Likvidator

I watched this film not really expecting much, I got far more than I hoped for. firstly a couple of things you should know:

1) Vinnie Jones only does a cameo role, but thats a good thing in my opinion.

2) This film is from Kazahkstan, I assume the actors are also. I like world cinema, again no bad thing.

For me this film was a real discovery, the plot was well thought out and fairly easy to follow. There were enough twists for it to stay interesting throughout. Fight scenes were good and kept realistic. The dialogue was good, characters engaging and the cinematography looked gritty (I'm no expert but I know when something looks crap). I would actually consider visiting Kazahkstan off the back of watching this movie, it looked like a cool place.

Heartily recommend The Liquidator, very good action movie, better than a lot of stuff coming out of the UK and the states. I really enjoyed it.

The fight scenes are well choreographed and the cinematography is a lot better than some more well known offerings. Ignore the Vinnie Jones picture on the promotional material as its inaccurate depiction of him as the main star is neither here nor there and certainly doesn't detract from the movie. As an Englishman I am rather pleased that Vinnie Jones did not appear as billed. He is, in my opinion, not a great actor and if he had taken a more major role then the film would be all the worse for it. This is a good film that also gives an insight into a different culture and landscape and it has a story that can be followed easily enough, given the good subtitles and the genre clichés that are used to good effect. OK so there is nothing very original about The Liquidator but as an introduction to the Kazakhstan film industry it leaves me hoping more, ever improving, movies of international appeal will soon be forthcoming.

I was extremely disappointed. The trailer, the box, and the over-all hype was seemingly about Vinnie Jones being the lead actor when he barely came into play at the end. Falsely advertised movie by using Vinnie Jones to sell it. I could barely get through the movie. The dialog was fragmented and just the acting in relation to the quality of being seemingly real was terrible. Terrible screen direction and terrible and a lot of useless dialog to drag the movie on for just a couple fight scenes. Why Vinnie Jones wanted to go through with this movie and these amateur actors, I don't know but I would pass up this movie and find something better to do with the 20 minutes of your life before you end up turning off the movie and start cursing.

I expected a real turd by reading other comments here and i decided to check the movie by myself and it wasn't as bad as expect, this is not really an "action" movie, it's a thriller with some brief action scenes (mostly fights and gunfights) thrown in, the plot was good enough to not bore and the film had some good twists.

Unfortunately, the editing for the action scenes is mediocre (a bit like the Bourne series), but at least, there is no shaky cam.

Everybody here seems to be disappointed by the fact that Vinnie Jones isn't the main character (despite being top billed in the cover, he has less than 15 minutes of screen time and he has no lines), but the other actors did a good job.

Now i'm looking forward to see other action movies from Kazakhstan, i'm pretty sure that they have a lot to offer.

For a movie taking place in Kazakhstan, then there was a surprisingly large congregation of Asians everywhere. I just didn't understand that aspect of the movie. It didn't matter where were were in the movie, be it airport, restaurant, police station, theater, etc., then there were heaps of Asians everywhere.

Regardless, then this action thriller had potential, and "The Liquidator" was interesting to an extend. I made it to about one hour into the movie, then it was like all air just deflated from the balloon and the movie became a drag to sit through and it became irritating to sit through.

The story is about Arsen (played by Aitzhanov Berik) who, upon the news of his brothers death, starts a personal vendetta against those responsible, leaving both the law enforcement and the criminals in a stupor as he goes about doing his act of vengeance.

There was a good feeling to the movie, but then it was as if the director wanted to make the storyline too complex and weave more threads interwoven with one another, leaving the audience in the dark. And it just became too much, killing off the suspense that the movie had built up, not to mention killing off the actual enjoyment of the movie.

I will say that the actors in the movie did good jobs with their given roles, and this does count heavily in favor for the movie.

It was a shame that the tried to take on too much towards the last third part, resulting in a confusing and rather pointless mess, because "The Liquidator" really did have potential to be a great action thriller.