Visitors Review

obeletu (2012-05-26 20:10)

Good actors but wrong storyline after halfway.

Start of the movie look promising with a bit of suspense until halfwaythrough when the "cop" shot his business partner. From then onwards, itwas downhill as good actors try their very best to play roles that werejust not fitting the storyline of the film. Could have been better ifthe "cop" didn't know one of the ladies and had to do some realinvestigative work to uncover them but it wasn't to be and that spoiledthe movie in the end. Knowing one of the ladies ended the film for me,because it meant there was nothing else to happen. Nevertheless, itwasn't bad for a budget film but could have been better with a bit ofresearch on intriguing scenes. The actors in my view were all greatjust the story line let them down.

sunrays6 (2012-05-26 07:01)

A gritty roller coaster ride

Holly (Viva Bianca) is a call girl who is in her last night job beforeshe's going to quit and start a new life in France with her obsessiveclient.Shay (Hanna Mangan Lawrence), a 17 year old who had a troubledchildhood arrives in Sydney for her first night on the job. She facesthe arduous nature of the job (having no money even to eat) - givinghandjob to an old man, jealousy of other street hooker and pimps.Holly and Shay cross paths for a job. When both of them witness amurder by a crooked cop, it turns out to be a cat and mouse chase withunexpected twists.There's a lot of nudity and sexual acts - including Holly's openinglovemaking scene with a male prostitute before the rich middle agedwomen. Though one may get the idea even from the movie poster that thisis an erotic movie, it is more apt to be tagged as a thriller than anerotica. None of erotic scenes are meant for us to enjoy it because theDirector (Jon Hewitt) doesn't wants us to; instead he wants us toconcentrate on the hard-hitting storyline.There is commendable acting by every character involved in thisthriller. And cinematography aids us to glue to our seat. This is anexploitation movie in line with Irreversible (2002) with ultra violenceand sex abundantly thrown in.

Thruxomatic (2012-05-25 13:43)

Above average acting but thin plot and heavy handed directing

Bianca (Holly) and Lawrence (Shay) turn in very decent acting turns asthe jaded pro looking for her exit from the business and the naive,young girl from the sticks thrust onto the street, respectively. Theymake the most of a basically unbelievable plot that relies far too muchon outrageous coincidence to move the story along.Example One: Holly's controlling, abusive boyfriend just happens topick her last night in town to suggest they leave it all behind, justhappens to ask her where she'd go if she had no limits, and thissupposedly streetwise pro who's leaving him behind just happens to bestupid enough to tell him precisely where she's headed.Example Two: Holly's last trick before leaving is a dual job, needing abrunette, but her normal partner just happens to slip in the showerjust before Holly shows up at her flat and is unconscious (dead?) whenHolly arrives. Holly leaves and her cabbie just happens to nearly rundown Shay, who just happens to be brunette, just happens to be aprostitute and just happens to be in town for her first night on thestreet.And the most unbelievable part is that Holly is even consideringturning the trick in the first place! A fellow pro gifts her with a wadof cash as a going away present in the previous scene and she's leavingin only a few hours, so that trick is wholly unnecessary ... but shetakes it anyway.Suspension of disbelief was nearly impossible for me with this script.The movie is further hampered by the cartoonish supporting characters.The male antagonists are little more than brutes with suits, withDocker (Ligurian), Holly's erstwhile boyfriend, providing the emotionalmenace in the beginning and Phillips (Bennett) providing the physicalmenace for the latter half. Both are bad cops, but we never find outwhy, never get any context for their clearly violent natures, and areleft with two dimensional caricatures to work with. After witnessing Bennett senselessly off their john over a drugtransaction that actually went well, the two women flee. With moreunbelievable coincidences at his disposal, Bennett successfully tracksthem down in a city of half a million people, and the latter half ofthe film is him chasing the women from scene to scene, ineffectually,while absorbing a truly unbelievable amount of punishment in theprocess. Just once I'd like to see someone get hit by a car and notwalk away.The rest of the cast seem to be there for one purpose only, toillustrate over and over precisely how naive Shay is. We see an awkwardmoment with a john, an awkward moment with a competitor and her pimp, acouple of awkward moments with a street kid who fleeces her, and anawkward moment with a couple of junkies. This is just plain oldham-fisted directing. Lawrence's facial expressions and body languagetold us that her character was a hick from the sticks in her firstscene. The rest was just superfluous.In the end, the film was enjoyable, however plasticine it ultimateturned out to be, but mostly because the female leads are stunning andspend at least part of the movie unclothed. The growing friendship isclearly the only deep part of the entire movie.Synopsis? It's a moderately exciting thriller, with a couple of verydecent actresses succeeding despite a bad script and some averagedirecting.

eivind-t-giskas (2012-05-25 02:25)

Eh,not worth it...

...because the main problem with this movie is the plot.It is bad andjust a big mess.The acting is below average grade but the nudity isOK.The sex scenes are not exiting but rather boring.The film started well but as the minutes passed,i wanted to press thefast forward button because I was bored.By all means,this is not the worst movie i have ever seen.But withactor like Viva Bianca and director Jon Hewitt i had expected somethingbetter. This movie reminds me of Dane Giraud's "Luella Miller from 2005in a way.There are probably many others who disagree with me but in my view,thisfilm is not even worth the rental time.There are so many other goodmovies in this category.I can mention Djo Munga's Viva Riva,PhillipNoyce's Dead Calm and Giuseppe Tornatore's The Unknown Woman(LaSconosciuta).

samuel_dennis786 (2012-05-22 01:27)

'X' Hits All The Right Thriller Marks!!!

We all remember Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971) or MichaelHaneke's Funny Games (1997) for example, well Jon Hewitt is followingin large footsteps ...He's made a short, sharp and edgy thriller that's as effective andengaging as his Red Ball (1999), which was set in the world of corruptcops. He has retained some of those elements but the central charactersare two women, a 30 year old call girl hoping to start a new life and a17 year old out of towner also hoping to start a new life, they meet onthe streets of Kings Cross where fate awaits them in a hotel room. VivaBianca is vivacious as the blonde Holly Rowe, a proud and determinedwoman who knows how to handle herself after 15 years as a hooker. HannaMangan Lawrence plays the homeless and broke Shay, a vulnerablenewcomer dazed and confused by what she's got herself into.Characterisations are sufficient for the genre and the technicals areall excellent. Special mention to David Franzke and Byron Joel Scullinfor the terrific sound & music scape. The screenplay links the storypoints with an authenticity that's satisfying and the thrills are wellorchestrated, including a couple of street fights, a chase or two andsome dramatic confrontations - as well as a surprise or two, It allcomes together terrifically in a film that while blessed with more thana couple loose ends, still offers a stunning visual and emotionalroller-coaster ride. It takes a while getting started and seems tofollow a particular formula until—BANG! —a gunshot changes everything.X is a mostly-satisfying genre thriller.My RaTiNg- 7/10!!!

brothermarx (2012-05-21 13:29)

I really liked this movie

Sydney's Kings Cross is the backdrop in this solid production with JonHewitt as its director and main writer. Viva Bianca and Hanna ManganLawrence act as the main characters in this revealing tale. However,the nudity is not out of place since the red light district is thefilm's basic setting.Surviving almost 15 years of escort interaction, Holly (Viva Bianca) isalmost 30 years old and solves her complications with well directedkicks and punches. On the other hand, being 17 years old and new toSydney, Shay (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) has not adapted to her newenvironment with its strip clubs and drugs. Frequent close-ups and lotsof bare skin of beautiful Viva Bianca increases the audience'scompassion for her character, and her performance as the tough andresilient Holly is memorable. Hanna Mangan Lawrence's character isvulnerable and in constant danger, but together with Jon Hewittsrepeated use of close-ups she manages to get into the audience'shearts. She is definitely an actress we are looking forward to seeingin the future.Lastly, costume designer Vanessa Loh has also done a great job in thisawesome thriller.

Robert Collins (2012-05-19 06:52)

Another great Australian film that showcases two fearless young actresses.

One thing Australia does extremely well is making movies, it seems asthough as the years go by the films coming out of my home country justget better and better. "X" has a cracking plot, a high class callgirland a young naive streetwalker get caught up in a cat and mouse chaseacross the Sydney CBD and seedy kings cross red light district afterthey witness a murder, the night seems to get worse and worse for themas the film progresses. The filmmakers have done a terrific job with afilm that so easily could have become a cheesy underbelly stylethriller, there's a lot of characterization with the two girls which isa major plus in a film like this, usually it's all just gunshots andrunning.The two lead actresses are mighty impressive, I have never seen thembefore but I was instantly interested in them and cared about thecharacters which is the work of a great actor, Viva Bianca, who by thelooks of her IMDb resume has done a bit of Aussie TV should have astellar film career ahead of her, she was nice to watch and has a verycommanding screen presence, the younger gal, Hanna Mangan Lawrence isalso excellent, she has a great knack for making the viewer want tojust jump into the movie and steer her in the right direction, thesetwo ladies are certainly two actresses that I will be looking out forin the future.The use of seedy kings cross locations was great, it's always cool towatch an Aussie film and recognize the places that they were filmed. Ihope when "X" gets a full cinema release that the Australian public seesomething intriguing and go to see it because it's a film that I thinka lot if people would enjoy.A fast paced thriller set in the sexual underbelly of Sydney is justwhat I was in the mood for when I watched this movie at SUFF, and itdidn't disappoint in the slightest. Go see it people. :) oh yeah, andthe naked guy at the beginning is such a hunk. :)

snlash (2012-05-19 00:31)

Surprisingly Good!

This was one of those movies where you aren't really sure what toexpect when it starts, and it starts out with a sexual scene thatintroduces us to one of the main characters. I watched this with myboyfriend and we both agreed it was a surprisingly good movie, youreally feel for the main characters, and it's a bit of a "heartwarmingthriller". I recommend this movie if you're looking for an action movie withheart, the first 30 minutes are a bit slow-paced and you might wonderwhat this movie is about, exactly. However once the main characterscome together, the plot gets going and there are a lot of nicely filmedchase scenes and a few plot twists that keep the audience interested,both male and female. Ladies, despite the cover and the subject matter, I think women willenjoy the strong sisterly bond between the two main characters and thewarmth and caring in their relationship as much as the men will enjoythe action and ample amount of nude scenes in the film. It wasdefinitely not what I expected it to be!

santronix1 (2012-05-17 06:57)

Plain story but rather good direction

I watched this movie on DVD thinking that it must be rather acomplicated drama but the movie turned out to be better than myexpectation. Even he reviews were less I thought of writing my own. Themovie is basically on the life a small young age brunette who leave herhouse after her mother dies and get tangled in skin business. Thewriter and director has really tried hard to show the real life ofwhores who sell their skin for small bucks and still be competitors ofeach others. From start to end it holds the audience but the end israther usual or depict-able. Perhaps it could have been made better.But as an overall I must say a worth watch! Give it a try!

den_blaa_kop (2012-05-16 16:49)

Viva Bianca is amazing in this movie ...

This movie is just perfect in it's own imperfect way, which I did notexpect it to be... The ending, or at least almost-ending, that is the 2 minutes before theactual last 2 minutes could have been thought out better, but it's notenough to draw down the grade, because everything leading up to thatpoint was perfect... I gave it a 10, judged from the experience I hadwatching it only... I only hope to see Viva Bianca again in similar strong role ... I hadnever heard of her before, but had to look her up, and was reallysurprised to see that she did not have any other real lead roles likethis one... she should have ... I'm now a fan, strong women thatreallyt stands out, but still emotionally touchy, and sexy as hell +authentic all the way = win, win! Just wow! - Helio

kenrickfernandes (2012-05-14 15:17)

Good , but could be better

Well well well , i had a couple of choices of movies to watch tonight ,and i wanted something different .This is an Australian production. Soi decided to pick this movie and watch it . First of all it got theactress Viva Bianca .So if anyone has seen the HBO TV series"Spartacus" , you'd recognize her from there . Without going into toomuch detail , the plot is about too call-girls(hookers) who meet , bychance(fate) and then they see something which ends up making them goon a roller coaster ride . For me i enjoyed it , but not thoroughly . Its one of those movie whichyou are bound to forget soon enough . The acting was alright , and thestory it could have been done in a much better way . There was morerunning around than story telling . However if it wasn't for Vivabianca id probably wouldn't find it so entertaining . The film had alot of nudity , but not enough of violence or abusive language whichnormally helps .It started of well , then somewhere in the middle itgot lost and the ending came a bit too quick as if the movie washurried . Overall , id give it a 5 out of 10

chicagopoetry (2012-05-13 22:16)

A Depressing Yawner

The moral of X seems to be that there is no hope, everyone is bad, youare going to get beat up or killed, you'll have to sell your body for aliving, so you might as well disappear. A seventeen year old girl whoruns away after her mother dies presumably from a heroin overdose,comes to the big city and by chance meets a high class call girl who isdesperate to find a brunette to participate with her in a three way.The gig goes horribly wrong however, when a dirty cop shows up and forno explained reason whatsoever, kills the john and then pointlesslyspends the rest of the movie hunting down and beating up the twohookers who witnessed it, even though they are less than likely toreport him anyway. The call girl happens to be involved with anothercop who wants to take her away from all of that, but of course shedoesn't want to go, and the young girl meets a handsome and kind taxidriver / magician who wants to be her boyfriend, but of course shechooses to remain on the streets instead and give out hand jobs forfifty dollars a pop. Nothing in the film X makes any sense and therereally isn't any plot other than a crazy cop repeatedly catching thegirls, beating them up only to have them escape on him again. The sexscenes aren't sexy. All the men save for the taxi driver aredisgusting. X didn't invoke a single emotion in me (unless feelingdepressed or feeling hopelessness are considered emotions) but it suremade me yawn. Maybe there should be a warning on the label of the videothat it may inspire suicide.