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Frontier(s)

Frontier(s) (2007)

July. 01,2007
|
6.2
|
NC-17
| Drama Horror Action Thriller

A gang of young thieves flee Paris during the violent aftermath of a political election, only to hole up at an Inn run by neo-Nazis.

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Reviews

Spyan
2007/07/01

I don't think this movie is worth reviewing but I wish the note on IMDb was lower (in no way is this worth 6.3), so here goes my two bits; As many of the negative reviews point out, there is not a single idea in this film that I haven't seen in better movies. The "plot" is a carbon copy of TCSM, used as an excuse to paste scenes ripped off from here and there. Pros : the settings are not too bad, but the film is structured like a (terrible) video game, the environments keep changing so you never get to delve into/care about them. Half of the time they are ruined by very poor lighting anyway. SOME of the actors were OK (talking about the 3 main bad guys), but they were overdoing it in every single scene (+the dialog was ridiculous, it sounded fake, rehashed and written by an 18 year old). LeBihan almost looks embarrassed in some scenes, seeming like he's wondering what the hell he's doing here. Cons : the plot was a mess, and boringly predictable from beginning to end. The editing (especially during the action scene) was obscure and random. Not a single cast member (apart from the aforementioned 3) could act. To an annoying extent. Most of them, especially the protagonists, rake on your nerves by constantly trying too hard. For 1 hour and 40 long, loooong minutes. Exhausting. The director was clearly aiming for "gritty realism" but the numerous flaws and inconsistencies of this film and it's general immature feel keep pulling you out of the movie. During the final scenes (which are ludicrous), it seems like the whole cast just gives up in a big "hell, why not" and then stupidly shoot at furniture for 5 minutes. That's what I call an FX budget well spent, exploding onions and plates are so interesting to look at. And don't even get me started on the spastic antics and retarded overacting from the lead during the last final half hour.Add a mindless idiotic "social/politic subtext" implied in a total of three minutes in the whole film you get a and you get a piece of amateurish crap that takes itself way too seriously.A bland, by the numbers, done-a-thousand-times cringe fest that lacks talent and ideas overall.

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Michael Blackpaw
2007/07/02

I'm a big fan of horror films, and I can safely say that this film only comes across as mediocre in it's genre. But, having spent a mere £1 on the film, which was given to Cancer Research UK, I've got no complaints, and I'm sure the money will be going to good use.The film opens with an interesting back story about riots caused by recent political issues. This is actually quite thoughtful, and could have been very interesting to explore, and could have made the film very thought provoking. But no, the director decided to use that as nothing but a story to get the film started, and isn't actually referred to much, if at all, after the opening of the film.So now that we've already lost out on the interesting story, what have we got to salvage? Thieves that got caught up in the riots, trying to escape, and finding free accommodation. Now it's turned into the French version of "Hostel", it's not going to get any better. Especially when they introduce the people the main characters will have to run from: cannibalistic Neo-Nazis and cannibalistic Neo-Nazi prostitutes. From then on, the story turned from interesting to truly surreal, and not in a good way.Gore was clearly a point they aimed to put first, yet, despite the rather grim cover, there wasn't as much gore as one might think. The scenes that were violent, were hard to watch at times, but very few of these scenes actually turned up. This is good in a way, because it means that while the film definitely belongs in the torture porn genre, it still builds some sense of tension, which is always a good thing in a horror film.The tipping point for me that truly spoilt the film was the section in which one of the characters acquires a gun, and begins having firefights with the cannibalistic Neo-Nazi prostitutes. This is living proof that one should never attempt to shift from one genre to another, because it will kill the tone that has been painstakingly built up by the film. Horror is good, and works, and would have worked for the ending of the film. Going from horror to action is pathetic, and, if anything, doesn't go at all, and completely destroys any good views of the film.However, despite my slating of the film, it is the sort of film one could watch easily as a bit of evening entertainment. The acting is solid, and shows that the actors themselves have some ability in spite of the pathetic story. One should also bear in mind that the lines in the film were quite well written: it was the plot that needed an overhaul.

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CinemaClown
2007/07/03

Churned out by the New French Extremity Movement, a new wave of French horror responsible for extreme classics like High Tension, Inside & Martyrs, Frontier(s) arrives as another one of their features that aims to break all barriers of censorship or morality by exploiting every taboo subject that's available, but fails to achieve the same impact as its better counterparts.Set during the violent aftermath of a political election in a near-future France, Frontier(s) concerns a gang of 4 young thieves who decide to run away from Paris with a bag full of robbed money in order to start a new life. While on their way, they decide to check-in at an inn near the border to spend the night but end up discovering that their hosts are actually a group of sadistic cannibals of a Nazi family.Although the film offers sufficient amount of disturbing content over the course of its runtime, the plot isn't as effective or sturdy enough as it was in Inside or Martyrs, and it is pretty much a disappointment in every filmmaking department. What's even more absurd is the use of Nazi angle to justify its violence because Nazis are inhuman beings after all, by nature or by default.Direction is a letdown, screenplay is an abomination, cinematography isn't that bad, characters are stupid, performances are over-the-top & violence is mercilessly brutal although not that effective. On an overall scale, Frontier(s) is a blood-soaked gore fest which happens to be political & psychotic at the same time but its poor execution of the available resources never really lets the story take off in the first place.

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GL84
2007/07/04

Trying to escape a local revolution, a group of thieves escape the city and arrive at a secluded motel in the countryside to regroup, only to stumble upon the sinister truth about the owners there and try to get out of the area alive.Overall, this was a very interesting if flawed effort as there's some great stuff here and some really troubling stuff. The troubling stuff isn't all that damaging yet features prominently in the film, mainly the fact that the film's several big action scenes are edited with the ultra-annoying and jarring quick-cut editing that renders the whole scene nearly impossible to make out, as if it had a chance with all the camera-jerking and shaking going on. This one, then, features both tactics during these scenes, and they're the big action chases so those are supposed to be the sequences you want to see, so it knocks itself down a bit for that. However, the rest of the film is highly entertaining and utterly enjoyable starting off with the introduction of the Nazi family which is pretty chilling given the relationship with the group, and their series of chases and confrontations are quite fun. As a bloodbath, it's got a lot to like as this one really lets it flow numerous times with it's graphic depictions of bodies getting torn open, dismemberments, decapitations and more, which are pretty realistic at times and generate a lot of fun. As well, there's some nice suspense at times included within, with one stand-out sequence where several victims crawl through an increasingly narrower tunnel guided only by a cigarette lighter and see they're being chased through by something or someone, and they're mixed nicely with the dirty, depraved goings-on to create a rather fun entry that happily stands among the good new French splatter-fests.Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and a clothed sex scene.

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