The Suppressor

Having just suffered through the 2008 laughable attempt of making an action movie "Maximum Impact", and seeing that it was the very same people behind the 2011 movie "The Suppressor", I must admit that I was on the verge of just passing the movie over like last week's rubbish. But I opted to give it a fair chance, though with absolutely zero expectations.

While "The Suppressor" certainly was a major step up from the 2008 "Maximum Impact", it still wasn't a particularly stellar movie experience. Semi-watchable, but most likely a movie that you will start, and your attention drift elsewhere, whilst the movie continues to run in the background and becoming mere background noise. I can't claim that I was particularly entertained throughout the course of the movie.

The acting performances in the movie were significantly better than what it was in "Maximum Impact", so that counts for something at least. Needless to say that I was not familiar with the cast ensemble, aside from director and star Ara Paiaya, as he was also the director and star of "Maximum Impact".

At least the camera work was significantly better in "The Suppressor" in comparison to the 2008 movie "Maximum Impact", so that was a major improvement on the movie in overall enjoyment.

Not a gem in the action genre, not even remotely.

My rating of director Ara Paiaya's 2011 movie "The Supressor" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Totally unoriginal and for the most part very poorly acted. You will never see any of this cast in Holyrood let alone Hollywood. The timing of the dialogue is atrocious which suggests the director and editor need a lot of help. The script doesn't help but decent actors might have done more with it. It is the penalty of low budget movies. Nobody gets paid that well and you get what you pay for. However, the script is atrocious. Adding a bit of classical music was a decision made to give the film a bit more class but it, again, is badly edited in and not at all original. Quite frankly, if Puccini, Schubert and Beethoven were still alive, they would Sue!

Ara Paiaya directs himself as the star of this action flick, as apparently he's done before. It's the reliable premise of an average Joe, widowed by drug-crazed burglars, taking it upon himself to get the guys what done it, and wipe out the rest of the gang, up to the top dog, including the dirty cops and politicos on their payroll. Great, if overly familiar, baseline.

But Ara the director is stuck with himself as a charisma-impaired star. He's going full Bronson with none of the panache... or believability. Other than a mild show of grief after his wife is brutally murdered, we're watching a stiff go through the motions of a hero. Even the moments of martial fighting are lackluster compared to almost any contemporary action flick from any of the countries cranking them out in high-octane style. Ara the director made one smart move, casting his wife, Raquel in a small part (NOT his character's ill-fated wife) that allows her to serve up one of the film's best, albeit brief, performances.

Overall, this one stays too low-key throughout to raise anyone's adrenaline, and is further dampened by the least-surprising plot twist in recent memory. Eminently missable.

Don't waste an hour and a half of your life on this movie.

The acting is horrible as they emphasize or downplay supposed key moments.

The filming is done most probably with a mobile in 4K mode or something like that.

The main actor aka the director should stick to directing as the acting is so sub par it's ridiculous.