[Botched]
Plot:During a heist in Russia, a professional thief (Dorff) finds himself dealing with twin serial killers, insane hostages, double-crossing psycho Russian hardmen and the real possibility of a horrible death.

Cast: Stephen Dorff, Jaime Murray, Sean Pertwee, Jamie Foreman, Geoff Bell.

My Thoughts:Good effort from Germany!

Review:"Botched" is a German horror pic, even though it contains mostly Russian characters. Go figure. Anyways, the film stars Stephen Dorff as Ritchie, a guy who has a debt to repay to a mob boss who helped his family flee Russia to america many years ago. He has one more job to do before he's officially "out"...but the job, a diamond heist, gets botched and Ritchie loses the prize. His employer however is willing to give him another chance, and sends him to Moscow to retrieve a cross for him from a religious group based within a large skyscraper.

Ritchie is accompanied by two Russian mobsters who just happen to be brothers in his quest to retrieve the cross. However once inside, the job once again...goes sideways when the more psychotic of the two brothers kills a woman in the process. Ritchie and the two brothers then seek refuge on another floor of the building, and after finding a few people...the whole deal goes from a simple robbery to a hostage situation, complete with negotiator, demands, and everything else. But when one of the released hostages gets violently decapitated, Ritchie begins to wonder if the so called "hostage negotiator" he's dealing with is really who they say they are, and much worse...is there more than meets the eye to the floor itself?

"Botched" is a very likeable movie right from the get go because it's unique, and not your typical horror film. The movie sets itself up as a supernatural horror film, where one would think ghosts or some evil spirits will be the antagonists to terrorize the films characters. But writers Derek Boyle and Eamon Friel manage to put together a much smarter movie than that. Stephen Dorff turns in another brilliant performance as Ritchie, the often beleaguered thief who doesn't like his jobs to get "messy"...but instead wants to get the prize and get out as soon as possible.

The funny part of Dorff's character is that he always seems to get the exact opposite of what he hopes for, which kind of sucks because he's a pretty nice guy for the most part. The film does an excellent job of balancing it's brutal violent streak with likeable characters, interesting characters, and some good, and funny at times dialogue. The pic really offers up a diverse gaggle of characters during this whole hostage situation within the skyscrapers gothic, sinister looking floor. There's an ultra macho security guard, a hot russian woman who bucks the usual horror movie female trend of good looks and bad personality, and three homely looking religious fanatics.

When you mix Ritchie and the two brothers with this group, the film takes on a very entertaining and hilarious persona...every now and then mixing all of that with a gruesome death or two. "Botched" also has many underlying subplots which it manages to balance and juggle very well while playing out like a strong horror film. The movies villains are very well done, and creepy in their own right. The cool thing about "Botched" is that the villains are just as entertaining and fun to watch wreak havoc on screen as the so called good guys, who really are the bad guys, but once the shit hits the fan they become the good guys.

Which brings up another great thing about "Botched", which is the films liquid allegiances. There really are no good or bad guys int his movie, as everyone...except for about two characters, can be labeled a villain just as much as they can be labeled a good guy. The films villains also has a great backstory, and there are many clever twists involving them as well as those who they decide to kill.

All of this culminates for about 90 minutes until the film reaches it's grand finale which plays out over a 10 minute span, and is one of the films best string of moments, especially considering that it's also the films bloodiest and goriest string of moments. "Botched" makes you think aboutalot of things once it's over, like how come more american directors and writers can't come up with innovative stories like this, and most of all...why can't Stephen Dorff get more work? The guys talented.

Positives:Great characters, awesome story, good performance by Dorff, interesting villains, large amounts of blood and gore, and a great ending.

Negatives:One character died whom I felt should've lived.

Overall:Definitely worth seeing!





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