There's a whole lot of nonsense in the reviews for this film so far.
So let me add mine! Oh boy! The film is definitely low budget, but that in and of itself is not a problem. The makers use their budget fairly well and do a lot of good things with it. The movie was easy to watch, the scenes were well shot with the camera. The music selected is also very appropriate from scene to scene.
As far as the acting goes.. well some people would criticize it, but the reality is that not much acting was required of the cast. The roles were very static; you are either a good guy or bad guy, scared little girl or rational cop. In that light, the cast performed very well.
The hero was really not the best actor, unfortunately. He appears to be bi-polar, as he leaps into dramatic emotional moments in the space of a few heartbeats. And some of his reactions to the tragedy that befalls his family are.. not believable at all. His real strength was punching his way through mobs of bad guys, which wasn't very well thought out. The fight scenes were rather blah.
Or meh. If you prefer.
The subject matter of the film (kidnapping, the child sex trade, forced prostitution and murder) is very deep material and deals with a world that most of us know nothing about. The actors attacked their roles with gusto, making for some believable bad guys. But the film fails to really pull you in. There are simply too many factors that destroy the illusion. Things that seem to defy common sense.. You find yourself saying, "If I was the bad guy, I wouldn't do that." In fact, most of the setup behind the baddies' operation seemed very out of place. Almost third world. Everything from their methodology to their holding places to their business methods.. It all seemed like it was sloppy and easy to break apart.. Like something the police could have handled easily years ago had they just been trying a little bit. Believability is the heart of movie making, and if the illusion is weak, all of the film's strong points become lost.
Errors jump out at you. Things that a good editor should have caught. For instance, vicinity errors (when things aren't in the right place from scene to scene). Blood where there shouldn't be blood, or the hero's face having bruises and scratches when he received NO hits to the face in the scene previous. Things of that nature are generally easy to catch if you are watching carefully. The fact that these were left in film rather than being fixed is testament to the low budget constrictions, as there was probably not enough money to re-film scenes that needed fixing. But they do ruin the atmosphere a little.
All in all, I wanted to like this film, but it's just very.. average.
I applaud the makers though, I hope that they try again. I feel like they really have it in them to be great.
