Payback

This is newb/amateur writer, director and producer Joseph Mensch's first full length feature film, with only one prior short film to his credit. Sure, it was flawed, but for an amateur filmmaker, he did better than some seasoned filmmakers productions I've seen lately.

For a low budget B film, the score was surprisingly on point, and was not your typical constant, loud, overbearing and unfitting score. His directing was actually decent, but there were some scene fluidity issues. It's as if many parts where cut short with information the viewer needed. I'm not sure if the issues were bad editing, or screenplay related, or both. The story concept was great, but there were many plot, continuity and technical issues in his screenplay. Had Mensch consulted a seasoned screenwriter to edit his writing prior to production, his film wouldn't have had that missing scene fluidity and continuity issues. The pacing was on point for the film's 91 min runtime. Casting was decent, although many performances here and there felt flat, and I'm sure it was due to Mensch's lack of experience in directing his cast properly. Cinematography was excellent, especially with the use of 90's color filters and sets. It seems much detail went into staging that era, and seemed convincing I was watching a film made in the early 90's.

Overall, it was a great first effort for a newb filmmaker. With its flaws, I saw it to the end, and I enjoyed it. It's a well deserved 6/10 from me, and certainly not worthy of anything less than a 5/10, because new filmmakers have to start somewhere, right?

This story of a not-so wise guy persevering through his gritty lot in life is engagingly presented, with effective acting all around, especially on the part of the lead, who comes across as vulnerable and conflicted while the school of hard knocks develops his character into a force to be reckoned with in gangster land. The Russian mob atmosphere was captured well even while including romance and family relationships without trivializing those elements. The film grips and holds you throughout even in the absence of any budgetary fluff. It maintains the feel of realism, and doesn't shy away from a sappily ever after ending.

Production ,and very cliched portrayals and a russian mob story that ends with a status quo on the human level. its the average acted no big turnout on original ideas, more a reminder that russian mob crime still exists and the recipie for a good payback but it is still too straight forward and easy, so summa summarum...its a time filler. it has though a pretty good scoreline that feels like a clam on your hand all the time, but shootouts and high speed extravaganza is held at a low level. the filmmaker is to me a new name in the feature film league, so as a sophomore in the business it aint bad. they have made a reliable 1990's stamp to the product, not so easy to make these days so heir heir...

so i tend to look for glitches in the storyline and on russian culture and kutyme, so when a proud patriotic russian mobster serves sweedish absolute vodka to his friends ,thats a bummer., you have popov, smirnoff and kalinka and 10s of thousands more brands and you know what... poland has dubrovka and greece has the ouzo, so when did absolut become a sign of russian crime..

but its a timefilling crime action drama, nothing new on the east front in here, but its ålreit entertainment thinks the grumpy old man. dobroveche...

The Godfather of the Russian mob scene on Brighton beach. Entertaining and suspenseful. Good watch.

Its an Above average movie for a tuesday night! Matt Levett did a good job playing mike. The villans were convincing. The editing could have been better. I thought the movie was going to end several times, nope! It kept on going on and on. He showed interest in certain weapons but it never really mattered. Really no fighting here. Just big talk and shooting. Wheres the cops throughout this movie? Only one ha! Only 1 female with a strong role... but why is she walking around soo slow? Does she have back pain? Love it when the main characters get shot or stabbed, then 5 minutes later they are fully recovered. Gotta love hollywood. Next time im injured Im going there!