Botched

Good thing I have nothing against gore in movies. Because of that I had way more fun than I imagined when I rented this movie. It's completely hilarious, from beginning to the end. The overdone Russian accent without anybody ever speaking Russian through the whole movie, the weird characters and the twisted story add up nicely to a movie about one day in the life of one guy that just went completely wrong in every way you could imagine. I half expected a crappy ending to that story, but it fits nicely and left me with a satisfied grin on my face. However: If you can't stomach some gore, cheesy lines and over-the-top acting, then this movie is not for you.

I saw the movie at it's premiere at the Fantasy Filmfest in Munich, Germany, and I have to say it's very entertaining.

The movie itself is not a masterpiece by means of production design, acting, editing, directing or anything else. It is more in the B to C category. Trash, that is. But it is not at all pretending to be anything else. Just the other way around, it embraces it's trashiness by having the villain jumping around in ballet-like moves and similar things. This is one thing that makes this movie very likable. The other is that it is just so funny. If you are not offended by extreme violence and gore.

The theater was packed with the special kind of audience that is attracted to the Fantasy Film Fest, the kind of audience that will applaud and cheer when a head gets cut off and gallons of blood get poured around. But the cheering didn't stop there. As soon as the audience got into the movie, and got over an initial impression of crappiness (like a very rudimentary set, bad editing with scenes that were often just a bit too long and actors that were, with the exception of Stephen Dorff, sub par), it became clear to them that the movie is intended as a comedy and delivered funny and unexpected scenes one after another. And the laughter continued throughout the whole movie.

I really enjoyed the movie a lot, and in retrospect did not notice that it was actually 100 minutes long (although cutting 10 minutes off would have helped).

For it's great entertainment value (and isn't that what movies are all about ? ) I give 7 points. I cannot give less to a movie that I enjoyed so much, even if it has a lot of shortcomings on the technical side.

So, after i-don't-know-how-many years of being a reader of IMDb, after having seen this... film, i just felt compelled to comment for the first time. It's a sorry mess. And i mean really a mess. Not a single thing works in it, not one. I didn't feel interested at any time. Didn't smile for once. Didn't feel a thing, if it was not just amazed at the sheer stupidity of it all. It starts in France, where the french speak French, and moves to Russia where, in all logic, the Russian speak English between each other... with a Russian accent. It starts off with some jewelery robbery, and proceeds to a bad, bad slasher comedy. As i said, nothing works. Everybody's brain dead, the logic is thrown down the Russian drain, and it just drags on like the dummy rats that it showcases as the summum of special effects. What saddens me most is the evident budget that could have been used for someone with a minimum of talent to make a film worthy of existence. It was not even bad in a good way, just downright lame. The only worthy mention (with my appreciation that is) was the rather exotic looking Jaime Murray, with no more skin showed than her pretty face. That is to say how much i searched for an escape...

Amazing stuff. That it got made at all, that is.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I am a massive fan of the horror/b movie genre dating back to Evil Dead days, and this movie didn't disappoint. With a superb cast of non-Russian speaking actors, it was well done. The twists in this movie are well thought out and dare I say original for once. And the humor, well, it doesn't come any blacker than that. I was most impressed by the gore factor, it wasn't massively over the top like others make it out to be, i was quite surprised by how they sometimes went with "less is more" logic. Very well orchestrated.

A well chosen movie by Stephen Dorff. Keep them coming mate.

9/10

Wow this one really caught me by surprise wasn't expecting much from it and it has turned out to be one of the gems of the year in my eyes what starts out as an average crime comedy thriller and turns into a comedy horror Splatter fest it's genius and by far the best thing stephen dorf's been involved with in years.

For those of you not familiar with this stephen dorf plays a guy who owes a Russian mobster big time and keeps cocking up heists and is given one more chance to steal a cross in Russia with 2 even more bumbling sidekicks which leads to a hostage situation from there onwards it unravels into a weird blend of of hostage movie / slasher flick with serial killers death traps and lunatic hostages.