Stars: Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones, Jamelia, Tamer Hassan, Simon Szabó, Nikolett Barabas, Mark Phelan | Story by Csaba Pindroch & Zoltan Furedi | Screenplay by Ivo Marloh, Dénes Orosz, Róbert Koltai | Directed by Róbert Koltai, Éva Gárdos
I’m not sure which title is worse: Diamond Heist, the name of the film I was tasked with reviewing; or Magic Boys, the name given to the streamed movie I actually watched. One suggests a generic, bargain-basement action thriller involving tons of money and violence but no stakes whatsoever, while the other hints at a cheap Magic Mike knock-off. While it’s possible that both of those concepts could lead to entertaining movies, the final product is a wholly disappointing amalgamation of both.
A quick IMDb search reveals that the two titles belong to the same film, which rarely means anything good but makes sense as it’s obvious from the start that the makers...
I’m not sure which title is worse: Diamond Heist, the name of the film I was tasked with reviewing; or Magic Boys, the name given to the streamed movie I actually watched. One suggests a generic, bargain-basement action thriller involving tons of money and violence but no stakes whatsoever, while the other hints at a cheap Magic Mike knock-off. While it’s possible that both of those concepts could lead to entertaining movies, the final product is a wholly disappointing amalgamation of both.
A quick IMDb search reveals that the two titles belong to the same film, which rarely means anything good but makes sense as it’s obvious from the start that the makers...
- 4/1/2015
- by Mark Allen
- Nerdly
Kontroll
CANNES -- Shot at night in the stations and tunnels of the Budapest Metro, Nimrod Antal's hyperkinetic "Kontroll" exploits every fear of the underground with its live tracks, rattling carriages, narrow platforms and nighttime population of wackos, weirdos and the simply strange.
Add a hooded killer who likes to push passengers in front of hurtling subway trains and a rough-and-ready team of inspectors who look and behave more like football hooligans, and the probability of mayhem is high.
"Kontroll" is grungy and uneven, but it has a rollicking pace and clearly intends to be good fun so that audiences may overlook its unsteady rhythms, pretensions and inconsistencies and take it for the fast and very furious ride it wants to be.
The film opens with a tipsy blonde being thrust onto the tracks by a hooded killer as a train powers through. It appears to be the start of a conventional thriller, but among those assigned to keep the subway safe and make sure every passenger has bought a ticket are the enigmatic Bulcsu (Sandor Csanyi) and his ragged team of inspectors, who are on probation themselves for their erratic ways.
Bulcsu has become a creature of the underground, sleeping on the deserted platforms and never venturing "up there" where there's daylight. He's become legend, too, for competing in a stupidly dangerous race on the tracks, running after the last regular train. The goal is to make it to the next station ahead of the nonstop midnight express speeding along behind.
Antal has great fun with the highly combustible zoo of characters who ride the Budapest Metro after dark, and he and his team don't always come off best in their encounters. There's an exhilarating chase sequence with all five inspectors haring after a young daredevil, but this director takes no prisoners. Soon afterward, another pursuit of the same kid ends with an encounter with the hooded killer.
There also are lyrical moments as Bulcsu encounters a young woman dressed as a bear (Eszter Balla), and his kindness breaks through her initial disdain for the roughnecks of the subway. Her father is a man Bulcsu knows, a not-always-sober train driver named Bela (Lajos Kovacs) who is something of a subway philosopher and whose advice takes Bulcsu closer to finding a way back "up there."
The players are all appealing, especially Zoltan Musci as a droll elder statesman of inspectors and Csaba Pindroch as one whose enthusiasm is blighted by narcolepsy.
But it's the steel, dirt, shadows and noise of the underground that Antal loves. With great help from cinematographer Gyula Pados, production designer Balazs Hujber and editor Istvan Kiraly, plus the driving music of Neo, Antal brings it vividly to life. He makes it a surreal world where there's even a costume ball as the search for the killer reaches its climax with another chase on the tracks.
The film begins with a straight-faced disclaimer regarding the safety of the Budapest Public Transport Co., but after seeing this picture, many visitors to the Hungarian capital will most likely want to take a cab.
KONTROLL
Cafe Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Nimrod Antal
Producers: Tamas Hutlassa, Nimrod Antal
Director of photography: Gyula Pados
Production designer: Balazs Hujber
Editor: Istvan Kiraly
Music: Neo
Cast:
Bulcsu: Sandor Csanyi
Muki: Csaba Pindroch
Professor: Zoltan Musci
Lecso: Sandor Badar
Tibi: Zsolt Nagy
Szofi: Eszter Balla
Bela: Lajos Kovacs
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 107 minutes...
Add a hooded killer who likes to push passengers in front of hurtling subway trains and a rough-and-ready team of inspectors who look and behave more like football hooligans, and the probability of mayhem is high.
"Kontroll" is grungy and uneven, but it has a rollicking pace and clearly intends to be good fun so that audiences may overlook its unsteady rhythms, pretensions and inconsistencies and take it for the fast and very furious ride it wants to be.
The film opens with a tipsy blonde being thrust onto the tracks by a hooded killer as a train powers through. It appears to be the start of a conventional thriller, but among those assigned to keep the subway safe and make sure every passenger has bought a ticket are the enigmatic Bulcsu (Sandor Csanyi) and his ragged team of inspectors, who are on probation themselves for their erratic ways.
Bulcsu has become a creature of the underground, sleeping on the deserted platforms and never venturing "up there" where there's daylight. He's become legend, too, for competing in a stupidly dangerous race on the tracks, running after the last regular train. The goal is to make it to the next station ahead of the nonstop midnight express speeding along behind.
Antal has great fun with the highly combustible zoo of characters who ride the Budapest Metro after dark, and he and his team don't always come off best in their encounters. There's an exhilarating chase sequence with all five inspectors haring after a young daredevil, but this director takes no prisoners. Soon afterward, another pursuit of the same kid ends with an encounter with the hooded killer.
There also are lyrical moments as Bulcsu encounters a young woman dressed as a bear (Eszter Balla), and his kindness breaks through her initial disdain for the roughnecks of the subway. Her father is a man Bulcsu knows, a not-always-sober train driver named Bela (Lajos Kovacs) who is something of a subway philosopher and whose advice takes Bulcsu closer to finding a way back "up there."
The players are all appealing, especially Zoltan Musci as a droll elder statesman of inspectors and Csaba Pindroch as one whose enthusiasm is blighted by narcolepsy.
But it's the steel, dirt, shadows and noise of the underground that Antal loves. With great help from cinematographer Gyula Pados, production designer Balazs Hujber and editor Istvan Kiraly, plus the driving music of Neo, Antal brings it vividly to life. He makes it a surreal world where there's even a costume ball as the search for the killer reaches its climax with another chase on the tracks.
The film begins with a straight-faced disclaimer regarding the safety of the Budapest Public Transport Co., but after seeing this picture, many visitors to the Hungarian capital will most likely want to take a cab.
KONTROLL
Cafe Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Nimrod Antal
Producers: Tamas Hutlassa, Nimrod Antal
Director of photography: Gyula Pados
Production designer: Balazs Hujber
Editor: Istvan Kiraly
Music: Neo
Cast:
Bulcsu: Sandor Csanyi
Muki: Csaba Pindroch
Professor: Zoltan Musci
Lecso: Sandor Badar
Tibi: Zsolt Nagy
Szofi: Eszter Balla
Bela: Lajos Kovacs
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 107 minutes...
- 7/9/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Kontroll
CANNES -- Shot at night in the stations and tunnels of the Budapest Metro, Nimrod Antal's hyperkinetic "Kontroll" exploits every fear of the underground with its live tracks, rattling carriages, narrow platforms and nighttime population of wackos, weirdos and the simply strange.
Add a hooded killer who likes to push passengers in front of hurtling subway trains and a rough-and-ready team of inspectors who look and behave more like football hooligans, and the probability of mayhem is high.
"Kontroll" is grungy and uneven, but it has a rollicking pace and clearly intends to be good fun so that audiences may overlook its unsteady rhythms, pretensions and inconsistencies and take it for the fast and very furious ride it wants to be.
The film opens with a tipsy blonde being thrust onto the tracks by a hooded killer as a train powers through. It appears to be the start of a conventional thriller, but among those assigned to keep the subway safe and make sure every passenger has bought a ticket are the enigmatic Bulcsu (Sandor Csanyi) and his ragged team of inspectors, who are on probation themselves for their erratic ways.
Bulcsu has become a creature of the underground, sleeping on the deserted platforms and never venturing "up there" where there's daylight. He's become legend, too, for competing in a stupidly dangerous race on the tracks, running after the last regular train. The goal is to make it to the next station ahead of the nonstop midnight express speeding along behind.
Antal has great fun with the highly combustible zoo of characters who ride the Budapest Metro after dark, and he and his team don't always come off best in their encounters. There's an exhilarating chase sequence with all five inspectors haring after a young daredevil, but this director takes no prisoners. Soon afterward, another pursuit of the same kid ends with an encounter with the hooded killer.
There also are lyrical moments as Bulcsu encounters a young woman dressed as a bear (Eszter Balla), and his kindness breaks through her initial disdain for the roughnecks of the subway. Her father is a man Bulcsu knows, a not-always-sober train driver named Bela (Lajos Kovacs) who is something of a subway philosopher and whose advice takes Bulcsu closer to finding a way back "up there."
The players are all appealing, especially Zoltan Musci as a droll elder statesman of inspectors and Csaba Pindroch as one whose enthusiasm is blighted by narcolepsy.
But it's the steel, dirt, shadows and noise of the underground that Antal loves. With great help from cinematographer Gyula Pados, production designer Balazs Hujber and editor Istvan Kiraly, plus the driving music of Neo, Antal brings it vividly to life. He makes it a surreal world where there's even a costume ball as the search for the killer reaches its climax with another chase on the tracks.
The film begins with a straight-faced disclaimer regarding the safety of the Budapest Public Transport Co., but after seeing this picture, many visitors to the Hungarian capital will most likely want to take a cab.
KONTROLL
Cafe Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Nimrod Antal
Producers: Tamas Hutlassa, Nimrod Antal
Director of photography: Gyula Pados
Production designer: Balazs Hujber
Editor: Istvan Kiraly
Music: Neo
Cast:
Bulcsu: Sandor Csanyi
Muki: Csaba Pindroch
Professor: Zoltan Musci
Lecso: Sandor Badar
Tibi: Zsolt Nagy
Szofi: Eszter Balla
Bela: Lajos Kovacs
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 107 minutes...
Add a hooded killer who likes to push passengers in front of hurtling subway trains and a rough-and-ready team of inspectors who look and behave more like football hooligans, and the probability of mayhem is high.
"Kontroll" is grungy and uneven, but it has a rollicking pace and clearly intends to be good fun so that audiences may overlook its unsteady rhythms, pretensions and inconsistencies and take it for the fast and very furious ride it wants to be.
The film opens with a tipsy blonde being thrust onto the tracks by a hooded killer as a train powers through. It appears to be the start of a conventional thriller, but among those assigned to keep the subway safe and make sure every passenger has bought a ticket are the enigmatic Bulcsu (Sandor Csanyi) and his ragged team of inspectors, who are on probation themselves for their erratic ways.
Bulcsu has become a creature of the underground, sleeping on the deserted platforms and never venturing "up there" where there's daylight. He's become legend, too, for competing in a stupidly dangerous race on the tracks, running after the last regular train. The goal is to make it to the next station ahead of the nonstop midnight express speeding along behind.
Antal has great fun with the highly combustible zoo of characters who ride the Budapest Metro after dark, and he and his team don't always come off best in their encounters. There's an exhilarating chase sequence with all five inspectors haring after a young daredevil, but this director takes no prisoners. Soon afterward, another pursuit of the same kid ends with an encounter with the hooded killer.
There also are lyrical moments as Bulcsu encounters a young woman dressed as a bear (Eszter Balla), and his kindness breaks through her initial disdain for the roughnecks of the subway. Her father is a man Bulcsu knows, a not-always-sober train driver named Bela (Lajos Kovacs) who is something of a subway philosopher and whose advice takes Bulcsu closer to finding a way back "up there."
The players are all appealing, especially Zoltan Musci as a droll elder statesman of inspectors and Csaba Pindroch as one whose enthusiasm is blighted by narcolepsy.
But it's the steel, dirt, shadows and noise of the underground that Antal loves. With great help from cinematographer Gyula Pados, production designer Balazs Hujber and editor Istvan Kiraly, plus the driving music of Neo, Antal brings it vividly to life. He makes it a surreal world where there's even a costume ball as the search for the killer reaches its climax with another chase on the tracks.
The film begins with a straight-faced disclaimer regarding the safety of the Budapest Public Transport Co., but after seeing this picture, many visitors to the Hungarian capital will most likely want to take a cab.
KONTROLL
Cafe Film
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Nimrod Antal
Producers: Tamas Hutlassa, Nimrod Antal
Director of photography: Gyula Pados
Production designer: Balazs Hujber
Editor: Istvan Kiraly
Music: Neo
Cast:
Bulcsu: Sandor Csanyi
Muki: Csaba Pindroch
Professor: Zoltan Musci
Lecso: Sandor Badar
Tibi: Zsolt Nagy
Szofi: Eszter Balla
Bela: Lajos Kovacs
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 107 minutes...
- 5/17/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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