Black Lotus

There's some nice scenery and decent cinematography, and an adequate score for a B film, but the rest is all underwhelming. Maybe casting a stronger lead may have made this film more watchable, because Rico Verhoeven can't act. I'm sure part blame goes to poor cast directing, but it seems the rest of the cast held their own, so I can't say for sure. Verhoeven was just too bland, expressionless and carried himself like a big doofus. He was ok I guess in the action scenes, although hard to tell from the poor fight choreography. The female Interpol agent had a better fight scene at the end and looked more like an action star than Verhoeven. The only person who carried most of the film was Grillo, who wasn't on screen much, and he deserves much better than this mess. The writing was just a bunch of variations and cliches from much better movies in this genre. Even at a mere 90 min runtime, the pacing was slow and the story lacked urgency and was underwhelming, and just dragged onto the next predictable scene after scene.

On the surface Black Lotus seems like the type of movie Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jean-Claude van Damme would've starred in when they were in their prime. Unfortunately even by those standards this movie falls short. I knew this would be rough to sit through when we get an opening sequence that seems like it's trying to rip off Christopher Nolan's Tenet although it's no where near as good. You know those foreign action movies on Netflix that look really bad from every perspective except for the action and some flashy visuals? Black Lotus is essentially the same quality as one of those Netflix foreign action movies. Maybe slightly worse.

The acting from everyone including Rico isn't good. (Although it was hard to tell if some actors were dubbed or not.) Frank Grillo is the only one here who actually felt like a professional. Speaking of Frank Grillo by this point I think he's above doing movies like this so I can only assume he had bills to pay or something. So bad writing, bad acting for the most part. Well at least Rico Verhoeven can sell you on being a badass action star right? Wrong. With better writing and a better director maybe. Also I thought Rona Lee Shimon who's the female lead here and best known for Netflix's Fauda came off more badass here than Rico did.

I didnt expect much from this movie, but I started watching it anyway because of the presence of Frank Grillo, who usually only stars in the better B-movies, but not this time around...

The bad: this is amateur night. It has got the look and feel of a cheaply produced television production and everything you can think of is below average.

Starting with a TON of terrible supporting actors. And the leading actors are void of any charisma. Frank Grillo only stars in this picture for a few minutes in a small supporting role.

Not any good then? I can say with 100% certainty that this movie aint any good whatsoever.

Black Lotus is a new action thriller directed by Todor Chapkanov. Before this film, he has directed more TV movies. He has helped as an assistant director with other larger cinema films such as The Hitman's Bodyguard and London Has Fallen.

Matteo Donner (Rico Verhoeven) is an ex-special service agent. After the loss of a friend who died on a joint mission, he has developed a sense of guilt that he still carries with him.

Once back in Amsterdam, he learns that the daughter of his dead friend has been kidnapped. Matteo is now doing everything he can to save her from the hands of the criminals who kidnapped her.

With this film, Rico Verhoeven is now trying to break through more as a serious actor, but he does run into some problems. Other people from the martial arts world who also tried this, such as Arnold Schwarzengger or Dwayne Johnson, ran into the same problems, because not everyone can just act without real experience. The American martial artists who tried to break through as actors were only more fortunate to be able to work with a more experienced film crew, which further helped them improve their acting.

Rico Verhoeven has the misfortune to work with a more novice and somewhat inexperienced film crew, who have not been able to help him and his beginning acting work to come across as a serious actor. If Rico wants to play in a movie again, he'd better choose a movie with a better and more experienced film crew. Thanks to this same problem, the rest of the film cast does not provide any special acting. American actor Frank Grillo tries to portray a good villain, but unfortunately does not get much room for this.

The story of the film is also written by a writer, who is also still at the beginning. The story soon comes across as filled with clichés from other action films. The film is reminiscent of a lesser version of films such as Commando or Taken, only less comical or exciting. The action scenes are otherwise entertaining, but unfortunately do not remain that original or special.

I understand Rico Verhoeven has a dream to make it as an actor! But is there no one who can tell him he simply has no screen presence nor charisma on the big screen. Even if the the script, dialogue, direction and other elements were on point this still would've been a bust! Frank Grillo is a solid actor with some good work under his belt. Rico has the same but not in acting! It is remarkable that no one slammed the breaks on this train wreck. Rico seems to be a stand up guy with qualities but this is not it. Action stars are seldomly great actors but they often have a presence that compensates! I would think twice at taking another run at this. I would rather not do it than do it (this) badly! There have been very few actors of Dutch origin who were able to carve out a decent career in the US / english language movies and they could actually act. I doubt this will be even remotely successful in the Netherlands let alone internationally!

Luckily the movie looks really cheap so they might make a euro when all is said and done. A sequel seems completely out of the question and who would want one? I do hope Rico wins his next match in the ring though, that's were he stands out!