Hope Lost

Review: I thought I would give this movie a chance, because I haven't seen a film with Michael Madsen for ages, and I can totally understand why! I won't blame him for this badly written "straight to DVD" movie, because his weird but wonderful acting skills were OK but it really seemed like everyone wasn't fully committed to the project. Its basically about a woman who goes away with a popular director, leaving her kid behind, to translate for him but the director ends up taking her to a prostitutes den, so she can work for a brutal pimp, played by Michael Madsen. As the director owes Madsen money, she has to work the debt off, against her own will, and she tries to escape but Madsen's henchmen always stop her in her tracks. They then try to use her in a snuff movie but she takes matters into her own hands and tries to escape from the disturbed weirdos. The acting is quite poor from the whole cast and the ending just didn't make any sense, whatsoever. Not that I was bothered! Madsen has really hit rock bottom and I doubt that a good Taratino movie will bring him out of this slump. Disappointing!

Round-Up: This movie was directed by David Patricia, 37, whose previous movies, have all been for an Italian audience. I don't really know what the moral of this storyline was, or what point he was trying to get across, so it just seemed like a waste of time, in my opinion. The lady who ended up in those terrible circumstances, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and the graphic scenes just showed how sick and perverted those individuals were. Anyway, I think you can tell that I didn't really warm to this movie, so it has to get the thumbs down from me.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/thrillers starring Danny Trejo, Michael Madsen, Daniel Baldwin and Mischa Barton. 1/10

With one overwhelmingly positive and overwhelmingly negative review on the books, I will take the middle ground on this polarizing film - much like the * ratings so far, there is very little consistency. As the 1-Star reviewer indicated, there is very little positive in this movie. Where I disagree with them is that the world isn't all sunshine and lollipops - therefore why should our cinema? Hostel and Saw are in no way pleasant movies, yet are highly regarded in their genre.

While calling this "entertainment" is an extremely debatable and subjective, the fact is that the movie accomplishes what it sets out to achieve. I don't know the reality of what's in here - which makes me quite happy (sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss) - but it's portrayed in an extremely viable way, with acting that is quite strong, and actually far above expectations given the B-list lineup. And in all fairness, there are many things this movie could have done to push the torture-porn boundary, but it is really quite scaled back with more effort paid to character and motivation.

While certainly not a masterpiece in any sense of the word, but if you're a fan of the genre, it is a quality addition to the group. If you're not, then simply avoid.

This film should be trashed, as it's trash.

On the pretext of "exposing" human sex trafficking, we are given a blow-by-blow litany of degrading images of sadism.

Michael Madsen and Mischa Barton must be either desperate, desensitized and swimming in a spiritless artistic swamp or deranged. Maybe all three.

What a terrible reflection on our society that this is portrayed as "entertainment". Shameful.

If she answers I hope she does so in her regular voice. Her Romanian accent thing is not really working. Thankfully she is not the main star of this movie, though she might feel different about that. And only adds to the downfall she has taken. We are used to Danny Trejo playing in anything (and I'm not blaming him), even Michael Madsen, though he is a special case and only seems to "work" under Tarantino (no pun intended of course).

The theme the movie has is a real problem, but the way it gets handled is poor to say the least. There are worse movies out there of course and there is a couple of neat moments this has, even though we never actually get into the head of the characters

You can't fault Hope Lost for not delivering the title. This is not an action or investigation movie, both elements are present here but in very minute scale. Hope Lost is a depiction of human trafficking and sex slavery down to its gritty nature. While I don't object the dark tone in the genre and the film does have a couple of refined moments, for the most parts it's a string of cruel acts towards frail ladies and this is definitely not for everyone.

Sofia (Francesca Agostini) is a young woman who is promised fame and job by a stranger, as one might expect this is a bait to lure her into forced prostitution. Almost the entire movie is her struggle, meeting with violent mogul, dubious clients and another of the same fate. For what it's worth Francesca Agostini has performed admirably. Her portrayal of damsel in distress and overall material make it very easy to sympathize with her ordeal.

The rest of cast is mainstay of action movie such as Michael Madsen and Danny Trejo. It's admittedly awkward seeing them in such heavy theme, for those expecting over-the-top gunslinging action, there's little to none here. Pacing is rather slow, with large portion of the film spent of twisted deeds. It's not much of detective work either, it may look like noir flick but it provides no in-depth thriller aspect. The film simply portrays the heinous nature of the crime, abundantly so.

With tons of malicious scenes, it's really hard to digest. A few of these are realistically authentic, resembling the works of documentary channel, yet it often strays to pointless violence with repetitive torture. It may want to deliver a strong message, although it's hard to see the film be accessible to casual viewer or even fans of action or crime genre.

The good acting and sense of realism might earn merit, but with such horrendous displays of cruelty, Hope Lost is clearly not for casual consumption.