a review of

This russian pitch-black comedy & chamber-action thriller hybrid makes for a thoroughly entertaining 90+ minutes, playing out kinda like early Tarantino with a hint of early Guy Richie sprinkled in, not shying away from ridiculous amounts of blood splatter and some gore. As fun as it is to watch, it seems to lack a soul, some spark of humanity and psychological depth to its characters. This ultimately prevents me from rating the whole thing higher as i'm kinda taken aback by the emptiness and cynicism of the whole thing. What's left is a film devoid of a single character to root for (i kinda doubt that's intentional), in which a tough underdog type of character faces off with a tough corrupt patriarch overlord type of character, also observed by a sheepish mother and motivated by a false rape allegation made up by a sheming daughter. Yeah... notice a pattern here? Maybe, just maybe... might there be some misogynistic bias at play here? Kinda sad, this film. I feel somewhat guilty for enjoying it so much.