User reviews

This film will not be to everyone's tastes. It is a tale of corporate intrigue and, frankly, even I was bored at time with the pace.

But, I have to remember that I was here for Asia Argento. Yes, she has a body to die for, and she is definitely on my top ten list of babes with guns. She gets caught up in corporate shenanigans between two lovers (Michael Madsen and Carl Ng). One is trying to unload his shares, and the other is trying to make a lot of money.

People die, there are some kinky sex scenes, and there is Asia doing an incredibly good job of trying to get through everything and stay alive.

You never really know whether she will make it, and you are not sure why she does what she does at the end. Love is stringer than hate? Maybe.

You just have to love that bod!

This is not quite as muddled as made out to be, but it's not any kind of Hong Kong pistol stuff that it may appear to be based on plot and cast either. It's the kind of film that presents itself as a thriller but is actually about people and the structure.

It's a two-part complex. The first part plays like an emotional upskirt peek at the tormented soul of this woman, who loved at the hands of a man who tossed and toyed her around for pleasure. She's played by Asia Argento who so effortlessly can channel sex mixed with pain - one of her early film roles after all was back in Italy for father Dario, where she falls victim to a serial rapist. We get some stuff about drugs, pistols are whipped out then forgotten again.

Now the French touch, our first pointer about what it's all really about; she becomes the character she has written about, a fictional sci-fi woman who controls men.

Tables are switched, and turns out she was really manipulating this whole time from inside the image he had been used to subdue. For the second part we fly down to Hong Kong where it threatens again to become a thriller. Pistols are whipped out again and forgotten once more. Here we come to understand that she's fallen prey to another lover controlling her for own purposes. There's another woman who is also vying for control of her strings, a sexual antagonist.

So having consummated one desire about revenge, she is not one step closer to being a free person. Her present suffering is still bound to that first violence that was a sexual desire; this is given to us as having been raped in her sleep, and so the horrible hurt of an unconscious drive, repressed, felt to be beyond any control and so any responsibility. Aptly enough, this second part is about self-discovery then; she's vulnerable for the first time, no more games or roles, conceding to flow where it may.

It is film noir as far as world dynamics go, make no mistake. To pursue desire is to be trapped helpless in a self-generating chimera.

Usually in noir that desire was codified as the femme fatale and who is here our protagonist but rendered as an image, a fictional guise, full of cracks suggesting the distraught person behind.

Finally she follows this second manipulative lover so that it can be revealed to us who was pulling the strings from behind all this time. She gets a second chance for revenge. The final image is one of poignant beauty, as blurry, out-of-focus for the world of plotting and machinations that we felt as the film, she ascends out of view liberated. She is literally no longer part of the film that was pure deceit from the start.

So for all intents and purposes, it should have been a great film about karmic cycles. It's not quite, but only because, for some reason, this was felt that should also appeal to a broad audience. So, it's filmed in a syncopated manner that is associated with TV, which makes sense in context because the camera is meant to be a frantic eye searching for things as she is, but which probably threw a curveball at those who usually expect a character study in long painterly sweeps and would be otherwise rewarded here.

It didn't help that it came out in the same year as No Country, another post-noir, much more overtly cinematic, and a host of other well-received films. So not a groundbreaking film, but see it if it shows up.

A quick resumé: Almost nonexistent, badly chosen musical soundtrack, steady-cam filming done without the steady but with lots of coffee and a hyperactive cameraman, NO plot, and nothing ever really happens. The film goes from one dialog into another, sounding hollow, never achieving depth, never creating the illusion that you really are inside a cobweb of conspiracy, and the everybody-has-an-affair-with-everybody is just a boring excuse to show the main actress in nice underwear. (which, combined with her rusty voice certainly is nice, but nothing to base a movie on) The high point for me is the opening scene, and the film just degraded from there to a point where I just wanted to quit the film about 45 minutes into the story. I regret sitting it out.

If you're an average guy like me and enjoy good acting, good plot, good scripts, novel ideas, or being entertained, you might want to skip this one. I was honestly bored from the opening credits to the very end, but tried to give the film a chance, and watched it all the way through -- only to be disappointed at every turn.

The acting was unbelievably sub par, but I'm not sure if the actors themselves are to blame or if it was the ridiculously wooden and horrible dialog coupled with an even worse script. The plot is very vague and underdeveloped and I think the audience is supposed to derive some kind of deeper meaning from it, or be able to look past it in some way, but honestly to do so would be a waste of time.

The film has a kind of crude sexuality to it which doesn't serve any purpose other than to show off some tattoos and lingerie. No one seems to have any motivation except making money off of some kind of "investment" deal that is never really explained. The connections between the characters aren't terribly clear, and there is little to no character development.

This is either some kind of sub-culture film meant for a very specific audience to enjoy or absolute crap, but you can decide for yourselves.

I gave it a 2 because it is definitely one of the worst films I've ever seen, but probably not THE worst.

You have to start worrying when you see that Michael Madsen is leading the Cast of any movie. I wont go through the list of shame that is his movie career.

I watched 45 minutes and still was not sure what really was going on. The movie consisted of a love hate relationship between Madsen and Argento, Which basically was Madsen insulting her, threatening violence and generally treating her like dirt. She on the other hand loves him, then shes doesn't, then she does, the she desires him, then she loves him again......whats wrong with you woman !!!!

The Script is awful, lousy soundtrack and pointless aggressive and crude sexuality which i believe was added to entice some viewers as the movie has little else to offer. I would have given the movie a 1 but it just about managed a 2 with a little excitement in the last 20 minutes. It did actually answer one question in the final few minutes but i am not going to share that, i will make you suffer for the full movie like i did.

This is a good movie to watch if you like dark action dramas. The plot is twisted and shows the darker side of life and the black market. There are some hot sex related scenes, and pretty good acting throughout. The colors and effects used in production are characteristic of other contemporary works in this genre.

I particularly like how the film shows a "real life" scenario where the ones involved in dirty deeds are powerful and vulnerable all at the same time. It also shows the women as being cunning and treacherous, rather than just pawns who stand behind the men. Mad props to the director/producer for going out on a limb and taking this approach. It adds another level of sexual something and uniqueness.

Not a movie for those who like happy endings that give you all the answers. If you like movies like The Usual Suspects, Trainspotting, or Requiem for a Dream, ...you should check this film out.

This movie is 100% dull, 100% pointless, and 100% a waste of time. It's only purpose is to allow Asia Argento to walking around half-nude for much of the film. Bravo for that. Otherwise, you have much better choices than this piece of crap. Try The Good Thief with Nick Nolte for a great caper/thriller.

"Boarding Gate" is an initially verbose French crime drama that, for the first half at least, threatens to talk itself and us to a standstill. Luckily, at about the midway point, the pacing picks up considerably and it turns into a stylish, gripping thriller.

The film chronicles the stormy relationship between an unscrupulous businessman and the ex-mistress he routinely pimps out to his clients. However, it's only after she's lured into committing murder and forced to go on the lam to Hong Kong that the movie becomes an intriguing, multi-layered look at infidelity and betrayal.

Italian actress Asia Argento, who's a dead-ringer for Uma Thurman, commands the screen with her pouting eroticism and natural charisma, and she gets strong support from Michael Madsen and Carl Ng as the two main men in her life, as well as from Kelly Lin as a romantic rival who reluctantly helps Argento out in the end. The direction by Olivier Assayas - in the second half at least - is crisp, focused and exciting, and the visuals alone are enough to compensate for some of the gaping holes in the storyline.

One caveat, however: while technically a French movie, most of the dialogue is actually in English. However, there are times when the movie unaccountably lapses into un-subtitled French and Chinese, leaving the audience in the dark as to a few, possibly crucial, details in the story - proving yet again that a picture is not necessarily always worth a thousand words.

Tired, garbled dreck. The chemistry between Argento and Madsen was as exciting as a wet doughnut. Their dialogue was dramatically uninteresting. The storyline was a mess. The acting forced. The cinematography lingered on the uninspired. Lazy and pointless. Kim Gordon and her character had no reason to be there. Nor did anyone else for that matter. I couldn't have given two farts for any of the 'characters'. Their emotions skipped and jumped like a junkie who hates his heroin. Empty and dull. Why do I have to write ten lines of text on here to make my point? I think I summed it up in the first three words. But, obviously it's not enough. I think this is the last time I'll bother to waste my time critiquing a film. Anyway, I saw 'Clean' and thought that was quite ineffectual as well. Again, I cared not for the characters, whether they lived or died.

Two things are interesting about the film.

The first and most discussed is the actress, Asia Argento. She and Beatrice Dalle are similar I think. They both have the quality of fearless commitment - like Emily Watson in "Breaking the Waves" and never afterward. They both have fumbled around facial features. They both are known as sexy — only because of nudity and the roles.

But more fundamental to me is that they both know things. I believe that an artist has to both have talent and be truly an interesting person; they have to know things we do not. Asia does. In fact, you can see it even in her first movie just as she is hitting puberty. This woman shows us a character that has qualities that this woman understands.

Streep has talent but no knowledge. Asia has less talent but she matters. This is one of her best. Don't miss it. Don't miss how she breathes. The nudity and story is nothing compared the grace of her visible breathing.

Here, she plays a woman who does what we all do: make compromises for companionship which if it has what we want we call love. The missing bits always catch up with us and with her the writer maps these pretty deftly into components of a thriller.

The structure of that thriller is the second notable bit. Of all genres, the thriller is most plastic. Allowing many flows so long as tension and guns are involved.

The story here sneaks up on you. Almost nothing is predictable. It starts slowly, and then bam. It goes off in an unexpected direction. The interesting narrative device here is that we follow her and discover things as she does. But she knows things, many things, that we do not. She does get surprised as we do, but not always so. At the end, she is allowed to write the future, for her lover at any rate.

My guess is that if she had never gotten and displayed that labial tattoo, she would have been taken more seriously. And we would be better off cinematically.

This is a good one. Angelic.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

....are some of the words I would use to describe "Boarding Gate". It's a mix of different genres (drama, action, travelogue), languages (English, Chinese, French), ethnic backgrounds (the three main leads are a European, an American and an Asian). It's not a "Girls-With-Guns" film or a study in madness, despite what the cover or the tagline ("She's losing control again") seem to indicate. Asia Argento is raw and uninhibited as usual, and, like her or not, you've gotta hand it to her: there aren't many actresses out there who would tackle on the role she has here. But while it is refreshing to see a movie where you don't know how everything will turn out within the first 10 minutes, there doesn't seem to be much of a point to this whole exercise, apart maybe from "becoming an amateur contract killer is not such a good idea". Is it worth watching? I can't quite make up my mind about that, so I'll give it ** out of 4 stars.

The story is disjointed and poorly written. We are given threads and a possible hook in act one, only to see it vanish. Had the writer bothered reading his work carefully, it wold have been apparent that Madsden's character's initial problem and meeting with the 'bad' girl suggests that there will be a troubled alliance between them as they try to solve his problem.

The problem goes nowhere. The relationship goes nowhere. And there is no sexual tension in any of the relationships. No-one digs anyone and no-one is appealing. The writing and directing is laughable. You can feel someone struggling with the mess and shifting the story focus about trying to extract some excitement. There is none. The writer/director is simply a beginner whose muddled efforts somehow became a movie. From simple errors such as '...they took polaroids...' - in Japan in 2007 ? to insulting errors such as nudity for eroticism, this movie is an insult. You cannot make them much worse.

And by plastering 'Madsden' on the talent list, the producers thought they'd have some success. He is hardly acting. Asia certainly is... and the result is some heroin-chic panto.

Give it a big miss.

This is fine, better than I had expected. Madsen is good at the start and helps get things going but it is Asia Argento that really holds this together with a most compelling performance. The direction is a bit frenetic but gradually we learn to live with the rapidity and apparent random nature of things, helped or not helped, depending on your view by pretty inconsequential storyline. With a combination of a lack of solid narrative, fast editing and Asia Argento we come to 'go with the flow' on this one and thereby enjoyment is to be had. The switch to a Hong Kong setting for the second half is entirely appropriate but still everything looks much the same and moves along just as quickly. So, in summary, you might not always know what's going on but if you've half a yen for Ms Argento and like things tough and speedy, this is for you.

Boarding Gate (2007) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a woman with a troubled past that involves a lover who treated her poorly and left her for dead for his own success. When he calls her back to help him on a mission to seduce a man, again, for his own success, she will need to determine if she can trust him or if this is another situation she may be double crossed.

This movie is written and directed by Olivier Assayas (Demonlover) and stars Asia Argento (xXx), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dog), Kelly Lin (Fulltime Killer), Carl Ng (New Police Story) and Kim Gordon (I'm not There).

This movie is clever, well written and contains some fantastic twists and turns. The backstory and various subplots are perfectly set up. Asia Argento delivers a fantastic performance and is both gorgeous and compelling. She is an easy character to root for through the various circumstances. The ending was a complete shock and I never saw it coming. It felt like the only way the story could end and fit the film perfectly.

Overall, this is a rewarding picture that is definitely worth your time. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

A beautiful woman, Sandra, seduces a wealthy businessman, Miles Rennburg. Little does he realise that she has been sent to kill him at the behest of her boyfriend/crime partner, Lester. Controlling all this is Sue, Lester's wife.

This film started incredibly badly, with laughable dialogue and a plot that made little sense. The scenes involving Sandra / Asia Argento and Rennburg / Michael Madsen are incredibly cringeworthy in their pretentiousness, dullness, poor dialogue and next level-wooden acting from Madsen. Just the presence of Michael Madsen pretty much gives it away that this film is going to be bad: his days of Tarantino roles are well behind him.

However, once Madsen is no longer in the picture things pick up a bit and some semblance of a plot emerges. It is never good or even watchable but at least it's not as bad as the first few scenes.

...possibly due to a diet of putrefied garbage, - some of the criticisms of the film are precisely the things that make it so brilliant and engaging..particularly the soundtrack which is superbly understated, very cool in a minimalist electronic style and used only at very critical moments (something Hollywood, with its blustery,instructive , pompous and intrusive boring scores would do well to pay heed to.. it's time to revisit the way music was used minimally and more effectively in the 60's and 70's) Yes there is some silliness in the sexual relationship between Masden and Argento..but there's a realism in the surrounding silence and a sense of lost souls in a bleak and empty corporate world...something Syrianna also evoked quite well - a sense of the moral vacuum that business operates above.

Be deeply suspicious of the intelligence and taste of reviewers who diss this film, it has a lot of original and interesting things to offer - Argento in particular is brilliant in the main role.

I would have never imagined that Olivier Assayas could be able to make such a thriller; I saw him more intellectual, and seeing Michael Madsen in one of Assayas' film is totally incredible, unbelievable; as if you had seen John Wayne playing in a Gerard Oury's movie. But the result is pretty good, interesting, tense, taut. It is not an action film, only a few of them, despite Michael Madsen's presence only half of the movie. It is a bit psychological and erotic too. But again, i did not think director Assayas could do such thriller movie. Financial, erotico and interesting film. Asia Argento is excellent here.