Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Cheryl
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Wizard-8
Before watching this movie, I had never seen a movie made by Kazakhstani filmmakers before. After watching it, I have no desire to see another effort, at least any time in the near future. This movie goes wrong in just about every area you can think of. The only positive things I can about it is that it's decently shot, has (mostly) decent production values for what clearly wasn't a mega budget, and it has a one in a lifetime cast (though most of these well known actors are wasted in very small roles.) However, the movie is for the most part such a mess, it's hard to get any enjoyment out of those positive features. The story is extremely confusing, as if something went terribly wrong when it was translated into English. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic or interesting, with the only interest being how badly a lot of them are dubbed into English. Also, the movie doesn't know what it wants to be. Sometimes it's an action flick, other times it's a suspense thriller, and other times it plays like a very black comedy. With no constant tone, it's hard to keep your mind focused on what's happening, so much so that you'll start to forget the few coherent story details minutes after they unfold.... and you'll forget the entire movie minutes after the end credits start to unfold. I usually love B movies, but this particular one is really bad, even for my low standards.
charles000
This is just . . . strange, surrealistically bad. It's intended to be (I think) some sort Kazakhstan interpretation of cliché action movie vignettes, woven together into a bizarre concoction of what is supposed to be a story, of sorts. As a sort visual art piece, it does have its moments. Clearly a lot of work and technical effort went into this production, not to mention a budget to make this possible. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this film is who they managed to get to star in this strange production.The voice dubbing is beyond comical, but then again, that description summarizes this entire production. Clearly, this is not for everyone, or even that many, but for those looking for a weirdly out of sync, attempted cultural experiment in hybrid Kazakhstan dark comedy filmcraft, this might be your cup of tea . . . maybe.Rating? OK, 3 stars for effort.
Michael Ledo
Russian crime boss Mussa (Armand Assante) and Mr. Lo of Hong Kong make a $30 million dollar diamond deal that gets raided by Aliya, former Casino worker and trained assassin. Ruslan, a former lover and childhood friend of Aliya almost gets killed. As they make their escape, everyone is after them. "Nothing is what it seems" we are told by Aliya who does part of the narration. The film takes place mostly in non-scenic southern Siberia.The film opens with a lousy teaser and takes most of the film to get back to it. It starts out as a decent grindhouse with appropriate soundtrack, then is ruined by a lengthy Asian style love story. It has some good shoot outs but also a ridiculous car chase scene with 50's style effects for the car ride against the gang that couldn't shoot straight. The last five minutes attempts to make amends for a bad film by creating some idea of being twisty and clever. Peter O'Toole had a very small role near the end which he didn't do well.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
Strange Attractors
Calling this an action movie is a stretch since there are only 3 or 4 very short action scenes all under 1 or 2 minutes. For the most part this is a crime/drama with a lot of people sitting around talking. Armand gets the most screen time. Bolo and Don are wasted. Bolo has one short fight where he throws two punches. That's it.The cinematography is decent which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. Having this many b movie stars in one place should be a treat, but most of these are cameo appearances only. I ended up fast forwarding through the movie in a futile search for the action. One final note: the climax made no sense any way you look at it. These characters are truly stupid. Skip this and go watch Skin Trade instead.
