Hope Lost

A mediocre thriller from 2015. Although there are familiar actors, both the shooting is bad and the handling of the subject is bad. There is a main story but the characters seem to have no stories. The man who says he's a movie director takes pictures of the woman he met at the bar. He says he sent these photos to the producer and he liked them very much. He tricks her into taking her to Rome. Then he sells the girl to a man to become a street prostitute. The girl is put to work with the threat of her younger brother's life and it is said that she will be released if she pays the 30,000 euro debt. There are a lot of girls who are forced to work this way.

It's as if the movie script was brought to a fait accompli without any thought. There is too much exaggeration in the acting.

There is sexuality and nudity in the movie. There is also a footjob scene through pants.

Sorry, to all involved and to those who like me, decided to watch this till the end.

Micheal, what the eff dude! Mischa, what the eff? Why?!?!

Anyway, I turned it off at the abortion scene, and for an awful reason decided to continue watching it. Nope. Nothing more to see.

I can appreciate the artistic nature of all film, especially this one, but dude... I don't know man. I don't know.

Mindboggling. How it started, and where it went, and how it ended, are you trying to depict real life? Well real life doesn't blend well with classic movie twists. Pick one. Argh!! Dude, I'm actually upset at the makers of this thing now. The more I think about it, the more I want to punch something.

Review: I thought I would give this movie a chance, because I haven't seen a film with Michael Madsen for ages, and I can totally understand why! I won't blame him for this badly written "straight to DVD" movie, because his weird but wonderful acting skills were OK but it really seemed like everyone wasn't fully committed to the project. Its basically about a woman who goes away with a popular director, leaving her kid behind, to translate for him but the director ends up taking her to a prostitutes den, so she can work for a brutal pimp, played by Michael Madsen. As the director owes Madsen money, she has to work the debt off, against her own will, and she tries to escape but Madsen's henchmen always stop her in her tracks. They then try to use her in a snuff movie but she takes matters into her own hands and tries to escape from the disturbed weirdos. The acting is quite poor from the whole cast and the ending just didn't make any sense, whatsoever. Not that I was bothered! Madsen has really hit rock bottom and I doubt that a good Taratino movie will bring him out of this slump. Disappointing!

Round-Up: This movie was directed by David Patricia, 37, whose previous movies, have all been for an Italian audience. I don't really know what the moral of this storyline was, or what point he was trying to get across, so it just seemed like a waste of time, in my opinion. The lady who ended up in those terrible circumstances, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and the graphic scenes just showed how sick and perverted those individuals were. Anyway, I think you can tell that I didn't really warm to this movie, so it has to get the thumbs down from me.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/thrillers starring Danny Trejo, Michael Madsen, Daniel Baldwin and Mischa Barton. 1/10

You can't fault Hope Lost for not delivering the title. This is not an action or investigation movie, both elements are present here but in very minute scale. Hope Lost is a depiction of human trafficking and sex slavery down to its gritty nature. While I don't object the dark tone in the genre and the film does have a couple of refined moments, for the most parts it's a string of cruel acts towards frail ladies and this is definitely not for everyone.

Sofia (Francesca Agostini) is a young woman who is promised fame and job by a stranger, as one might expect this is a bait to lure her into forced prostitution. Almost the entire movie is her struggle, meeting with violent mogul, dubious clients and another of the same fate. For what it's worth Francesca Agostini has performed admirably. Her portrayal of damsel in distress and overall material make it very easy to sympathize with her ordeal.

The rest of cast is mainstay of action movie such as Michael Madsen and Danny Trejo. It's admittedly awkward seeing them in such heavy theme, for those expecting over-the-top gunslinging action, there's little to none here. Pacing is rather slow, with large portion of the film spent of twisted deeds. It's not much of detective work either, it may look like noir flick but it provides no in-depth thriller aspect. The film simply portrays the heinous nature of the crime, abundantly so.

With tons of malicious scenes, it's really hard to digest. A few of these are realistically authentic, resembling the works of documentary channel, yet it often strays to pointless violence with repetitive torture. It may want to deliver a strong message, although it's hard to see the film be accessible to casual viewer or even fans of action or crime genre.

The good acting and sense of realism might earn merit, but with such horrendous displays of cruelty, Hope Lost is clearly not for casual consumption.

With one overwhelmingly positive and overwhelmingly negative review on the books, I will take the middle ground on this polarizing film - much like the * ratings so far, there is very little consistency. As the 1-Star reviewer indicated, there is very little positive in this movie. Where I disagree with them is that the world isn't all sunshine and lollipops - therefore why should our cinema? Hostel and Saw are in no way pleasant movies, yet are highly regarded in their genre.

While calling this "entertainment" is an extremely debatable and subjective, the fact is that the movie accomplishes what it sets out to achieve. I don't know the reality of what's in here - which makes me quite happy (sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss) - but it's portrayed in an extremely viable way, with acting that is quite strong, and actually far above expectations given the B-list lineup. And in all fairness, there are many things this movie could have done to push the torture-porn boundary, but it is really quite scaled back with more effort paid to character and motivation.

While certainly not a masterpiece in any sense of the word, but if you're a fan of the genre, it is a quality addition to the group. If you're not, then simply avoid.