Operação Sofia

I had high expectations for this movie because of the cast. However both Slater and Sutherland seem to be going in slow motion. Christian Slater's facial expressions, especially scenes with Timothy Spall, who is far too good for this-were of the school play ilk. All seems very amateurish and the acting from these great stars was extremely disappointing. Obviously the director who was also the author and female lead was very inexperienced and so the acting was very wooden. Bad direction, but good camera-work. The story and location were good but don't fulfill the potential. Such a shame that my wife and I wasted an evening on this. Not much more I can say just to fill my ten lines - Boring, Yawwwwwn!

A horrible film, definitely and I have to say that the main reason Christian Slater and Donald Sutherland signed the contracts to play these two roles in this film was that they not only got the money to play the parts, they also got a free tour to Bulgaria at the production companies' expense. Well, why not took the opportunity in between new movie projects and went to some foreign country, stayed in the 5-star hotel, all expenses including air fares covered. They didn't have to worry about if the screenplay was a lousy one, or the supporting actors good or bad, the director....and so on, they signed on, went there, shot the film and went back to where they used to reside.

I also noticed that the leading production company, Mutressa Movies, only produced 4 films so far, including this one, but all of them were low budgets B-level films, strictly released to DVD rental market. In the meantime, another new production company, Sofia Productions, was sucked in to do business with Mutressa Movies. I really don't know why they always and could only find lousy screenplays that only received the lowest reviews all the time. Christian Slater, well, I have to say that in recent years, he's already fallen into B-movie's first choice and that is not good, man. Because once you signed on those low budget B movies, your career is doomed to go down the hill.

Donald Sutherland played the role so mindlessly easy. He is very old but still very active. When there's money to make, traveling abroad, all expenses covered, why not?

Sorry to say, but this Bulgaria-made movie is by far the most idiotic piece of cinema you could possibly imagine. It is hard to believe this had a budget of 5 million to work with and I guess most of it went into paying Slater and Spall, whom I would hardly imagine will take the part without a substantial paycheck. Concentrating on the actual movie, I would start with the story, which is non-existent and so badly written you could hardly follow what exactly is going on. Advertised as an action movie, the action is so little you could easily fall asleep. The biggest fight scene between Slater and the woman near the end is banal and completely detached from the entire plot (if there is any plot at all), that it makes you wonder if they just needed Slater to be brutally beaten because he was so stupid to take the part. The woman, whose name I can't bother to remember is such a bad actress, it made me feel uncomfortable and I would strongly advice her to find a real job as acting can hardly get worse nowadays...not to mention how incredibly unnatural everything she does is. I never say this about any woman, but sometimes people who are obviously terrible actors are cast because of their good looks - not the case here unfortunately, but then again I doubt there were any auditions for the role as the actress is also the writer. Screenplay-wise I would say this is the most unrealistically portrayed Bulgaria ever seen. You see scenes more suited for Iraq or Afghanistan 20 years ago rather than Bulgaria. Buying typical Arab clothing on the street in a European country is very unusual even for a movie. I assume the author wanted to ridicule the current situation in Bulgaria, where corruption and organised crime are thriving but involving some middle-Eastern terrorists and basically making it look like Bulgaria is more or less the center of modern day terrorism is moronic. I am not going to discuss the endless belly dance scenes and perverted moments involving Slater in a public place seemingly having an orgasm, but one thing is certain - sexuality does not always sell!

I would not recommend this piece of "action" to anyone, who considers themselves moderately intelligent! In fact I would not recommend it even as a joke as that would be too cruel!

What I put on my fb wall to warn everyone:

Managed to watch only 20 minutes and nearly poured the salt in my eyes cause I was eating sweetcorn. The only reason I am alive is because I could not decide on the most painful way to commit suicide! My IQ has dropped by at least 100 points, I DO NOT KNOW HOW I am managing to write at all!

Produced by MUTRESSA MOVIES! THE HELL IS THAT! In Bulgarian, "mutressa" is what u call members of organised crime. They are renowned for being brutal, uneducated, corrupting and uncultured - this is the type of movie they would produce. I would not be surprised if the studios are used for money laundry.

I'm stuck by the 10 line requirement, too. I could lift the best bits from the previous reviews. Anyway, this movie was awful, almost laughably terrible. I, too, could not figure out what fine actors like Donald Sutherland and Christian Slater were doing in it. But I just read an article about actors who don't see their pictures, just the pools and cars that they buy. Watching Slater become lovestruck by the female lead was hilarious. She's a belly dancer with a pretty bad overbite with hideous make up and bad hair (she's lovely in person, I am sure). Say what???? She did look good in her black ninja costume. And Sutherland employed his twinkle a couple of times to good effect. But gawd - we kept watching like we would watch a train wreck and because we paid extra for the "in theaters now" cable version. Don't waste your money.