"Diamond Cartel" (in original "Diamond Cartel"\ Diamond Cartel) is one of the most serious attempts of Kazakh cinema to enter the world film market. What does the film’s colossal budget for this state say? Debut director Salamat Muhammad-Ali I searched for investment for my project for a long time and fruitlessly. After a persistent search for investors and distributors, luck smiled upon him in the person of a famous businessman and producer Dauren Moussa, with the help of which it was possible to involve a whole galaxy of foreign film stars in the film, such as: Armand Assante ("Road to Eldorado"), Peter O'Toole ("Lawrence of Arabia") Michael Madsen ("Mad Dogs"), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa ("Mortal Kombat") Olivier Gruner ("Chemist"), Don "Dragon" Wilson (episode "Bloody Fist"), Bolo Yen ("Enter the Dragon") Tom "Tiny" Lister Jr. ("Fifth Element").
Despite the fact that many foreign stars took part in the film, the main roles were still given to Kazakhs. The role of the main character, the girl Aliya, was played by a young actress Karlygash Mukhamedzhanova. According to the director, he insisted on the approval of this actress. Armand Assante, who had previously met her on the set of another film. And her partner was played Alexey Frandetti.
When the decision was made to release the film on the world film market, it took quite a long time for the world to finally be at its feet. Post-production, editing, dubbing and negotiations with distributors took the filmmakers several years.
A big achievement was passing American quality control. To do this, it was necessary that the film meet high requirements for sound, editing, color correction and image quality. Soon a contract was signed with an American company for a guaranteed amount of $10 and sales to 000 countries, including the USA and China.
And indeed, the results of the efforts were noticeable even in the trailer. The high-quality picture and “star” cast raised the level of expectations for the film and did not in any way betray the Kazakh production. However, so much time passed between the trailer and the release of the film that the project fell out of sight for a long time and was simply forgotten about. But still it reached the viewer.
The idea for the film came to the director’s mind back in 2001, but Salamat was not yet ready to shoot a full-length film. He was just studying big cinema, filming videos, studying modern production technologies and dramaturgy. Filming began in 2011, during the life of the legendary Peter O Toole, for whom this film turned out to be the last in his career and life. He passed away in 2013. Filming ended in 2012, but the film was released only in 2017.
The plot centers on a classic love story. The main character Aliya, on the first day of work as a croupier in a large casino in Almaty, falls into financial bondage, allowing one of the clients to win a large sum of money in just a few hours, after which she is sent straight to the carpet of the cruel owner of this very casino - Musa, played by Armand Assante. He invites her to “repay the debt” in a very indecent way. Musa's assistant Arman comes to her defense, telling his boss that he will not allow the girl to be abused, and takes her into his group as a professional killer. Against the backdrop of these dramatic events, murky criminal intrigues and conspiracies take place, the search for the legendary diamond takes place.
Stars of the East and other storylines introduced only to somehow justify the presence of foreign casting.
It cannot be said that the plot and script here are original, but there are many examples among modern action films that support the thesis: the main thing is not what to shoot, but how to shoot it. The presence of good action often makes up for the lack of a good script. Neither "Raid"Or "Ong Bak"Or "John Wick" cannot boast of original content; they attract the viewer, first of all, with high-quality fight scenes.
In the case of the Diamond Cartel, the situation is different. The director clearly decided to mix different genres and global trends in cinema, but it turned out quite chaotic. There are elements of action, drama, comedy, which makes the film lose its integrity. And in the end, after watching, the viewer may have only one question: what is this film about?
Most likely, the logic of the film was eroded by long post-production. It seems that some scenes were filmed, re-edited, the screen time of some characters was increased, others were reduced, and the result was a vinaigrette.
There are a lot of characters here, but most of them were invented only to add even more pathos to the film, and each one is given an undeserved amount of time, as if the director, like a caring father, did not want to deprive any of his brainchildren of attention, contrary to the laws of drama.
"Diamond Cartel" - this is a very “Indian” movie: hypertrophied emotions, infantilism of the characters, pathos, costumes with capes, close-ups of stern oriental faces... The only thing missing is songs and dances. Stylistically, the film is somewhat reminiscent of the works Robert Rodriguez with its inherent black humor, absurdity, trash and frenzy. But the director "Cartel" I decided that drama wouldn’t hurt here either, and thus signed the verdict on my film.
If we talk about the characters, the charismatic Armand Assante and his Musa will certainly stand out among them, but only due to their acting and natural charisma. The character himself is quite weak and is a collective image - a kind of sophisticated villain who plays the piano in between (shout out to Lance Henrikson from "Hard Target"). It also looks quite impressive on the screen Murat Bisenbin, playing the role of Cube, a trainer at the school of killers. The rest of the star characters are here just for furniture and for big names on the poster.
There is little action in the film and for the most part it is shot quite formally. The shooting, explosions and other effects here are done on the computer, although some action scenes are filmed live. The director was helped in this by two of the best stunt teams in the country - "Leader" Alexandra Terekhova and "NOMAD" Zhaidarbek Kunguzhinov. As for the expected martial arts scenes, there are essentially none. And this despite the presence of two kickboxing champions in the cast! As it turned out, Don "Dragon" Wilson и Olivier Gruner here they are just “for company” and their screen time is limited to a couple of minutes. Something similar to a fight is performed only Armand Assante, Bolo Yen and actors who have nothing to do with martial arts.
All the invited guests turned out to be just an enticing maneuver to make the poster shine, sparkle with star names and overshadow the extremely dubious content. As an action movie, the film does not compete with other representatives of the genre, but as a drama, it causes an attack of facepalms in the viewer. The humorous component is primitive.
And all this is filled with a simply unimaginable level of pathos with a lot of really stupid and meaningless conversations, foul language, logical inconsistencies and unjustified cruelty.
Pros "Diamond Cartel" still there is: this is a high-quality picture, good camera work for which Pavel Kazakov was responsible and star actors, for whom half of the budget was clearly spent. But with so many negative aspects, everything good in the film is negated.
Be careful! fight-films.info warns!
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Tags: Alexey Frandetti, Armand Assante, Bolo Yen, Diamond Cartel, Diamond Cartel, Don Wilson, Karlygash Mukhamedzhanova, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Madsen, Olivier Gruner, Peter O'Toole, Salamat Muhammad-Ali, Tommy "Tiny" Lister
Tags: Alexey Frandetti, Armand Assante, Bolo Yen, Diamond Cartel, Diamond Cartel, Don Wilson, Karlygash Mukhamedzhanova, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Madsen, Olivier Gruner, Peter O'Toole, Salamat Muhammad-Ali, Tommy "Tiny" Lister
How do you have the patience to watch such crap?
Eh, sorry. I was hoping to see Bolo. Although he understood the groundlessness of such hopes. Moreover, after the last film with him, I don’t remember, also Kazakh, it seems. Also lost for many years.