Eastern Promises: Review By NosePrint

So Mr Cronenbergs movies have been a real question mark for me over the years(Naked Lunch...revolted me, just couldn't get it). Being more of a popcorn movie viewer myself, I was quite taken by watching his movie A History of violence. I know a movie is good when I go out & buy it immediately,& this made me do so.

I have to say there was a bit of a bias, with Viggo Mortenson being involved, I find him such a versatile actor.As for Naomi Watts- well I have to say here I have a bit of a weakness for her since I love the King Kong movie, & with Viggo in the LOTR trilogy, but she really does play naive well! I did however find it hard to see Vincent Cassel be a russian with such a heavy french accent shining through, but he always plays a "disturbed " character well, like in Brotherhood of the Wolf.

To be honest I did find the story line predictable, but all the acting from all crew was fantastic.

The action like History of Violence, took me by suprise- I do stunts & choreography for indipendant films & the steam room scene is something I could never think was possible in convinving an actor to do. It was rough & "ballsy"- but reflected the mood of the movie, which based on the Russian Mafia life made such an impact. The fight scene LOOKED dangerous, which is very seldomly done in these days of quick shakey cam fights. I have to say though, the editting was a bit off, as so was the editting in History of violence- seems the editor does well with story telling, but doesn't really know how to cut action scenes. Case in point, the breaking nose/caving in the face of the thug in History of Violence...you can see what he was trying to achieve, but it just didn't work for me. (hohum)

All in all I liked the movie, & am waiting for it to be on sale in NZ for me to buy ASAP, & keeping an eye out for any special editions.