Natasha

When this movie first started I thought I was in for a treat, a sexy Russian Lap-dancer, who gets topless in the opening scene. Yes, I thought, great start! Unfortunately, that was the best moment of the whole film, things went downhill fast after that.

This is possibly the worst movie I have ever sat through. The acting is terrible, the cast consists of a bunch of no-ones that really hammed it up, the music soundtrack is annoying (too loud, too chicka-wow-wow), the plot is empty and predictable and the scenes are basic and stereotypical, yet still unrealistic. (Especially the 'quaint English village')

AVOID THIS MOVIE LIKE THE PLAGUE

Far better than I ever excepted.

When Netflix suggested this movie I was under the impression that it was going to be an erotic thriller about strippers, but I got much more for my money.

I was under the impression that it was going to be a movie about a A-plus student name Natasha who was about to study abroad, and became a stripper like her cousin Anna, who she was living with, in order to pay for it. What ended up happening was Natasha gets killed when they mistake her for Anna who just witness her boss getting murdered by mobsters. Now Anna pretends to be Natasha and goes to England to hide out where she shakes up the small Christian town she's hiding out in.

The flick not only has erotica with many naked stripper dancing scenes, but it also has action with Natasha being chased by the mob and the mob being hunted down by this sexy action cop. Plus it's funny, with the fish out of water story in Ana pretending to be Natasha and being something very unexpected by Natasha's host family, who could use a little shaking up.

This movie is so perfect with a nice blend of sex and violence with humor I got way more than I expected.

The film plot was simple and predictable. The acting was not brilliant. The music sound track was, frankly, awful.

Did I enjoy it? Yes, I did - thoroughly. It made me laugh out loud several times, something that few films have achieved.

A glaring error on the sound track occurred during a scene at the railway station when the distinctive sound of an American diesel locomotive horn was clearly heard. A few moments later, a very British little diesel multiple unit comes into view. These sound nothing like their American cousins.

Don't watch this film looking for Oscar-winning performances because you won't find any. Do watch it for a bit of fun and light entertainment. I think you'll enjoy it.

My rating (9/10) is completely subjective-- probably because I'm a single guy, and I fell in love with Jenna Harrison-- and only not a full 10 due to the soundtrack.

Objectively? Honestly, how good could a film about a Russian stripper on the run mixing with an English family drama be? The movie begins like a typical action/thriller B-movie, complete with plenty of nudity and boring, amateurish gore effects. Then the film suddenly seems to switch roles to something less like "Pray for Power" and more like "Keeping Mum," as it moves to the English countryside and a surprisingly realistic and interesting community complete with realistic and interesting problems. The Loomis family and their neighbors are much more interesting than the Russian mob and police, which quickly (and fortunately) seems to turn into a subplot, with the family drama taking center stage.

There are a few plot holes that don't really bother me, considering the caliber of movie this is, but one of the worst things that would be the easiest to fix is the terribly abrupt, porny, too-loud soundtrack; thankfully it doesn't cue in all that often.

I'll admit I was probably in a much too forgiving mood after the sheer delight of watching Jenna Harrison and Algina Lipskis. If you're a serious viewer looking for a deep, touching drama.. don't watch it-- it's not quite that good. If you're just hoping to see some cute naked girls and a flimsy plot, you'll be pleasantly surprised. To me the summary goes something like this: "Softcore-porn marketing and opening decadence trick casual viewers into watching actually good movie."

This movie was a thriller? Really? I found it more to be somewhat of a strange hybrid of a teen movie and a crime movie, but never really managing to score high on any genre in particular.

The story in "Natasha" was quite simple, and really predictable, which made the movie somewhat boring. Natasha (played by Elena-Cristina Marchisano) is an A-grade student in Russia who has earned a place in an exchange student program and is scheduled to go to England and study for a year. But a tragic event takes places and Natasha ends up dead, shot dead, taking a bullet that was meant for Anna (played by Algina Lipskis). Scared and at a loss, Anna takes on Natasha's person and identify and goes to England, pretending to be Natasha. Here she stays in a small town, living with a vicar and his family, but the young Russian turns out to turn the entire family's life upside down. But her ties to Russia runs deep and by sheer luck, the criminals there manages to find out about her whereabouts.

Fairly straight forward story, although it wasn't anything unique or particularly interesting. All throughout the movie, you sit with the feeling that this movie was just a long, continual randomly put together short video clips, because there wasn't a visible red line through the movie, and it was far too jumpy to be properly coherent.

The acting in "Natasha" was fairly average, nothing out of the usual here to be seen. So don't expect any award-winning performances here.

There is a lot of unnecessary nudity in this movie, and it does absolutely nothing to further the story along in anyway. It actually borders on the edge of being pornographic and tasteless. I found it to be hindering to the movie and it just slowed the movie down, making it more difficult to sit through.

Also, it made me wonder why all people in Russia speaks English, and not Russian. Personally, I hate it when they make movies and don't use the native language to the location of the movie, but opt to use some horrible, stereotypical accent instead.

This movie failed to make any kind of lasting impression on me, and I can honestly say that this is a movie that I will not be watching a second time.