Eastern Promises - Reviews/Interviews UK/Australia/New Zealand
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Eastern Promises
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
©Sandra Hall Sidney Morning Herald
Credit: Thanks to Chrissiejane at Viggo Works!
Quote: Mortensen starred in Cronenberg's last film, A History of Violence - another gangland story - as a man bent on repudiating the brutality of his past. Here, in contrast, he sees no need to deny anything. What would be the point? As Nikolai, a man who has done time in Russian gaols and now works as a driver for a Vory V Zakone family, he wears his life story in the tattoos that decorate his arms, legs and torso - yet another way in which the flesh can be modified and mortified.
It's a role that Mortensen inhabits with great elan. With hair slicked back, a cigarette clamped in the corner of his mouth and a sardonic glint in his eye, he looks as if he's earned every inky stain.
Quote: It's the kind of story that could be scaled to fit any genre. Do it on the cheap and it's a grubby B-grade thriller. Elevate it with the kind of talent that Cronenberg brings to bear on it and it becomes a tale of displacement and brutalisation, evocative of those that lurk behind so many newspaper headlines.
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At the Movies
Source: www.abc
©ABC 2007
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
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Eastern Promises
Source: NZ Herald
©2007, APN Holdings NZ Limited
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
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Eastern Promises
Source: Music OMH.com
©Neil Dowden 1996-2007 OMH
Credit: Thanks to at Viggo Works!
Quote: As for the cast, they deliver excellent performances, though this is very much Viggo Mortensen’s film. Just as he did so memorably in A History of Violence, in which he played a popular family man running a coffee shop who earlier had been a mob hitman, here he gives Nikolai an enigmatic, ambivalent relationship to good and evil, with his rock-like features masking a surprising sensitivity. In Mortensen’s charismatically minimalist portrait - you can’t take your eyes off him - this is a man with a past who has been on the dark side, but who always keeps you guessing.
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Film Review: Eastern Promises
Source: Telegraph
© Sukkdev Sandhu
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
Quote: ....straddles the line between cartoon villain and an inhuman machine somewhere between Max Headroom and Robocop", and: "Nickolai often resembles a slinky zombie...
Quote: all the characters, including Nickolai, are woefully depthless.
Quote: Eastern Promises struggles to marry this kind of sepulchral ambience and its more pulpy plot elements. That may be due to Cronenberg and screenplay writer Stephen Knight having competing visions of what the film is really about.
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Eastern Promises
Source: The Guardian
©Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
Quote: Unfortunately, the rest of the film does not measure up either to Cronenberg's established reputation as a flesh-fetishist or to the skill he latterly showed, in the excellent A History of Violence, for more conventional dramatic fare...There are interesting scenes, moments, ideas: but Eastern Promises does not have the sinew and boldness of Cronenberg's best work.
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Flesh and Blood: Viggo strips off in Russian Mafia thriller
Source: Heat Magazine
©EMAP Entertainment
Credit: Thanks to Chrissie at Viggo Works!
(click)
©Focus Features
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Grievous Bodily Harm
Source: The Observer
©Philip French
Credit: Thanks to Chrissiejane at Viggo Works!
Eastern Promises is an exciting story about hypocrisy, decency and different kinds of honour, and about the dark underside of globalisation and multiculturalism. There are some flaws in the script (of a kind that can only be discussed between those who have seen the picture), but most of them are concealed, at least while we sit watching, by the excellence of the acting and Cronenberg's attention to detail. It's a chilling, discomfiting picture, and there's a particularly frightening moment when Mueller-Stahl, the brutal patriarch, leaves Anna with the baby in hospital, purring, silkily: 'So you know where I am, and I know where you are, Anna Ivanova.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Show Some Respect - clip from EP
Source: Guardian
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Sky TV Video - videocap from a short promotional interview by Viggo featured on Sky TV in the UK.
You can find the clip here.
Please don't hotlink!! Left-click and save to your hard disk.
©sky tv
Thanks to Chrissiejane at Viggo Works!
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Viggo's mobster delivers on his promise
Source: Daily Mail
©Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail
Credit: Thanks to whiterose at Viggo Works!
Quote: Cronenberg and Knight portray Britain , once the world's greatest imperial power , as a defenceless victim of immigration that is establishing a beachhead of its own culture on British soil , without any reference to indigenous values. And yet both men are reluctant to adopt an attitude that would challenge unlimited immigration and multiculturalism , and might be construed as unacceptably judgmental and therefor politically incorrect. Fortunately ,original plotting and political courage are not central to the success of this thriller.
Quote: The performance that's a tour de force, however, is by Viggo Mortensen. His role as Aragorn in The Lord Of The Rings has transformed a jobbing, C-list actor into a bona fide star. He was a revelation in A History of Violence, but is even more impressive here, underplaying with the intensity of Brando in his prime. This is brave acting, and Viggo's Russian accent is flawless. He clearly does his homework, and can use his physical authority to lead a very talented cast. This is one of the best performances of 2007.
Quote: Most of his earliest films - from The Brood to Dead Ringers - display a barely disguised sadism. In Crash, he took a deliberately non-judgmental, yet eroticised, approach towards mutilating others for one's own sexual gratification.
(Ummm... he obviously never saw Crash)
Quote: Cronenberg's intention is probably neither moral or humanistic (there seems to be something about blood and brutality that he finds erotically stimulating); but the effect of Eastern Promises is undoubtedly to bring home the nastiness of violence.
And that is moral, humanistic and responsible, whether the film-maker intends it to be or not.
©Focus Features
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Eastern Promises
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
©Sandra Hall Sidney Morning Herald
Credit: Thanks to Chrissiejane at Viggo Works!
Quote: Mortensen starred in Cronenberg's last film, A History of Violence - another gangland story - as a man bent on repudiating the brutality of his past. Here, in contrast, he sees no need to deny anything. What would be the point? As Nikolai, a man who has done time in Russian gaols and now works as a driver for a Vory V Zakone family, he wears his life story in the tattoos that decorate his arms, legs and torso - yet another way in which the flesh can be modified and mortified.
It's a role that Mortensen inhabits with great elan. With hair slicked back, a cigarette clamped in the corner of his mouth and a sardonic glint in his eye, he looks as if he's earned every inky stain.
Quote: It's the kind of story that could be scaled to fit any genre. Do it on the cheap and it's a grubby B-grade thriller. Elevate it with the kind of talent that Cronenberg brings to bear on it and it becomes a tale of displacement and brutalisation, evocative of those that lurk behind so many newspaper headlines.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
At the Movies
Source: www.abc
©ABC 2007
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Eastern Promises
Source: NZ Herald
©2007, APN Holdings NZ Limited
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Eastern Promises
Source: Music OMH.com
©Neil Dowden 1996-2007 OMH
Credit: Thanks to at Viggo Works!
Quote: As for the cast, they deliver excellent performances, though this is very much Viggo Mortensen’s film. Just as he did so memorably in A History of Violence, in which he played a popular family man running a coffee shop who earlier had been a mob hitman, here he gives Nikolai an enigmatic, ambivalent relationship to good and evil, with his rock-like features masking a surprising sensitivity. In Mortensen’s charismatically minimalist portrait - you can’t take your eyes off him - this is a man with a past who has been on the dark side, but who always keeps you guessing.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Film Review: Eastern Promises
Source: Telegraph
© Sukkdev Sandhu
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
Quote: ....straddles the line between cartoon villain and an inhuman machine somewhere between Max Headroom and Robocop", and: "Nickolai often resembles a slinky zombie...
Quote: all the characters, including Nickolai, are woefully depthless.
Quote: Eastern Promises struggles to marry this kind of sepulchral ambience and its more pulpy plot elements. That may be due to Cronenberg and screenplay writer Stephen Knight having competing visions of what the film is really about.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Eastern Promises
Source: The Guardian
©Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
Credit: Thanks to Dom at Viggo Works!
Quote: Unfortunately, the rest of the film does not measure up either to Cronenberg's established reputation as a flesh-fetishist or to the skill he latterly showed, in the excellent A History of Violence, for more conventional dramatic fare...There are interesting scenes, moments, ideas: but Eastern Promises does not have the sinew and boldness of Cronenberg's best work.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Flesh and Blood: Viggo strips off in Russian Mafia thriller
Source: Heat Magazine
©EMAP Entertainment
Credit: Thanks to Chrissie at Viggo Works!
(click)
©Focus Features
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Grievous Bodily Harm
Source: The Observer
©Philip French
Credit: Thanks to Chrissiejane at Viggo Works!
Eastern Promises is an exciting story about hypocrisy, decency and different kinds of honour, and about the dark underside of globalisation and multiculturalism. There are some flaws in the script (of a kind that can only be discussed between those who have seen the picture), but most of them are concealed, at least while we sit watching, by the excellence of the acting and Cronenberg's attention to detail. It's a chilling, discomfiting picture, and there's a particularly frightening moment when Mueller-Stahl, the brutal patriarch, leaves Anna with the baby in hospital, purring, silkily: 'So you know where I am, and I know where you are, Anna Ivanova.'
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Show Some Respect - clip from EP
Source: Guardian
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sky TV Video - videocap from a short promotional interview by Viggo featured on Sky TV in the UK.
You can find the clip here.
Please don't hotlink!! Left-click and save to your hard disk.
©sky tv
Thanks to Chrissiejane at Viggo Works!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Viggo's mobster delivers on his promise
Source: Daily Mail
©Christopher Tookey, Daily Mail
Credit: Thanks to whiterose at Viggo Works!
Quote: Cronenberg and Knight portray Britain , once the world's greatest imperial power , as a defenceless victim of immigration that is establishing a beachhead of its own culture on British soil , without any reference to indigenous values. And yet both men are reluctant to adopt an attitude that would challenge unlimited immigration and multiculturalism , and might be construed as unacceptably judgmental and therefor politically incorrect. Fortunately ,original plotting and political courage are not central to the success of this thriller.
Quote: The performance that's a tour de force, however, is by Viggo Mortensen. His role as Aragorn in The Lord Of The Rings has transformed a jobbing, C-list actor into a bona fide star. He was a revelation in A History of Violence, but is even more impressive here, underplaying with the intensity of Brando in his prime. This is brave acting, and Viggo's Russian accent is flawless. He clearly does his homework, and can use his physical authority to lead a very talented cast. This is one of the best performances of 2007.
Quote: Most of his earliest films - from The Brood to Dead Ringers - display a barely disguised sadism. In Crash, he took a deliberately non-judgmental, yet eroticised, approach towards mutilating others for one's own sexual gratification.
(Ummm... he obviously never saw Crash)
Quote: Cronenberg's intention is probably neither moral or humanistic (there seems to be something about blood and brutality that he finds erotically stimulating); but the effect of Eastern Promises is undoubtedly to bring home the nastiness of violence.
And that is moral, humanistic and responsible, whether the film-maker intends it to be or not.
©Focus Features
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