Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg new movie

slasher13 · Post by **slasher13** » 28 Jun 2007, 13:50

This looks pretty good, good cast, Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl

Direct links to Trailers:
HD 480P Trailer
HD 720P Trailer
HD 1080P Trailer

*This files may need to be renamed from "makeplaylist.dll" to "anything-you-like.mov" before they can be played.

Source of Trailers: Daves Trailer Page

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 28 Jun 2007, 14:02

This is the one where Viggo plays a Russian mobster, I think. Cronenberg is god, he can do no wrong (except Existenz, which was average at best.).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Jun 2007, 19:53

Sweet thanks. I'm downloading the 720p now. These are direct links btw, you'll get a MOV when you click on them.

EDIT: I just watched this and dodgy Watts English accent aside (way to over the top) this looks most excellent. It's bound to rock.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2007, 02:14

Eastern Promises
7.5 out of 10

I saw this last Friday.

While it doesn't entirely work. Naomi Watts English accent is acceptable but a bit ropey, like most attempts at an English accent it's too over the top (unlike Gwyneth Paltrow who is able to pull it off perfectly). The story is also a little all over the place, some better editing was in order.

Those aside it is a solid crime thriller.

The decision to set a Russian mob story in London worked very well indeed. Apart from her accent Watts is as usual very good. Armin Mueller-Stahl as the father was excellent. The two stand outs however are Viggo Mortensen as the driver and Vincent Cassel as the son. Both are grimy Russians and are both clearly really enjoying themselves. Viggo Mortensen is particularly excellent.

On the whole Eastern Promises is a well made and solid film. Recommended!

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 29 Oct 2007, 13:47

bah, I had not even noticed this topic. Time to copy-paste

Hung Fist wrote:

What do people think of this? After History of Violence I had high hopes for this but the movie was unfortunately somewhat a disappointment. Casting Viggo Mortensen as Russian gangster was a weir decision but I quite liked his performance, even if I couldn’t take it 100% seriously. Vincent Cassel on the other hand is just bloody brilliant. It took me long before I even realized it’s Cassel (a fucking Frenchie) and not some unknown Russian actor in the role.

The bad: the scrip. There’s some inconprehensible screw ups like over sentimentialism (the letter) that really doesn’t belong to a Cronenberg film. Near the end the movie shoots itself to leg so badly even the brilliant final scene can’t save you from feeling disappointed (btw, History of Violence also had a fantastic closing).

Spoiler Warning

Back to the positive. Cronenberg is an author of violence, and here he does it maybe better than ever. The bath house scene is probably the most hard hitting violent scene I have ever seen in a big mainstream film. I can’t believe MPAA passed it with R-rating. Or did they? The US version of History of Violence was edited by MPAA and in my opinion this is rougher stuff than anything HoV. I wouldn’t be surprised if the US version was cut again. Also, much respect for Viggo going all the way in that scene, meaning full frontal nudity. I’m fucking sick of kung fu sauna fights where peoples heads come off but the towels never slip.

End of Spoiler Warning

Overall, not a bad movie, just a disappointing one. Small changes in script would have raised my rating for 3/5 to 4/5. IMDB states 8.1 at the moment so go see it and make your own mind and don’t avoid the film just because I said Cronenberg has sold half of his soul passing a script like this without changes.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2007, 15:12

It's important to stretch even with my misgiving's Eastern Promises is still a first rate film and is far better than most films coming out of America. It's just not a perfect film!

I presume that's your review from the "Marks Out of 5" thread?

You may want to add spoiler tags. I won't do it as I hate it when people alter my reviews. I remember once when I wrote a review on another forum and the moderator decided it was full or spoilers (it wasn't) so instead of putting a disclaimer he deleted the spoiler parts entirely

. I ended up deleting the whole review.

SPOILERS:

I agree about the sentimentalism but I didn't find the letter sentimental it was what happened at the end with handing the baby back that made it sentimental for me. The twist near the end felt tacked on too. It was a real shame to find out Vigo was in fact a good guy. I was loving him as a villain.

I also agree because of these reasons the final shot didn't have the power it should have had. I disagree about Viggo Mortensen though he was easily as good as Vincent Cassel. I'd say better.

The bath house scene is probably the most hard hitting violent scene I have ever seen in a big mainstream film. I can’t believe MPAA passed it with R-rating. Or did they? I wouldn't be surprised if the US version was cut again. Also, much respect for Viggo going all the way in that scene, meaning full frontal nudity. I’m fucking sick of kung fu sauna fights where peoples heads come off but the towels never slip.

I can't believe I forgot to mention that scenes. It's the best in the film. Agreed about Viggo and also Cronenberg going all the way and having Viggo naked that really added to the realism. I wouldn't be surprised if the R1 ends up being cut. They could release it unrated though.

SPOILERS OVER

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 29 Oct 2007, 17:32

Where do you want me to add spoiler tags? I don't see any spoilers in my post.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2007, 18:07

The bath house scene doesn't happen until way into the movie.

I opted to use spoiler warnings instead of tags as it would look a mess with tags.

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 29 Oct 2007, 18:22

thinking of it, yeah, you're right. I was so overwhelmed by the scene I totally forgot there is a small storyline spoiler in there

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Oct 2007, 19:37

Vincent Cassel was cock as always, the man is dire. He needs to do one good film a year, this aint it.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 29 Oct 2007, 20:11

romerojpg wrote:Vincent Cassel was cock as always, the man is dire. He needs to do one good film a year, this aint it.

you are just jealous because he gets to shag monica every night

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 29 Oct 2007, 20:25

Is this anything like A History of Violence? That film stank.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Oct 2007, 20:31

saltysam wrote:
romerojpg wrote:Vincent Cassel was cock as always, the man is dire. He needs to do one good film a year, this aint it.
you are just jealous because he gets to shag monica every night

You got that right

still he always seems to play a slimball charecter who honestly people hate, I guess he is either a bad guy faced guy, or he just never gets to many nice roles.

Like A History of Violence? hard to say, it has gangstas in it, moddy people with sun glasses and suits, deaths and a strange end

so I guess it is in a way. But with added Ruskie accents.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2007, 21:00

romerojpg wrote:still he always seems to play a slimball charecter who honestly people hate

Nope. You're just watching the wrong films

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 29 Oct 2007, 21:06

You not seen Crimson Rivers Peggy?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2007, 21:47

That wasn't one of the two I was thinking of

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 29 Oct 2007, 22:06

grim_tales wrote:You not seen Crimson Rivers Peggy?

I have seen many of his films including that

but he rarley gets to play a "Good" guy.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 29 Oct 2007, 22:15

Maybe but you said always not rarely

I was thinking of Elizabeth and L' Appartement btw, neither he plays a slime ball.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 30 Oct 2007, 01:00

I thought A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE was a huge disappointment so I'm hoping this one is better...

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 30 Oct 2007, 19:13

Its not even close to A History of Violence in any way.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 31 Oct 2007, 01:13

romerojpg wrote:Its not even close to A History of Violence in any way.

You mean it's not as good??

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 31 Oct 2007, 01:54

I think that's Romero talk for saying the stories are very different so cannot be compared. You need to read between the lines what Romero says half the time to try and work out what he actually means

HungFist · Post by **HungFist** » 31 Oct 2007, 16:29

bradavon wrote:I think that's Romero talk for saying the stories are very different so cannot be compared. You need to read between the lines what Romero says half the time to try and work out what he actually means

Exactly. Eastern Promises isn't nearly as good

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 31 Oct 2007, 18:25

bradavon wrote:I think that's Romero talk for saying the stories are very different so cannot be compared. You need to read between the lines what Romero says half the time to try and work out what he actually means

No I said exactly what I meant, its not close to History of Violence in any way, in other words its not as good.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 31 Oct 2007, 18:35

"Not close to" can mean many things, you could have said "in terms of how good it is", if thats what you meant. Besides you said "in any way" which implies you meant plot/story as well so why didnt you just say that?