Sociedade do Crime

Oh boy. This boring piece of drudgery was made Russia, coming on the heels of a slew of cheap, lower than low budget movies shot in Eastern Europe (at least three of Steven Seagal's movies come to mind).

And I like Tara Reid. She can act, but she is seriously let down by the script and direction.

The main problem I have is the "So What?" factor. An hour into the proceedings there was still no one I could care about. And by extension, I didn't care about the movie itself.

Tara Reid is fine, but casting her as a prostitute who makes a living jacking off fat businessmen is too much typecasting for me. The 'friend' who tells her that she could do a lot better than that is another middle aged fat guy. Gordon Patrick must be the most uncharismatic average Joe, since Andy Robinson in Hellraiser.

I can see how someone could get into it, but it just isn't for me.

The story isn't very strong. Don't expect a "Bourne identity" kind of movie. It started of strong, Tara speaking Russian and it even sounded credible. (Not that I'm the Russian language expert.) Moscow had that darkish depressing look what gave this movie potential, I still believed in it. To bad it only took about half an hour to see they really missed the spot with this one. Acting was poor, maybe because the story itself was not very strong. There is this part in the movie where Gordon Patrick (Nick Moran) is having a conversation on the phone with the C.I.A., like you're listening to a Chinese synchronizer. W.T.F!? Too bad, the writer didn't even take little effort to give the main characters depth. Also, bit of a cheap and easy ending.

Plus point is almost every scene where Tara Reid is in. Not that she's acting that well, in fact, she doesn't. But she really looks great in this movie. Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment. Rental material….maybe.

A lot of people have to hate a film for it to score so poorly.

I do not get why. This low budget thriller has an interesting story, except for the ambiguous ending, some decent action, a Joe Everyman hero, and (you could tell Russians made it) way more interesting than typical cinematography, camera work, and music than a typical American cheapo.

Yes, we have met all these characters before, but some care was put into the production. I felt it was better than average, worth seeing once anyway. There is a huge amount of worse crap out there, particularly in the action / thriller categories.

I spent a little time in Eastern Europe, and they definitely convey the feel of the place. Except that the amount of shooting in the biggest fight scene would have drawn enough regular cops to suppress both sides and arrest everybody for something. Until the bad guys got let out by their patrons.

The last third of the movie went downhill and was not as good as the rest.

"Silent Partner" is about CIA agent Gordon Patrick (Moran) who is sent to Russia to investigate the "Death" of Mikhail Garin, a Russian government official. Gordon is met by the American Ambassador (Henry) to help in the case. Gordon finds out that Garin's death was suspicious and finds himself in the company of Dina (Reid) who may know information.

Nick Moran does a decent job. His character is not an action hero, so he does a good job in conveying that. Tara Reid actually does a good job. Her heart is in it and her Russian accent is not bad. Gregg Henry is wasted though. He doesn't do anything. The action scenes are exciting. The car chase was cool and the gunfight was first-rate. Overall, "Silent Partner" is a fun action movie that's getting dumped on video with no fanfare. Don't pass it by.

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I would have hoped that as they were filming scenes in Russia that they would at least have gotten a person with a Russian Accent to TRY to get Tara Reids lines to sound even close to believable. It was horrible watching her, there would be no accent on the majority of the words she spoke, and then she would try to sound foreign by using the word "Zie" instead of The. Wow, great acting there Tara, only problem is, people with a Russian accent don't use that sound when they say "The" in English, so your one foreign word was actually wrong. If you were trying to play somebody who was French or German, then at least your one word would have worked. But it was so awful, it was like listening to those weird Youtubes of Brittnay Spears when she was drunk and pretending she had an English Accent but just sounded like a drunk girl from Louisiana speaking in a funny voice. Tara Reid needs to marry somebody rich and stop trying to be an actress. Or at least stick to parts that don't require any acting. She doesn't seem like a bad person, but she is just unwatchable on screen in this.