I applaud the initiative of a Romanian action movie, but unfortunately this one doesn't deliver.
The movie is an attempted copy of "24," even down to some characters (like a bad copy of Chloe or the way the movie was shot and edited) and the reason it fails is because we don't have this kind of action in our country. We don't. Most cop shows in the U.S. have some sort of truth in them, especially shows like The Shield or The Wire, but to adapt such a storyline and set it in Romania is just ridiculous.
Secondly it almost looks like a student film. Even the visual effects are made from After Effects tutorials you can find on the net, like that bullet time in the beginning or the earth zoom at the end... It's just way too amateurish for such a "big" production.
The acting is subpar but I have to say Raluca Aprodu really surprised me, I remember her from commercials and I would never think she'd have the acting chops to actually be in feature films. I don't know if she'd be able to pull off a seriously dramatic role but at least she's better than most models-turned-actresses out there so kudos for that.
Leaving all technical details aside the story is just weak. It is a rehashed version of stories you'd find in any run of the mill American series, only set in Romania which makes it worse because like I said, it's unrealistic. I am looking forward to more action films made in our country, I really think we've raised the bar in movies in the last couple of years, but we need to step it up a notch.
The movie is an attempted copy of "24," even down to some characters (like a bad copy of Chloe or the way the movie was shot and edited) and the reason it fails is because we don't have this kind of action in our country. We don't. Most cop shows in the U.S. have some sort of truth in them, especially shows like The Shield or The Wire, but to adapt such a storyline and set it in Romania is just ridiculous.
Secondly it almost looks like a student film. Even the visual effects are made from After Effects tutorials you can find on the net, like that bullet time in the beginning or the earth zoom at the end... It's just way too amateurish for such a "big" production.
The acting is subpar but I have to say Raluca Aprodu really surprised me, I remember her from commercials and I would never think she'd have the acting chops to actually be in feature films. I don't know if she'd be able to pull off a seriously dramatic role but at least she's better than most models-turned-actresses out there so kudos for that.
Leaving all technical details aside the story is just weak. It is a rehashed version of stories you'd find in any run of the mill American series, only set in Romania which makes it worse because like I said, it's unrealistic. I am looking forward to more action films made in our country, I really think we've raised the bar in movies in the last couple of years, but we need to step it up a notch.
