I caught this film's screening at the Greek cult film festival. I was shocked and amazed to see such a movie being made in Greece, today. Greece has no tradition in gangster films, let alone films featuring 70-year old stars in "Tony Montana wannabe" roles.
OK, lets start with the direction and the photography: There are hardly any well-composed shots in the film, just hand-held camera work that fails to create any suspense or realism. The director has some potential (we have seen far worse out there) but doesn't seem to be making a serious effort or displaying any imagination at all. The photography is often so dark that does not allow the viewer to tell what is going on in some of the night sequences. Charlie's Son looks like one of those shitty straight-to-VHS movies of the 1980s.
The story and screenplay- total rubbish and full of plot holes. No balance between the characters and no development. Charlie's character is stupid and one-dimensional with constant yelling and cursing. The dialog (and a few unnecessary monologues) is painfully bad. There even some lines that are trying to be funny (in the Tarantino way) and the results are disastrous.
The acting is bad beyond belief... Georgitsis in his 70s won't convince anybody as a ruthless, murderous, dope-dealing gangster. Specially when he is constantly overacting, cursing and screaming, speaking really bad English and even having a hilarious sex scene with Katia O Wallis- the female lead who is also unbelievably BAD... Kostas Voutsas is so old and fat that he cannot even speak, let alone move. Giannopoulos and Athina Papa are the only good actors in the movie but even they have some really bad and fake moments- blame it on the director. The supporting cast delivers terrible performances as well. The guy who plays the title character has the same, stupid facial expression throughout the whole movie.
It seems that Charlie's Son is trying to be a little bit of everything: A bit of Tarantino, a bit of 80s video rubbish, a bit of Scarface, a bit of "Spirtokouto". It could only work as a revival of the 80s video rubbish. If you see it from such a point of view, it can be fun. That is why i am giving it 3/10.
PS: Shame on the makers for including footage from John Woo's THE KILLER.
OK, lets start with the direction and the photography: There are hardly any well-composed shots in the film, just hand-held camera work that fails to create any suspense or realism. The director has some potential (we have seen far worse out there) but doesn't seem to be making a serious effort or displaying any imagination at all. The photography is often so dark that does not allow the viewer to tell what is going on in some of the night sequences. Charlie's Son looks like one of those shitty straight-to-VHS movies of the 1980s.
The story and screenplay- total rubbish and full of plot holes. No balance between the characters and no development. Charlie's character is stupid and one-dimensional with constant yelling and cursing. The dialog (and a few unnecessary monologues) is painfully bad. There even some lines that are trying to be funny (in the Tarantino way) and the results are disastrous.
The acting is bad beyond belief... Georgitsis in his 70s won't convince anybody as a ruthless, murderous, dope-dealing gangster. Specially when he is constantly overacting, cursing and screaming, speaking really bad English and even having a hilarious sex scene with Katia O Wallis- the female lead who is also unbelievably BAD... Kostas Voutsas is so old and fat that he cannot even speak, let alone move. Giannopoulos and Athina Papa are the only good actors in the movie but even they have some really bad and fake moments- blame it on the director. The supporting cast delivers terrible performances as well. The guy who plays the title character has the same, stupid facial expression throughout the whole movie.
It seems that Charlie's Son is trying to be a little bit of everything: A bit of Tarantino, a bit of 80s video rubbish, a bit of Scarface, a bit of "Spirtokouto". It could only work as a revival of the 80s video rubbish. If you see it from such a point of view, it can be fun. That is why i am giving it 3/10.
PS: Shame on the makers for including footage from John Woo's THE KILLER.
