romance or at least is not so emphasized. Porter's meeting with his wife is also not what it used to be, he is no more the knight who wouldn't hit a woman. Kristopherson is gone (don't get me wrong - not that I had a problem with his character, and he himself is always enjoyable to watch)... Gone is also the scene where Porter blows up some goons using his cigarette to light up the gasoline, which I've never tried but according to most people is impossible (we still have the moment where Porter fires up I don't know how many rounds from his revolver when the Chinese gangsters try to assassinate him though). I have the feeling that in many scenes all we have changed are just minor cuts - just before characters smile - but they change their facial expressions in the particular scene and thus their reaction to what's happening and the overall tone of the movie. An example is when Porter is looking for Stegman at his office and has to beat up the guy at the desk who tells him to **** himself - in the theatrical cut we see him looking pretty funny - as he wants to say "Well now, that wasn't a very nice thing to say, was it?" - here we don't, cut to the chase. Porter doesn't look funny anymore - he looks like a mean person that you really really don't want to have to deal with. And i think that's exactly how Porter/Parker was intended to be (By the way I still can't figure out why did they change his name both in "Point blank" and "Payback"). Pretty much like Marvin acted him. The difference between the two versions is basically like the difference between Guy Richie's films and "Layer cake" (or "The long good Friday", while I am at it). Or the difference between the Brosnan Bond films and Casino royale - however the funny thing is that here we don't have Brosnan vs Craig - we have Gibson and he is playing the same character, here we watch Porter with different eyes though - he is a real antihero (and not supposed to be such just because he is a criminal) - which comes to show how important editing actually is. In the end to me this is the superior movie - I gave the theatrical cut 7 or 8 out of 10, this version gets well deserved 10.

Tycoon: A New Russian (2002)

Brilliant !!!!

[10/10 · 23 October 2006]

SPOILERS

"If we can't buy Kreml we must become ourselves Kreml!"

After seeing the disk in the neighborhood video-shop and every time passing it over I finally came to the point where nothing worthy of my attention was left to rent. So I grabbed this, out of desperation and rented it expecting something quite bad. Boy I couldn't be more wrong. Since the beginning I knew the stakes were high - a red writing in the middle of the screen announcing "the day of Platon's death" (the main character Platon Makovsky). Then a retrospection showing his rise to power. Constantly back and forth, then and now. An investigator has been arrived all the way from Ural to investigate Platon Makovski because obviously the whole issue is too delicate to be left to someone from the Moscow DA. Some very high government employees are involved, even the FSB (the former KGB) and Shmakov (the investigator from Ural) has the unpleasant job of interrogating the friend circle. But this is where all comes to light... "The rise to power" segments show how Makovski and his friends, young economics experts start to make money after the fall of the communist regime with the assistance of a georgian (that's Gruzia) who appears to be connected to some of the crime structures. This jolly group of university friends quickly learns how to use their brains in order to cheat the system to steal and basically get their hands on everything they possibly can and how to wash the money, with their first achievement of controlling the automobile factory in Tbillisi - Georgia. After this they go straight to the top. In personal aspect Platon gains a powerful and bitter enemy in the face of the party functionary Koretsky. As time passes they become real oligarkhs and billionaires and of course their enemies (who basically don't have anything personal against them but want a piece of the pie) become more and stronger until the bitter end.

The movie has very strong cinematography, powerful editing, very beautiful music score and a great soundtrack. Wonderful dialogs, especially for Russian speaking people, I suppose in English some of the essence might be lost. Platon's 44th birthday is a godfather-esquire event - very large in scale, reminding me of the parties from "The great Gatsby". Great acting, especially from the supporting cast - Andrei Krasko as Shmakov and Levan Uchaneishvili as Larry are brilliant. Alexandr Baluyev as Koretsky, Maria Mironova as Masha and Vladimir Mashkov as Platon are also very good. The same things that can be said about the beginning are valid about the end - very powerful. Through the film goes on and on the question "who done it" but that's not particularly hard to guess... One downbeat moment towards the end - the little kids Platon and Musa - the kid-actors can't act at all and the scene itself was if not pointless really not needed. The movie is loosely based on Boris Abramovich Berezovski, who financed the rise of the Russian president Vladimir Putin (known to be a former colonel from the KGB). However after Putin became president he made clear that while Berezovski's money is welcome, he is not. The whole affair is known as "the godfather vs. Kreml" and Berezovski is living now in London in exile.

-"Nedless to say, one of you has killed him" -"Has or hasn't... everybody wanted it..."

Antikiller (2002)

Interesting

[7/10 · 23 October 2006]

A decent movie about the Russian crime structures and gang wars to come in power and take control. It could have been better. What I didn't like was some poorly executed action sequences. Others were quite good though. The music during the fights wasn't very suitable IMO - lack of music would be better... What I like was the acting - over the top for some characters as it should have been as they obviously had some issues) and subtle for others ( considered their positions and need to be in control and carefully reconsider every move they make). The presence of Viktor Sukhorukov (Brat 1 and 2) and Aleksandr Baluyev (Oligarkh) was a pleasant surprise. Vyacheslav Razbegayev is also very good as Metis. I liked how the story was telling itself - no needless explanations offending the audience... I was quite confused myself the first half an hour but later everything came clear. It is a macho film, definitely, each one of the characters is pretty tough and wouldn't bend for anybody. By the way - a very strong beginning - it may be rose up my expectations a bit. Overall pretty good, could have been better though.