13º Andar

I saw the movie at it's premiere at the Fantasy Filmfest in Munich, Germany, and I have to say it's very entertaining.

The movie itself is not a masterpiece by means of production design, acting, editing, directing or anything else. It is more in the B to C category. Trash, that is. But it is not at all pretending to be anything else. Just the other way around, it embraces it's trashiness by having the villain jumping around in ballet-like moves and similar things. This is one thing that makes this movie very likable. The other is that it is just so funny. If you are not offended by extreme violence and gore.

The theater was packed with the special kind of audience that is attracted to the Fantasy Film Fest, the kind of audience that will applaud and cheer when a head gets cut off and gallons of blood get poured around. But the cheering didn't stop there. As soon as the audience got into the movie, and got over an initial impression of crappiness (like a very rudimentary set, bad editing with scenes that were often just a bit too long and actors that were, with the exception of Stephen Dorff, sub par), it became clear to them that the movie is intended as a comedy and delivered funny and unexpected scenes one after another. And the laughter continued throughout the whole movie.

I really enjoyed the movie a lot, and in retrospect did not notice that it was actually 100 minutes long (although cutting 10 minutes off would have helped).

For it's great entertainment value (and isn't that what movies are all about ? ) I give 7 points. I cannot give less to a movie that I enjoyed so much, even if it has a lot of shortcomings on the technical side.

While escaping from a successful heist of diamonds in an auction house for the Russian mobster lord Mr. Groznyi (Sean Pertwee), the driver of the runaway car crashes a wall and only the thief Ritchie Donovan (Stephen Dorff) survives. He runs with the wallet full of diamonds, but he is hit by a car and loses the stones on the street. The upset Mr. Groznyi sends Ritchie to Moscow to compensate his mistake and steal an ancient and valuable cross in the penthouse of a building with the clumsy Russian brothers Peter (Jamie Foreman) and Yuri (Russell Smith). However the plan goes wrong and Ritchie and his partners take a group of passengers from the elevator as hostage to the 13th floor. They negotiate with the police, but when they release the first hostage in good faith, they discover that their negotiator is not from the police but an evil serial-killer, beginning their night of terror trapped on the floor.

The gore "Botched" is an entertaining and forgettable dark comedy. The weird story has funny and silly moments, but something is missing to make "Botched" a cult-movie or at least a great movie. The jokes do not work well and it is strange to see the bizarre "Russian" characters speaking in English. The daughter of Billy Murray, Jaime Murray, is extremely sexy in the role of the executive Anna and shows a great chemistry with Stephen Dorff. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "13o Andar" ("!3th Floor")

Wow this one really caught me by surprise wasn't expecting much from it and it has turned out to be one of the gems of the year in my eyes what starts out as an average crime comedy thriller and turns into a comedy horror Splatter fest it's genius and by far the best thing stephen dorf's been involved with in years.

For those of you not familiar with this stephen dorf plays a guy who owes a Russian mobster big time and keeps cocking up heists and is given one more chance to steal a cross in Russia with 2 even more bumbling sidekicks which leads to a hostage situation from there onwards it unravels into a weird blend of of hostage movie / slasher flick with serial killers death traps and lunatic hostages.

Expecting a different take on a heist gone wrong I never imagined this would be the result! Very few people realize that it is very hard to do comedy. And a comedy that is dark like this one is even harder to do. But because of the actors and the gore fest it works. Bronagh Gallagher (as Sonya) is marvelous evil. And Geoff Bell (as Boris) gives a good parody on the "perfect" Russian soldier. I must admit that at first I thought that the phony Russian accents were too much. But soon when I realized which direction the movie was going I understood why they used these accents. Everything supposed to be over the top,including the acting! If you don't get that than you won't like this movie. But if you do you will have a blast!

i don't understand the fuss that people who disliked this movie are making. it is definitely NOT a waste of time if you take it for what it is - simple entertainment in the b to c movie category. the story is linear and leaves place for 90 minutes of hilarious slapstick-gore. the acting wasn't great, but not that bad, either, some of the actors are familiar from movies like blade, layer cake or dog soldiers. the music actually was really nice, with some cliché-Russian polka songs running along the funny chasing scenes. i'm pretty sure the b movie feeling is fully intended, for there are enough people that actually cherish this kind of movie.

altogether, if you don't mind simple down-to-earth entertainment with a little gore once in a while, you might risk watching the movie. otherwise leave it.