... you are ever likely to see.
The genre is ... confused.
It is has simultaneously elements of a martial arts film, a spy film, a comedy, and a horror film.
For example, there is a lot of humor around and about the topic of North Korea. Being from the west, I was not even aware that this was a bountiful source of material for comedy, but the screenwriter clearly saw the matter differently, and wrote jokes accordingly.
The shifts in mood & tone are unpredictable, and that is not necessarily a good thing.
A North Korean officer runs into the barracks only to find one of the soldiers reading a porn magazine. So he takes out a gun and shoots him in the head. In an adjoining scene a captured spy is being tortured by having his intestines removed while he is still alive.
Not quite as funny, that second bit..
All this takes getting some used to.
Nor does it help that the protagonist, the hero, speaks English with an odd accent. Now, in fairness, Jean Claude Van Damme did the same thing at the beginning of HIS career but I somehow doubt that Sedina Balde is about to follow in Van Damme's footsteps. More likely, he is simply going to be a bottom-tier action hero with an annoying accent.
The director TRIES. Boy does he try. There is a scene where simultaneous fights are taking place on two contiguous floors of the same building and I swear the camera angle actually inverts (goes upside down) to prepare the viewer for what comes next.
That is a very cool scene, perhaps the highlight of the film. Seriously cool.
Other directors will see it and copy it. It's THAT good.
Unfortunately, it comes near the half way point and its is all downhill from there.
------------------------------------------------------- PS added 11-12-14. Noticed 4 new reviews added, all rating this film at the level of THE MATRIX or GODFATHER, all by reviewers with only one single review in their IMDb profile. Make of this what you will.
The genre is ... confused.
It is has simultaneously elements of a martial arts film, a spy film, a comedy, and a horror film.
For example, there is a lot of humor around and about the topic of North Korea. Being from the west, I was not even aware that this was a bountiful source of material for comedy, but the screenwriter clearly saw the matter differently, and wrote jokes accordingly.
The shifts in mood & tone are unpredictable, and that is not necessarily a good thing.
A North Korean officer runs into the barracks only to find one of the soldiers reading a porn magazine. So he takes out a gun and shoots him in the head. In an adjoining scene a captured spy is being tortured by having his intestines removed while he is still alive.
Not quite as funny, that second bit..
All this takes getting some used to.
Nor does it help that the protagonist, the hero, speaks English with an odd accent. Now, in fairness, Jean Claude Van Damme did the same thing at the beginning of HIS career but I somehow doubt that Sedina Balde is about to follow in Van Damme's footsteps. More likely, he is simply going to be a bottom-tier action hero with an annoying accent.
The director TRIES. Boy does he try. There is a scene where simultaneous fights are taking place on two contiguous floors of the same building and I swear the camera angle actually inverts (goes upside down) to prepare the viewer for what comes next.
That is a very cool scene, perhaps the highlight of the film. Seriously cool.
Other directors will see it and copy it. It's THAT good.
Unfortunately, it comes near the half way point and its is all downhill from there.
------------------------------------------------------- PS added 11-12-14. Noticed 4 new reviews added, all rating this film at the level of THE MATRIX or GODFATHER, all by reviewers with only one single review in their IMDb profile. Make of this what you will.