Flyerplesys Perfectly adorable

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

billcr12 A Ukranian woman, Galia, is working as a prostitute in Tel Aviv, when her friend is beaten and stabbed to death. She survives the abuse by the Russian mobster and he offers her a deal to stop selling her body if she will become an assassin instead. She is given a modest apartment and follows orders. Her passport is being held, preventing her from traveling to see her daughter. Day after day, her neighbor, Elinor, is physically abused by her husband. She finally stabs him and the two run away as the mob turns on Galia after she steals money she is owed by her mafia bosses. The speaking parts alternate from English to Russian to Hebrew with subtitles. There are the usual chase scenes and shootouts and Olga Kurylenko is sexy as Galia, the lead hit woman on the run from the bad guys. A desperate woman doing anything necessary to survive in a cold, cruel world, The Assassin Next Door is depressing and in the end an average action film.

Bruce Two spoilers for the price of one!I just happened to have watched The Outfit (1973) with Robert Duval four days ago. If you like mid 70's movies, it's worth watching on a rainy afternoon.Spoiler #1:In the movie, The Outfit, Robert Duval's character kills a Mob Boss in his home, while exiting the Mob Bosses 2nd floor bedroom, a goon starts charging up the stairs. Duvall, at the top of the stairs gets the drop on the goon, the goon stops half way up on a landing.Duval calls out from the top of the stairs, "Stay out of it, he's dead, you're unemployed."Spoiler #2:In this movie, Galia is at the top of the stairs, she gets the drop on the goon, the goon stops half way up on a landing.Galia says to him, "Your Boss is dead. You are out of work. Go... (slight pause) Go.". These two scenes are nearly identical, only the dialog is different.How the camera shots are set up are pretty much the same in both movies.Seeing these two nearly identical scenes really lowered my opinion of this movie because the similarity of the two scenes was so blatant. It's one thing to pay homage to a movie but it's entirely something else to do what they did here.I assume that the writer & director think we have short memories and won't find shortcuts like this. They are wrong and I may think twice about buying tickets to, renting or collecting any of their future work because the odds are, I may have already seen it elsewhere before.Bruce

dimagic Being familiar with Israeli cinema and hating it, I have to say that I welcomed the idea of this movie when it was announced. Among tearful melodramas, unnecessary and unfair political films, boring war pictures and idiotic romantic dramas, Kirot stood, at first, as the refreshing example of the much needed genre cinema in Israeli film industry.Just imagine following pitch: sexy Ukrainian woman is forced to work as a prostitute after being threatened and violently beaten. Then she gets a gun and forced to become an assassin, also becomes involved in a lesbian relationship with her neighbor. But when she is given an assignment that she doesn't like, she rises against her abusers and her former pimps in old fashion bloody revenge.Sounds great, isn't it. Juicy, violent and gory exploitation flick in potential. In some places such idea could turn out to be "Thriller: A Cruel Picture", in others it could turn to be ""Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion", even "Kill Bill", but for some reason in Israel it turned out to be "Kirot", which is more an insult than a compliment.So maybe no one actually intended to make an exploitation flick here (and really why not?), but this is besides the point. The movie "Kirot" is a pale shadow of any good expectations I've had about the film. Instead of daring plot, bold direction and uncompromising violence all we got here is a boring story with carton characters without any ability to be liked, crude and dull direction, forceful and artificial manipulation on the viewer, and finally many rip offs and little imagination.And although camera work is somewhat innovative, sometimes even very nice (single shots), it feels disconnected and pointless in connection to the movie itself. Because every part should work together, here each part is pulling to a different direction.Lerner is not a good director and even worse screenwriter. His rise as the next big thing in Israeli cinema is not surprising, because he is not representing anything new, only an upgrade of the old. You can imagine how bad the old school is if even the younger upgrade still fails where the majority of world cinema succeeds for many years.A viewer should not spend his time justifying narrative flaws and implausible events, viewer should not be forced to feel sorry for a female character for a sole reason of her being abused by a man, and a viewer should not have only that feeling alone towards her. Seriously, for each character in this film you can only have one single emotion, so underdeveloped and caricature they are. It's like being back in kindergarten when they said to you - "a cow goes moo", because this is the only thing she goes.Instead of telling a story, defining the characters by their actions, Lerner decides it is time to play very sad piano music while showing the heroine walking on the street and crying, for like 3 minutes. Then to show the depth of her inner desires, wishes and hopes he shows her painting a sad picture on the wall with black colors. So sad (wiping tears). Instead of showing characters trying to deal with the world around them, he shows them escaping it. Instead of showing some kind of character development, because people do change under harsh conditions of reality, he decides that his characters will remain the same, keeping same faces, same attitude, same problems, same idiotic ideals. The characters are stuck in their private hell, each one of them, without any ability to evolve and change. And maybe that was the point of the movie, but doing stupid things intentionally doesn't make them smart.Which illustrates my point exactly - Israeli filmmakers are simply unable to change, unable to adapt themselves to the current world of film goers and filmmakers. All the talking about new approach, new style, are false statements from someone who doesn't understand what does it mean to be different and innovative. Same all drama, same old forced tears, same old unconvincing conflicts and same old dramatic weaknesses.Looking for a new path, a fresh start, a new wave in Israeli cinema is still not dead, but it sure will not start with 'Kirot' or Lerner. I am still looking for a day when Israeli filmmakers will not act like homeless beggars, going to film festivals just to collect their season donations. Still looking for a day an Israeli movie will be actually remembered one year after its release, or at least will have more than one comments page on IMDb board.When announcing the film production Lerner said that the movie will be about two chicks and lots of guns. Far from the truth. More like a depressing love story about people accepting their fate and unable to change. How very relevant in that area of the world.

keremrs This film is really good. Although there is more than enough adrenaline , I don't think of it as an action flick. The story and the characters are very good. The human aspect of the story is very well conceived. Everything is brutally natural and realistic. Although there are some scenes with some problems, I was so grasped by the film that I didn't care. Although the story is kinda sad, it is never boring. The cast and especially Olga Kurylenko is very good too. Some may say the opposite but yes; I do believe that an ordinary woman without a specific background can be a hired gun as good as Galia. (Dont worry, this is not a spoiler) There are many things in every scene that is so familiar with everyday life but also striking. The "trivialised" woman trafficking and prostitution could not be told any better without the audience looking away once in every 10 minutes. The directing hides itself behind the natural flow of the story but silent quality of storytelling is in every scene. If you are looking for an "entertaining" action movie with a lot of bloodshed, this one is not for you (except for the bloodshed) Well done to all the crew.