Den of Lions (2003)

You won't be disappointed!

Touches You

Beautiful, moving film.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

American B-movie favorite Steve Dorf plays a Hungarian-American FBI agent working undercover as a henchman to a Russian mob boss (a very fat Bob Hoskins) living in Budapest. The movie consists largely of Dorf and others tooling around Budapest, with several time outs so that Dorf can reassure Hoskins, who never leaves his study presumably because of his great girth, that he is not wearing a wire. The movie was shot on the cheap in Hungary, and like all such productions employs the typical mix of American, British and local actors. It is truly terrible. You will be kept waiting in vain for something to happen. This one of those films that depends on the actors to work without benefit of real direction. Even the best actor cannot work without a decent director. Just watch Hoskins stumble around throughout this.

Few movies offer the senseless violence and absence of artistic skill that is evident in this movie. Why anyone would want to spend the necessary hours/minutes viewing something so devoid of entertainment value as this presentation is beyond my sense of comprehension.Don't waste your positive energy and desire for entertainment on this one. Unless, of course, you are seeking misery, frustration and are bent on despondent expression of hopelessness. The sorrow that this film evoked was simply not worth the time it took to watch it.I, myself, will seek a film with plot, substance and creativity that is worth my time and expense of life energy.

This is one of those films that seem to have been written by a committee. The script consists of nothing more than an amalgamation of the clichés of thousands (upon thousands) of second-grade action flicks. The undercover FBI agent who casually infiltrates the Russian mafia and falls for the monstrous capo's daughter, your run-of-the-mill car chases, the millionth appearance of the ever-present sale of a nuclear device to terrorists (whenever there's the Russian mafia in a film, you just *know* it's going to involve a nuclear weapon sale to terrorists sooner or later)... you get the point. Amusingly, apparently because the film is set in Hungary, the director decided that it would be an "authentic" (!) touch to have the actors speak in a vaguely British-sounding accent ; that's indicative of the film's quality as a whole.If you enjoy the typical action movie fare (say, Chuck Norris, Van Damme and Seagal films), you might find this worth the TV-viewing (not a rental by any stretch of the imagination). If their by-the-numbers, unimaginative approach to film-making is not your particular cup of tea, you will find it tiresome and trite, as did I.

I had such a joy, watching this movie, because there is possible to make great movies, without big budgets, Stephen Dorff plays well and Bob Hoskins has a really great role as the Russian godfather,the movie is very authentic and deals with matters such as trafficing of refugees, who is to be prostitutes against their will, of course. There are moments of very strong violence, think what you can accomplish with a pool cue. The scenery and photography is used very well. This one earns to be remembered.I gave it 9/10 IMDB rating system