Reviews

My summary above sounds very mundane, but this encounter is anything but. Both actors are superb, and the film can be best described as hilarious yet chilling. The film opens with two women conversing in a car, while waiting outside a railway station. This may be to set the scene and give the viewer a better insight into their characters, but it really does not prepare you for the later scenes, which are incredibly ordinary but deeply unsettling (in a good way! This film is very powerful, and evokes strong emotions in the viewer). While it may seem unusual to have an actor with Brendan Gleeson's high profile appearing in a specialist interest short film that is 'as gaeilge' (in Irish), he was apparently an Irish teacher in the past. It is good to see that great entertainment can still be created without a dependency on expensive props and effects, all it needs is a good script, subtle camera-work and editing, and brilliant acting.

Somehow, this film ends up being hugely enjoyable, no matter who watches it. There is something for everyone.

If you like martial arts, Jean Claude Van Damme's technique and physique is exceptional; if you like foreign travel, there are plenty of scenes in Thailand; if you like embarrassingly-bad 80s synth-pop, you will cry laughing at the soundtrack; but the stand-out moment in the whole movie has to be the dance scene in the bar. Some issues:

1) what the hell is he wearing?

2) How do you watch this scene without cringing?

JCVD choreographed all the fight scenes, so I guess he must have choreographed the dancing too. Either it's a brilliant piece of acting, or he really does have too high an opinion of his dancing ability! Surely one of the funniest sequences in movie history...