Bound to Vengeance

Bound to Vengeance_360P

Wow, I was going to give this movie about 5 minutes before turning it off and chalking it up as another dumbed-down "girl-turns-tables-on-psycho" movie, but this was a pretty good film for the budget. Now, you have to get past the obvious view that contacting the police would have probably been a safer play . . . but trust me, just accept the fact that she is on a mission, and enjoy the ride. Tina really sold this movie playing the part of Eve. I mean, this is one scary and intense girl! And for once in this genre of film, you actually buy the fact that she could control this guy. Watch out for Tina because she can act and she is "stop and stare" beautiful. Richard was great as the bad guy (good to see him back on screen) and the supporting cast of victims/survivors were all competent in their roles. The directing by Jose Manuel Cravioto in his first English language film (I am assuming) was excellent. Pretty good stuff. 5/10

Saw this at the IMAGINE film festival 2015 in Amsterdam. To present my end conclusion upfront: I left disappointed. The very original plot elements could have made this film stand apart from others in the genre, where usually men are the ones in control and the women suffer. Plus that none of the rescued women thanked her, was a novel plot element too. But it could have been so much better, given all these ingredients. The core of the story, that Eve did not get the thanks she really deserved, is very clear, overly clear in fact along the remainder of the story after having freed herself. Even worse, all her well-intended actions to set the other captured women free, backfire one after another. If she had decided to be selfish, it would have prevented all the fallout we saw now, all pointing to her as the aggressor and guilty party as soon as law enforcement would get involved. In other words, if she had not gone to the trouble of rescuing all the others that were held captured, she could have lived happily ever after. I hope not to have read a morale between the lines here, nor a takeaway message. As a side note, I was particularly annoyed by the repetitious flashbacks with more or less the same images over and over again, showing Eve on a fun-fair with her boyfriend having a good time together. Along the story we get hints that the boyfriend played an unclear role, maybe not directly responsible for her abduction, but got heavily involved in that line of business later on. He insists, on the other hand, that he has searched her for half a year, and lost his job and house in the process. The fine details of what he precisely did (or not did) are not revealed to us. Could have been interesting, but this plot element was dearly missed too.

Yes, there were some interesting things happening in this short (119 mins) low-budget indie. The best part is the opening. It is brilliant. This film basically starts where other films end, that is, with the captive in a white-trafficking ring getting free. That might sound simple but to see it played out is brilliant and astonishing. This reviewer is of the view that many of the insanely positive reviews of this film were because the reviewers were so taken with that opening that they were more forgiving of what comes next. What comes next is simply standard low-budget indie fare, that is to say, scenes shot in little or no light; weak dialog, weak acting, strange camera angles, the whole 9 yards. The many flashbacks, shot with "normal" lighting and in a "normal" environment are designed to provide counterpoint to the horror that the protagonist finds herself in. Yet in reality they simply make the viewer pine for better light and more predictable direction. Other reviewers make a huge fuss about Imlev. In fact she carries the role and works competently with the terrible dialog she is given, but Meryl Streep is not losing sleep over this actress. Which is not to say that given a proper film with a proper script she may yet be able to shine. She looks and sounds like a young Helen Hunt (a plus) and she can clearly handle physical acting (another plus). Bottom line: the opening is so clever and so unusual that it colors everything in the movie that follows. However in the cold light of day the rest of the movie is essentially one big letdown.

It's not often that I see a movie that surprises me. I watch many independent movies, and after a little research I give a new one a go. I didn't expect much with this one, but it had one recognizable name in it who I thought was pretty good (Richard Tyson). He turned out to be pretty good as expected, but the real stand out was Tina Ivlev. It was basically her movie. I never heard of her, but looking her up I saw she had quite a few bits on TV. She was also in a TV movie called Death Clique. This girl really rocked in this film, and portrayed subtleties that acting veterans usually can't pull off in facial expressions and action sequences. The subject matter is fairly dark dealing with the human trade business, so you have to be prepared for that subject matter going in. Of course it's a retribution flick by the title so for me those are always interesting. The main reason I gave it a 7 is because of Tina's great performance, but I felt the overall production merited a 5 or 6. Still very worthwhile for VOD, DVD, and select theater viewing. Nothing over the top here, just a few gritty performances by the main characters.

Greetings again from the darkness. In the 1980's this could have been the second film of a drive-in theatre double feature. In the 1990's, Richard Tyson could have been cast as the bad guy. Well, it's 2015 and one of those things has happened anyway. It's a low-budget direct-to-video thriller that would easily fit in with the numerous 'hot girl kidnapped' movies over the years – except for one very welcome change: this girl rampages like Charles Bronson. Tina Ivlev plays Eve, a girl chained in the basement of a house and held hostage by Richard Tyson's Phil. One evening, Eve greets Phil with a brick upside the head, and just like that, the tables are turned … Eve takes off on a combined mission of revenge and rescue. See, Phil has been the leader of a group of kidnappers and sex traffickers, and Eve wants to track down the others and set them free. The movie starts with some joyous smart phone video footage of Eve, her apparent boyfriend and another girl whose identity is not discovered until late in the story. This footage is interspersed throughout the film as Eve makes her way between the various locations. It's an interesting touch by director JM Cravioto and adds complexity to what could have been a straightforward movie featuring Eve's journey. We have seen Beatrix Kiddo and her mission of revenge in the Kill Bill movies, but of course, it's more common to see the victimized girl being rescued by a strong and do-goody man. That man doesn't exist in this world. It's all up to Eve, whose sword play may be non-existent, but her desire to kick ass is as strong as any other on screen character, including The Bride.

I am a horror movie fan so I am not an easy audience to please and this movie exceeded my expectations. Story is about a girl, who is kidnapped by a sexual predator, and refuses to be one of his victims. She manages to break free and starts saving other girls captured by the same man. Directing is very good and the storyline is easy to follow. There were some scary moments in the movie and suspension is also OK. The movie is not predictable like many others from the same genre. The girl (Tina) who is playing Eve, not only that she is smoking hot, but also has some serious acting skills. She is very talented and I would definitely love that Hollywood gives her a chance. Great horror flick, I give it a 8/10 score!

Ten minutes into this film and you already know it's garbage. The captive konks her captor out with a brick and escapes. So far so good. She gets outside and notices the house is in some desolate area with no other houses around, just cacti and sagebrush and maybe a lizard or two. So she yells for help anyway. Who's gonna hear that and respond? A coyote? If her captor did get free at least he knows now where she is. Then the most ridiculous thing happens - she goes back into the captor's house and takes a shower! What?! You should be looking for help, not preparing for a beauty shoot! Why clean yourself when the police would need to see the bad shape the captor put you in. I'm also sure no captive would want to go back to face their captor. They'd be too traumatized to even be in the same room with him. The filmmakers needed to show why the woman had no choice but to go back and force her captor to help her. BTW, that neck noose thing she made was brilliant. At least she gets points for that. Not!

WOW...Let me first start off by apologizing, I just got finished watching this movie and am just blown away, I'm in awe...I do not know any of the people who made this movie and if you click on my name, you will see I am a real person and this is NOT a fake review like a lot on IMDb..this was THE BEST MOVIE I have seen all year..If you like action, revenge, horror, or thriller movies, I think..NO..I KNOW you will love this movie too...THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED IN THEATERS! WOW, I will not give anything away, JUST GO WATCH IT NOW! The acting was great, the story was very original, I have seen A TON of movies, and I have never seen anything like it...Im not sure who the director is but if you are reading this...BRAVO..PLEASE make more movies...And everyone reading this, GO NOW and watch this movie..It was absolutely FANTASTIC...You will not regret it!

What COULD have been a decent movie was entirely ruined purely by sloppy writing. Nuts and bolts wise it had enough going for it to be a decent and entertaining Indy type flick...could even have become a cult classic if there were not SO many entirely needless unrealistic components to the script! All that was needed was anyone with a GOOD imagination so that what was transpiring MADE SENSE! And particularly an ending that didn't leave a viewer (like me for instance) shaking his head in disbelief that a MORON was allowed to RUIN all the good effort that went into the film! Whoever botched this all up and I would have to think HAD to have ignored suggestions to fix it, richly deserves to be taken and tortured as much as us viewers have collectively been! GRRRRR! Or for all I know maybe some moron holding the purse strings got his or her mitts into into it...but SOMEONE really REALLY screwed this film up righteously!