Paradox Effect

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.

British Reviewer 4.4/10

The actors tried really hard to make something of a very thin screenplay. The plot was fine, the visuals actually great for what was clearly a tiny budget and the editing good.

Harvey Keitel was chronically underused but maybe that was a contractual thing and Kurylenko was quite decent although not believable as an ex-addict; too beautiful!

The main problem for me was the poor screenplay, script and pacing. The plot crawled along at an agonisingly slow pace at it's worst and the twist incredibly improbable.

Still, it's better than Twisters and A Quiet Place: Day One on a fraction of their budgets.

The scummy story is porous, obscured and weak. The best scenes are those with Olga Kurylenko, who saves this movie with a few exceptional performances and her beauty. She is however, the only stand out. The ham fisted direction alienates the viewer. Harvey Keitel performance was also not satisfying. I particularly disliked his extreme close ups. Without Olga, this would barely rate worth watching. She elevates an otherwise very poor overall experience to something worth your time. Another major irritation is the too frequent Italian voice overs with no subtitles, which irritated me greatly. I really can't recommend this movie, except to those who adore Olga.

I was excited to see Olga Kurylenko in the cast. But the real Olga Kurylenko would have ended Kovec, and this tiresome excuse for an action film right along with him, in the first 10 minutes. Kovec was in such pain he couldn't see straight, his Beretta was lying on the table in easy reach, there was absolutely no chemistry between them, so there was nothing to prevent the real Olga from picking up the piece and putting an end to all our agony.

So, please call me, Olga, and I will personally write you a decent action movie script. One where no one dares utter the cliché, "no! YOU drop it." Because everyone knows the real Olga Kurylenko would take the shot in a heartbeat, and waste the cowardly bad guy hiding behind his quivering hostage with deadly accuracy.

Ok, I didn't fall asleep, but this was painful to watch. Another reviewer said it felt long despite being 88 minutes and I have to say, I was convinced this was 2 hours or more.

I'm American and tend to only like American films, but I saw The Courier a year or two ago and Olga was great and the film was far better than it should have been. Gary Oldman brought his game and I thought Harvey would do the same here.

The plot was weak and I found it hard to care about any of it or the people involved and of course, everybody was stupid and made the wrong choice leading to the overall mess that this movie was.

No idea what the budget was, but this movie was so bad, Matt Damon couldn't have saved it.