City of Fear

The "scary" city in question is Sofia, Bulgaria, which I happen to know well. Hadn't realised it was the wild west as recently as 2000 though, with thugs firing machine guns on every street corner. Of course it wasn't, even back then it was a modern sophisticated city - they just chose it as a cheap place to shoot this rubbish. Of course there are lots of films out there which are useless in every respect. This one is just a little bit more so.

Some other reviewers seem to like hopeless lead "actor", Gary Daniels. I'd never heard of him and pray I never will again. The only thing more ridiculous than his dyed-blond mullet, dopey expressions (it's impossible to tell what emotion he's trying and failing to convey) and silly accent is the guy's complete inability to act - it felt like he was reading off cards held up by someone just out of shot, with no real idea what the words meant. Apparently this guy is a kick boxer who once fought someone who fought JCVD. Great! They managed to match him with a female lead who also couldn't act. Can't imagine why they cast this freakishly tall woman, who must be well over six feet and towered over Daniels, even with her frizzy hair tamped absurdly down to minimise the difference.

The rest of the "acting" plumbed further depths (probably because the local actors they recruited didn't speak English and no-one bothered to tell them what they were saying) and the film dragged on at a snail's pace with a stupid stilted script and a plot that was silly and clichéd at the same time. Neither Daniels nor anyone else showed that much fighting ability and the action scenes were either routine or daft, as when on TWO occasions, just as a vital witness is about to tell our hero all, they both get sprayed with machine gun fire, the witness is riddled with bullets but the hero unhurt.

There's nothing entertaining here and no reason to watch. Literally I have never seen anything worse. The only so-bad-it's-funny laugh comes with the final line: "This is one story that should never be told." If only the film-makers had figured that out!

For me at least, alarm bells immediately start ringing if I learn that a recent action or horror film has been shot in an Eastern European location. Please note that is in no way whatsoever any disrespect to the utilised foreign crews, quite the contrary - they are entirely as competent as any other, rather my problem is that the recent trend to shoot genre flicks in said countries has invariably produced some of the most truly mundane and inane action and horror fodder there is going! The film in question only reaffirms my viewpoint in fact and proves to be a fairly lacklustre affair affair at best. Having said that, matters do at least get off to a cracking start with our hero, Gary Daniels having a great fight in a car park. Sadly, this is undoubtedly the highlight of the entire film and certainly the best action scene contained in its run time. To be fair, it's not a terrible film by any means and Daniels surprisingly gives a better acting performance than normal (no, really!) but I'd be hard pressed to recommend it to anyone other than die hard fans of Gary's work. A shame really.

Just about everyone on here is correct – this is strictly a lower tier Gary Daniels film that suffers from a lacklustre script, disinterested direction, and many, many mistakes. Daniels deserves more than this, I mean come on! One time me and Gary were out on a shoot in South Africa, and were boozed up on the local hooch, and I swear he somehow managed to roundhouse kick a giraffe right in the jaw! But here he is, running around Sofia in Bulgaria, trying to get to the bottom of something or other.

You see Gary is a reporter travelling to Bulgaria to see his scientist mate, and see him he does, getting carried out of his house in a coffin. Before you can say "Riot and Epicentre are much better films that this" Gary's got a seven foot tall stripper sidekick and is up against the Russian mafia and the Bulgarian military! Plus, everyone's got a secret and you can't help but think that Daniels should have just got the first flight home to blighty or Australia or America or wherever he's supposed to be from this time.

There's a staggering amount of continuity errors in this film (microphones, camera shadows, extras grinning at the camera), and too many 'wait a minute…how?' moments for anything to be believable, but Daniels is likable enough (although he adopts a strange stance throughout this film…you'd have to see it to know what I mean)…there's plenty of other Daniels films out there before you should try this one.

As the other person who has reviewed this film says 'its cheap' it

cost me a pound from (suprise,suprise!) the pound shop. It is

obviously a low budget film though is far from being the worst film

for seen, i have definitely paid more for worse! in fact the low

budget style, pathetic special effects and crap acting almost give

this film a strange charm. Its fun, rubbish but fun and for a pound,

value for money. Don't pay more though. P.s look out for the old looking car that goes up a ramp and tips over, you can see through the front screen that there is no-one in the car because the camera work is so rubbish!

Since I am required to write minimum of 10 lines, and this garbage deserves not only a single one, I'll start with the following: 1. I voted AWFUL for this dreadful so called "movie".

2. Let me explain why these turkeys Mr. David Varod produces are shot mainly in my beautiful homeland, Bulgaria (just in BTW, for the illiterate people around - this country is IN EUROPE, based north to Greece and has absolutely nothing to do with Mexico and Uruguay) Some years ago, NU Image has invaded our country and started making crappy mostly direct-to-video releases. Why here? Because here they pay derisively low fees to the Bulgarian crew and to the Bulgarian actors (most of them distinguished ones) which are, in many ways, better than most of their American colleagues. Personally I am ashamed of that fact. The reason is, of course, the greediness of the Americans involved and their wish to get most, if not all of the profit. Actually it would't be so bad if only the production wasn't so filthy and pale. There hasn't been a good picture shot here for years. At present NU image is being sued here over the very questionably purchasing of our national cinema production centre called Boyana Films. No doubt about it there has been corruption, there has been deceit, there has been a lies in this recent purchase. The Bulgarian cinema is dead. Long live the Bulgarian cinema!