My first thought when I saw this advertised was "Salma Hayek getting her own action movie? Great!" And it seems like such a foolproof action premise too: former prostitute/sex slave gets her hands on some guns, fortifies her Japanese brothel, takes on an army of gangsters to protect her family. The Raid with cleavage.
Instead what I got was a miserable, mean film that is two parts cool action, and eight parts extended exploitation or torture scenes. There is one scene in particular in which Hayek's character is trapped in a cage (yes, a cage) by a sadist with a fondness for acid, and the suffering goes on way way longer than it needs to. Rather than be used to inform us of some real world evils, or to set up some wonderful action catharsis, as in Django Unchained, it seems to be for its own sake. This isn't fun, this isn't fun at all!
Perhaps I was missing some clever commentary about the evils of sex industry, and of the film industry's own voyeuristic, sadistic objectification of women. After all, I did only just refer an actress by her tits only two paragraphs ago. But much like Sucker Punch, the message is mangled in that the thing it is condemning is also the bread and butter used to sell the movie. A director probably can't criticise sexual exploitation if they are using it to sell tickets like some grotty 70s Italian flick. Instead I get the impression that the director just gets his rocks off watching sexualised violence against women.
I mentioned there were some cool action, and that is true. The brothel gets absolutely shredded with gunfire and grenades, and it looks and sounds glorious. Had the movie focussed on this more, it would have worked. But a few minutes of youtubeable clips aren't going to rescue this Saw like, cruel movie. It's unpleasant little thing to watch; ugly without at least being informative, meaningful, or (at the very least), exciting.
Film Meanest Bit of Cinema I've Seen in a While
My first thought when I saw this advertised was "Salma Hayek getting her own action movie? Great!" And it seems like such a foolproof action premise too: former prostitute/sex slave gets her hands on some guns, fortifies her Japanese brothel, takes on an army of gangsters to protect her family. The Raid with cleavage.
Instead what I got was a miserable, mean film that is two parts cool action, and eight parts extended exploitation or torture scenes. There is one scene in particular in which Hayek's character is trapped in a cage (yes, a cage) by a sadist with a fondness for acid, and the suffering goes on way way longer than it needs to. Rather than be used to inform us of some real world evils, or to set up some wonderful action catharsis, as in Django Unchained, it seems to be for its own sake. This isn't fun, this isn't fun at all!
Perhaps I was missing some clever commentary about the evils of sex industry, and of the film industry's own voyeuristic, sadistic objectification of women. After all, I did only just refer an actress by her tits only two paragraphs ago. But much like Sucker Punch, the message is mangled in that the thing it is condemning is also the bread and butter used to sell the movie. A director probably can't criticise sexual exploitation if they are using it to sell tickets like some grotty 70s Italian flick. Instead I get the impression that the director just gets his rocks off watching sexualised violence against women.
I mentioned there were some cool action, and that is true. The brothel gets absolutely shredded with gunfire and grenades, and it looks and sounds glorious. Had the movie focussed on this more, it would have worked. But a few minutes of youtubeable clips aren't going to rescue this Saw like, cruel movie. It's unpleasant little thing to watch; ugly without at least being informative, meaningful, or (at the very least), exciting.