The Paradox Effect

Paradox Effect was a pleasant surprise. I didn't have a movie to watch and after scrolling through a number of films that I didn't want to watch, I thought I'd give it a go. I didn't know what to expect. The story kept me going and twist locked me in. I really like this film and wanted it to be longer.

There is never enough Harvey Keitel in any movie but loved to see him every time. The action was exciting and Olga Kurylenko is so underrated, she is beautiful and a fantastic actress.

The director made some stylish choices and the movie looked great. Im pleased I made the choice and watched the movie.

I'm used to her kicking ass and being a strong character in this film. She was trying to act strong but she was just awful. The script is awful. The actors were awful. Harvey Keitel was terrible and the premises foolish because she's like this reform junkie and all of a sudden by the end of the show, she's like shooting weapons and, jumping over cars like someone said knocking out the bad guys I mean just ridiculous The last few movies she has been awful and however cartel is like his day has come and gone. A little girl in this movie cannot act her way out of a paper bag.

And the black kid with the African accent is like trying to be tough guy drug dealer not buying it . And the cop Interpol undercover cop is really bad. I mean he shouldn't give up his day job.

I had not heard about this 2023 action thriller titled "Paradox Effect" from director Scott Weintrob prior to sitting down here in 2024 to watch it. But I figured that I would give it a go, since the cover looked interesting enough, and the movie had Harvey Keitel on the cast list.

Samuel Bartlett, Ferdinando Dell'Omo and Andrea Iervolino wrote a script and storyline that started out okay, but then fell into a slump about halfway through and never recovered. The movie trotted on in a monotonous pacing without really going anywhere. And it felt like I was sitting through a long sequence of filler to make the movie run for 87 minutes. There wasn't much story progression to the narrative in general, and that made sitting through "Paradox Effect" rather tedious and boring actually.

And you don't really care much about the characters in the movie either, as the character gallery is flaccid and one-dimensional.

While Harvey Keitel is on the movie's cover, he is but a name to lure in the audience, as he is not in the movie all that much. I am not particularly much a fan of Olga Kurylenko, but she actually carried the movie well enough, make it a bit more bearable to sit through the monotonous narrative.

I found "Paradox Effect" to be a disappointing movie, and it is definitely not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. There are far better action thrillers out there, but if you enjoy the genre perhaps give director Scott Weintrob's 2024 movie a chance.

Sitting through the 87 minutes was a bit of a test, as there wasn't all that much story progression, and without much of anything overly interesting happening, it just wasn't anything to write home about.

My rating of "Paradox Effect" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Disappointing.

First, let's discuss the title. At no point is there an actual paradox of any sort or any related "effects" of said nonexistent paradox.

I've been "in love" with Olga for several years. I don't know if she is no longer being offered good roles or if she is making really poor choices but this one is bad either way.

Harvey Keitel used to be pretty cool. His zenith was obviously as Winston, aka the Wolf in Pulp Fiction. This role is both minor and lame. How far has his career fallen that he would consider taking this role in such a stupidly written movie?

One of his many poorly written lines goes something like "in life you are given three choices. Two are made for you." Pure stupidity. If the choice has been made for you, it isn't a choice. Never mind that what follows is both stupid and unnecessary, the statement is idiotic to begin with.

All around, this movie fails on so many levels. I'm not sure why I even give it 5 stars.

This movie is, clearly, a grade B movie, and that's fine. We all know that directors/writers have to walk before they can run. Every great writer had to start somwhere, and a person's first attempt at writing or directing a movie, isn't likely to win any awards. However, it's downright shameful to pay for good reviews, and I can't help but think that that's what's going on here. Either the creaters, of this movie, are paying for good reviews, or the good reviews are from friends, family members, etc. Don't believe me? Just try watching the movie, and you'll understand what I mean.

This is a bad movie. I tolerated about twenty minutes before choosing to turn it off. Like I've said, it's grade B, and I wasn't in the mood to watch a grade B movie. So, I turned it off.

By far, the biggest problem, with this movie, is the writing. It's extremely amateur. It's not hard to tell, based on the dialog, as well as how unrealistic everything is; pertaining to the events that take place. It seems as if it were written by someone who's in high school. Perhaps the writer wrote it, while in high school, and then, years later, got enough money to actualy produce it. However, the source material was never critiqued and re-written, and the project was never reassessed. Otherwise, a choice probably wouldn't have been made to move forward with production.

I'm writing this review in order to provide honesty. It's what reviews are supposed to be about. I'm giving my honest review, so that moviegoers can know the truth about this film, and can assess whether or not they want to invest any time watching it.

If you're looking for a grade B movie, then this may be what you're looking for. However, if you're looking for polished entertainment --the kind of stuff that we're used to, then I don't recommend wasting your time with this movie. You'll, likely, be disappointed.