Paradox Effect (2023) User Reviews

Manages to feel far too long despite its mere 88 minues

[claus-83096 · 3/10 · 2 June 2024]

The plot is very run of the mill. There are no real surprises, just one twist (which you see coming a mile away). Ex-junkie starts out as meek, afraid, begging for her life and incapable. But as soon as her daughter is threatened, she becomes a SWAT-level weapons expert, taking down criminals in hand-to-hand combat and dropping bad guys left and right.

The male lead is equally one-dimensional and unbelievable: interpol cop who took down a crime boss is now being extorted to commit crimes and is suddenly willing to commit multiple murders and threaten the lives of every single person he encounters throughout the movie.

And Keitel's character is a horribly stereotypical crime boss who sits around sucking down cigars and whiskey while "philosophically" musing nonsensical about life choices.

The writing and acting is bad to mediocre throughout. But worst of all: it's just boring and pretentious. Rating is clearly manipulated with all the fake "10" votes that had this movie at a whopping 7.8 which is how I was tricked into watching it. And already down to 6.1 after I watched it even before my vote of 3. Predicting it will drop off a cliff before long.

Bad riding character development

[eprusulis · 3/10 · 2 June 2024]

It's so excited to see this movie because I love Olga. She's one of my favorite actresses. I've loved everything she's done. The writing for this movie was terrible. Whoever wrote for the actor who took over his character hostage should go back to writing characters. Basically all he did was yell and threaten her yell threaten her. She don't get them away now I'm gonna shoot you if you don't do this. I'm gonna shoot you go no I'm in the whole movie. That's always Bill screaming at her or threatening to kill her Separating work person

The other thing is, it's understandable that they took his son, but how does he become a code from being a interpole agent to threatening to well trying to murder a woman who just happened to see him when he shot that other guy in the back in the beginning of the movie How old is character comes from becoming this week pathetic ex junkie who does not stand up for herself in the beginning with even with the guy he hasn't give her a weapon so she's like All the sudden by the end of the movie she's jumping over cars, knocking people out killing people with the gun just very disappointed in her movie.

A dull action thriller...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 2 June 2024]

I had not heard about this 2023 action thriller titled "Paradox Effect" from director Scott Weintrob prior to sitting down here in 2024 to watch it. But I figured that I would give it a go, since the cover looked interesting enough, and the movie had Harvey Keitel on the cast list.

Samuel Bartlett, Ferdinando Dell'Omo and Andrea Iervolino wrote a script and storyline that started out okay, but then fell into a slump about halfway through and never recovered. The movie trotted on in a monotonous pacing without really going anywhere. And it felt like I was sitting through a long sequence of filler to make the movie run for 87 minutes. There wasn't much story progression to the narrative in general, and that made sitting through "Paradox Effect" rather tedious and boring actually.

And you don't really care much about the characters in the movie either, as the character gallery is flaccid and one-dimensional.

While Harvey Keitel is on the movie's cover, he is but a name to lure in the audience, as he is not in the movie all that much. I am not particularly much a fan of Olga Kurylenko, but she actually carried the movie well enough, make it a bit more bearable to sit through the monotonous narrative.

I found "Paradox Effect" to be a disappointing movie, and it is definitely not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. There are far better action thrillers out there, but if you enjoy the genre perhaps give director Scott Weintrob's 2024 movie a chance.

Sitting through the 87 minutes was a bit of a test, as there wasn't all that much story progression, and without much of anything overly interesting happening, it just wasn't anything to write home about.

My rating of "Paradox Effect" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

Wake Me When It's Over!!!

[ThatMonkey · 3/10 · 4 June 2024]

Ok, I didn't fall asleep, but this was painful to watch. Another reviewer said it felt long despite being 88 minutes and I have to say, I was convinced this was 2 hours or more.

I'm American and tend to only like American films, but I saw The Courier a year or two ago and Olga was great and the film was far better than it should have been. Gary Oldman brought his game and I thought Harvey would do the same here.

The plot was weak and I found it hard to care about any of it or the people involved and of course, everybody was stupid and made the wrong choice leading to the overall mess that this movie was.

No idea what the budget was, but this movie was so bad, Matt Damon couldn't have saved it.

Smartly done slow paced action thriller.

[toonarly · 10/10 · 3 June 2024]

Not the usual fare as far as action movies, a young mother is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets trapped in a rather unique situation that seems at first like a hostage deal for lost drug money and then changes to something far different, very believable story, well acted and told. Nothing questionable, no nudity or graphic violence with exception to a scene where a persons fingers get cut off. Put yourself in Olga Kurienko's (Karina) place as she navigates her way along without getting herself killed or her daughter as well from a violent drug kingpin out for revenge. After all is said and done , what happens at the very end will surprise you. Fun slow burner movie, don't expect a lot of action, chases or any of the usual Hollywood stuff, this one was well written and directed and actually feels realistic without all the flash. Enjoy.