Slave

(2009) Slave THRILLER

If viewers saw "Taken" which was released 1 year before "Slave" then people don't really need to see this, since it's another one of those movies about human trafficking, except that this one is not an action picture. It centers on adult son, David (Sam Page) bringing his fiancé Georgie (Natassia Malthe) to visit his dad, Robert (Michael Maxwell) while on a vacation, who happens to own a mansion somewhere in Spain. And upon both of them going into a club after using the bathroom, his fiancé then goes missing. Then the movie stereotypes the police as they would only investigate by means of a bribe And of course, if you haven't figured it out by now, his dad has something to do with his missing fiancé. Okay, drama like thriller, but very boring with a convoluted ending.

There's a lot not to like about this movie. It is advertised as an exploitation movie, but it resembles the exploitation movies of the 1970's, just enough sex and violence to cover a two minute trailer. It also tries, but mostly fails to give the lead character much depth and realism.

That said, it does a couple of things nicely. We do care about the lead female character and we do feel fear and concern when she is "taken." (Did "Taken" copy the phrase from this movie which was two years earlier?) Also, we do feel a sense of despair for the plight of the lead male character, who is helpless, but not really stupid (until near the end). There is some originally in the plotting, For example, the villain is a psychopathic Russian Muslim convert who doesn't kill people during the Ramadam fasting month. Tell me where you have seen that before? The cinematography and editing are commercially slick. It is nicely done for an ultra-low budget movie like this.

One can't blame the filmmakers for disguising the film as an exploitation flick. A more honest description would be "an Albert Camus inspired existentialist meditation on the difficulty of holding onto love in the postmodern capitalist world." Probably, nobody would have seen it if they had advertised the film this way.

No reviews for this yet? There must be a lot of lucky people out there, then. I supposes it's up to me to warn them the general public about another straight to DVD piece of crap. *Cracks knuckles* Okay, sounds like a sexy set-up, doesn't it? A guy takes his pretty fiancée to Spain to meet his gangsta father, but before they can see each other she ends up getting drugged and abducted in a seedy night-club. Then, she is spirited away to a yacht belonging to a perverted Muslim (Why is it never a Jew or a Christian?) where they intend to use her as a sex slave. Her distraught beau can't get any assistance from his criminal papa, so he teams up with a hairy trailer trash bloke who's sister was similarly kidnapped by these traffickers, to storm the boat and recover his gal. However, daddy has a change of heart later on, which leads to complications and tragedy..

Okay, now let me stop you right there. Now, looking at the description above, you're probably imagining all manner of seedy goings on, ain't ya? Well sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but what perversions occur in this movie are fragmented at best, and are so laughably depicted you're more likely to be in hysterics rather than getting off to them. Yes, the director actually expects us to give a hill o' beans about this stupid thriller plot, which has been done a hundred times before and a hell of a lot better than here. In the sparse 80 minute running time we see plenty of the main character running around like a loon for 90% of the length, then we get the final bloody climax and BANG it's over. I was so engrossed I almost turned over in my sleep.

One of these days they'll make an uncompromising dramatic film where they will possibly go all the way in explaining just what WOULD happen to a pretty white girl if she was captured in another country and forced into prostitution. Until then, we'll have to made do with this fantasy version of fat blokes in colourful shirts and impossibly beautiful models where they combine it with a cheap action movie script and end up with.. not much at all. BORING. Oh and next time, get a cast that can act, will you? 2/10

Starts in quite a chilling and promising fashion but the story concerning sexual slavery on a luxury boat, seems unbelievable to say the least. Have seen many better examples of this type of movie but despite my low score is certainly watchable. Shame it failed to build on such a dynamic, opening scene.

The title of this movie would have you think it's some kind of bondage or S&M movie which it is not. The synopsis maybe it's an intense drama, it never gets too far in the characters. The promotional pics it could be a sexploitation or Cinemax late night but it has only very brief nudity. There's no laughs so not a comedy. With maybe two minutes of fighting or action it fails as an action move. It just never gives you enough of anything to make a movie.

They probably had little money in the budget. It looks like they had one single camera. Conversations were filmed sometimes with the two facing each other seen from their sides. Strange. The camera also often shakes being handheld. No Steadicam here. Even I have stabilizers for my camera. You might get seasick watching some scenes.

You really never care about the characters. Except the female lead maybe just a little. This could have been a short film as it takes an hour & 23 minutes to say what it could have in 20 minutes. It mostly follows the male lead searching for his fiance. As if in slow motion.

Plenty of better movies. Try another one.