Review of 13 (2010) by Maksim B — 10 Oct 2012

Gritty, graphic, dumb and absolutely suspenseless, 13 is a painful movie to watch and an example of how bad a Hollywood re-make of an European movie could be. With no real story, with pace-killing anti-climax and shallow dialogues, this movie watching this movie is almost an unbearable effort. Even for those who are prepared for bad movies, for the sake of experience what a bad movie is.

Based on the original Georgian movie 13 Tzameti, by the same director, this remake has nothing in common with its cult predecessor. This is quite surprising as Gela Babluani is the director of both movies and it raises the question how is it possible the same guy to make the same movie, but with totally different final result.

The story goes about a young soon-to-graduate electrician, whose family is experiencing serious financial problems. Vince Ferro (Sam Riley) decided to follow a letter he steals from the home of dead heroine-addicted and this unleash what is meant to be 60 minutes of suspense. Ferro finds himself in a deadly Russian roulette game created to entertain local rich guys. In quite a gritty atmosphere, Gela Babluani starts to build up the tension, but somewhere after the first hour the movie starts to fall into the ditch of mediocrity. Despite the depressing cinematography and a cast (Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone) which knows how to play bad and crazy guys, 13 stumbles in the final part. All the suspense and sharpness are lost and this leads to the very unsatisfying and unrewarding end.

13 is a movie which better be skipped. A good photography and setting, top actors and a cult original predecessor are not enough to safe this delivery from being not only a total disappointment, but a complete waste of time.