Benzin

I went to see this movie with mixed feelings. I was expecting it is going to be weak, while hoping it to be at least decent for first of it's kind (for Bulgarian cinema).

It's first half has very bad dialogues, as if the actors are ashamed of the camera and their own voice. Acting is superficial. Both female actresses have trouble pronouncing the R sound and I could barely understand them. Sound was not good enough, some scenes have multi-channel sound, some as if recorded with a mobile phone. To this day I thought the typical silent scenes are long forgotten by our filmmakers. In this movie, actors keep staring at each other for ages with some hidden meaning. (Michael Madsen scenes were really awkward)

Fortunately, the second half was much better. Acting became more natural. Some native Bulgarian jokes, combined with curse words made a big difference. Asen Blatechki starts using even less words, which makes the movie better and smoother with every minute. Everything took shape and character intentions were defined clearly. All the retrospection start fitting in viewer's brains.

Some more shots of tuned old cars, engines, brakes, tires, etc would bring some more saliva to car freaks mouths, but all in all they are okay.

I can understand that makers put all possible ingredients in this movie, just to make sure they did not miss anything. However the right quantity and quality is what defines a movie as good. The passion is there, vision too, so I consider this film as a good first step in the right direction.

Good story. Good acting. Maybe some slow action moments. Not a lot of action with cars, which was surprising (in the good sense). I definitely hope to have a second part because I liked these.

There are a strange things, but it's definitely worth it and it's not bad.

8/10 for me.

The best thing in this movie is the soundtrack. And I was really surprised to see Sully Erna on the end of it.

If not watch it- do not! There is no any good chapter. Awful.

I do believe there are better Bulagarian actors than Kalin Vrachanski, Snejana Makaveeva and, especially, the awful Liliana Stanailova, who has problems pronouncing half of the alphabet. Excluding their bad acting, the movie is not so bad. The scenario is a little bit chaotic and vapid, but there is enough action, so you won't get bored.