Hope Lost

A mediocre thriller from 2015. Although there are familiar actors, both the shooting is bad and the handling of the subject is bad. There is a main story but the characters seem to have no stories. The man who says he's a movie director takes pictures of the woman he met at the bar. He says he sent these photos to the producer and he liked them very much. He tricks her into taking her to Rome. Then he sells the girl to a man to become a street prostitute. The girl is put to work with the threat of her younger brother's life and it is said that she will be released if she pays the 30,000 euro debt. There are a lot of girls who are forced to work this way.

It's as if the movie script was brought to a fait accompli without any thought. There is too much exaggeration in the acting.

There is sexuality and nudity in the movie. There is also a footjob scene through pants.

I realize that people still think film is primarily for entertainment, when rather much of the "fiction" is art depicting life directly from the conscience of those creating the film. So if the goal is to walk away from the film satisfied that you will be thoroughly entertained, you will indeed be disappointed.

Some of the reviews stated there were "violent scenes for no reason." The suffering instituted by human trafficking was depicted in all it's horrific and pointless tragedy. Snuff films are not urban myths.

The average human psyche cannot conceive of the evils done in the dark. The film, whether glorifying it for those initiated in the knowledge, or raising awareness of how women, men, and children are brutally lured, kidnapped, and enslaved probably does both. That's the dialect here.

I'm still about the execution of well-developed screenplays and fluid storylines, so 6 stars was a fair assessment. The actors portray their roles as they are understood to operate in the trafficking system as of 2015. Check. Snuff films, still found on the dark web. Check. Acting was sufficient to help the audience open or keep their eyes wide shut to the darkness of the world. Given this was released again for 2020, I suspect it is about raising awareness to what I hope is an end to this Satanic system of torture and enslavement of humanity.

Sorry, to all involved and to those who like me, decided to watch this till the end.

Micheal, what the eff dude! Mischa, what the eff? Why?!?!

Anyway, I turned it off at the abortion scene, and for an awful reason decided to continue watching it. Nope. Nothing more to see.

I can appreciate the artistic nature of all film, especially this one, but dude... I don't know man. I don't know.

Mindboggling. How it started, and where it went, and how it ended, are you trying to depict real life? Well real life doesn't blend well with classic movie twists. Pick one. Argh!! Dude, I'm actually upset at the makers of this thing now. The more I think about it, the more I want to punch something.

With one overwhelmingly positive and overwhelmingly negative review on the books, I will take the middle ground on this polarizing film - much like the * ratings so far, there is very little consistency. As the 1-Star reviewer indicated, there is very little positive in this movie. Where I disagree with them is that the world isn't all sunshine and lollipops - therefore why should our cinema? Hostel and Saw are in no way pleasant movies, yet are highly regarded in their genre.

While calling this "entertainment" is an extremely debatable and subjective, the fact is that the movie accomplishes what it sets out to achieve. I don't know the reality of what's in here - which makes me quite happy (sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss) - but it's portrayed in an extremely viable way, with acting that is quite strong, and actually far above expectations given the B-list lineup. And in all fairness, there are many things this movie could have done to push the torture-porn boundary, but it is really quite scaled back with more effort paid to character and motivation.

While certainly not a masterpiece in any sense of the word, but if you're a fan of the genre, it is a quality addition to the group. If you're not, then simply avoid.

If she answers I hope she does so in her regular voice. Her Romanian accent thing is not really working. Thankfully she is not the main star of this movie, though she might feel different about that. And only adds to the downfall she has taken. We are used to Danny Trejo playing in anything (and I'm not blaming him), even Michael Madsen, though he is a special case and only seems to "work" under Tarantino (no pun intended of course).

The theme the movie has is a real problem, but the way it gets handled is poor to say the least. There are worse movies out there of course and there is a couple of neat moments this has, even though we never actually get into the head of the characters