Hardcore

Wow spell binding is all I can say, Greek cinema doesn't break out to international crowds often, so when it does you can damned bet its special.

Plot is pretty bleak to say the least, revolving around two young 16-17 year old female prostitutes and their day to day struggle, and their dreams to get out of the grim life they've been living in not helped by their pimp. Along for part the ride they are joined by 2 fellow male prostitutes, then a client who falls for the youngest of the two girls.

Its not so much the plot that wins you over in this film, but the grand manner its filmed in. The film spins from darker music video gloss in the mould of Chris Cunningham or Gaspar Noe to comical Dennis Potter dream style montages.

The two central female leads do a stunning job in what must surely have been hard to film scenes. Slight warning is it won't be suitable for everyone has it has strong sexual content throughout. But then what do you expect from a film about this subject and with a title like Hardcore. [7.5 out of 10 would be my rating.]

Though not mistaking this for that George C Scott/Paul Schrader film, this is the ultimate in eye candy eroticism, and shock, for two young pros, and their hustler boyfriends trying to make it, outside of what is hooking, but you know what's like. This is a well made foreign SBS type film, hot Greek Style, where we jump straight into this uncompromising film about hooking and drug taking, plus a little bit of blood. We have another much younger girl, can't more than 16, who joins them, her naivety, painfully patent, one scene involving been broken, is pushing the envelope stuff, but this is what the movie does, where you feed off that vibe. Addictive eye candy shock flick, emphasize erotic, Tsavalou, a hot Greek revelation of a beauty.

Fun and games it's not, a great movie it is. It's masterfully directed it oozes creativity, it's touching and hard at the same time, it hasn't got a boring moment, it was snubbed by critics, it's in one word brilliant. Dennis Iliadis paints a picture of wasted youth but the movie is much more than a cautionary tale. It is a film about longing, about the need to feel at home, the need of a family. The movie's young protagonists may seem as lost cases to some, but they are no different than you and me. They may sell their bodies they may kill for fun and money, but, hey, we all do what we have to do... Try to see this movie. it's worth your admission money(and then some)!

HARDCORE is a very decent film about the lives of two young girls caught up in prostitution and drugs. Whoever likens this to a Tarantino film obviously didn't see the same film I did. HARDCORE is more comparable to something like KIDS than any of Tarantino's films. Good story-line and very strong performances make this one add up to a very good film overall...

Nadia and Martha are two young Greek hookers who begin a strange and tumultuous lesbian relationship. Quickly working their way up the "ranks" - the girls are offered better and higher-paying tricks based on their past "performance". Nadia is a level-headed and ambitious young girl, while Martha is more needy and reliant on Nadia's guidance. When the two girls beat a potential murder-rap after the killing of their pimp - Nadia falls into a modeling career and becomes successful very quickly. Although Nadia takes care of Martha and allows her to live with her - Martha becomes more needy as she see's Nadia use and being used by shady agents and magazine publishers. This all ends in a strong climax, where Martha realizes that she will never be truly happy while living in Nadia's shadow...

HARDCORE is an all-around strong film that deals with subject matter and content that may bother some. The girls are 16 and 17 respectively when they begin their prostitution career, and the audience is shown some strong scenes of their sexual liaisons with clients and others. Fans of films like KIDS, and BULLY (and numerous other late-teen angst films) will definitely be into this one. The performances by the two female leads are dead-on, and the way the story-line progresses is interesting and original. Definitely worth a look...8.5/10

Title says it all. This movie seems to be a flat off rip off of one of my favourite movies Lilya 4 Ever. I wouldn't mind that, but the core difference between the two movies are this: This movie is incredibly unrealistic, and our main characters aren't likeable. In Lilya4Ever, everything that happens, can easily happen in real life. Here, most stuff that happen, are unreal.

Considering this director also copied Wes Craven's movie, Last House on the Left, i am not suprised. What ruins this movie is the logic. I do not mind the plot, the plot was okay. The acting kinda seem wooden at times, but it's kinda okay, and the camera work kinda seems low.

As mentioned, this movie does not make a lot of logic. We start pretty strong, and then after 20-30 minutes, the movie gets really dull and boring. So our main character kills her boyfriend and a nameless man so she could get fame, and she does and she becomes a model? What logic does that make lol? You can say oh it's just a movie. Yeah, but this movie was trying to go for realism, and it did, and then it just decided no lets just make this movie completely unrealistic.

Another thing that really breaks this movie is the fact that our main character, Nandia, she is unlikeable as heck. She comes off as this miss perfect, that wants everything to be how she wants it to be. We are supposed to see her as a VICTIM, and she also said she set her parents on fire. And that's our victim? Where's the logic behind the writing of this movie?

There isn't any other character that has any depth except Martha and Nandia, which is okay, but i just failed to care for either of them, since Nandia comes as extremely unlikeable, while Martha has the personality of a toothpick.

Ultimately, no. Just watch the original Lilya 4 Ever. Or, there's also other movies that do the same subject matter much better like 3096 Days, Christiane F and Your Name Was Justine, every movie i just mentioned is way superior then this.

What also puzzles me is, how did Argyris get ahold of a pistol? He just said he got it. We never got an explaination on how he did so. This movie has so many holes i just listed a few, there's probably more 10 holes you can dug out from this. Also this movie is edited in a way that it goes upside down, it's not going normally like a normal story. No, they edited this in a way that it's so jammed together.