Fantastic!

Crappy film

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

a very dark tale about lost hope and entertainment. that's it. the characters are all driven into the same goal, so we can relate to them easily. i think the main character was presented too slowly but i didn't mind much. i also think they played too high with the probabilities - i have doubts if anyone could be so lucky to survive 3 times to this - but in the end that's gibberish . mostly because its main idea is nicely explored, with logic, and with worries to relate the viewers to the characters.it has a huge dramatical atmosphere, the viewer feels the pressure of the characters, we got scared with the light, the movie is not amazingly surprising but i did like the ending, and it proposes some questions to us: why the hell do we have people capable of kill and die basically for nothing? who are the viewers of this show, making bets, rooting for the "athletes"? i think the answers for both is "us". now we are at the viewer side, comfortably sit, while we see people killing each other on the screen. but we'll we have our sofa forever? if we become desperate is it impossible for everyone to do this? don't think so.an accurate social commentary, with a well-built tension and characters we can understand. great cinematography also, and overall a very good movie. go watch it, you won't regret.

13 Tzameti is brilliant; the cinematography was exceptional and the characters were all well written and engaging. I cannot recommend this film enough.Those of you interested in checking it out should be sure to hit the special features for an absolutely hilarious little short film entitled Sunday's Game. It was a witty little gore-fest featuring a group of adorable little old ladies gossiping, sipping tea and playing an ultra bloody game of Russian Roulette! Brains and doilies never looked so good! If you're thirsting for something new and different and you're able to watch black and white films with subtitling than look no further than 13 Tzameti. I know many people out there don't do B&W nor are they fond of subtitles but I highly recommend giving this film a shot. I don't think you'll disappointed with this fantastic bit of French / Russian cinema.

While this is a simple story of behind-the scenes crime and gambling, it required above average acting for it to work. The actors do not disappoint. While the lead actor is excellent, just about everyone including the "brothers", the master of "ceremonies", bring out multiple facets of the characters in an unbelievably watchable way.The tension and relief are quite visible on most faces on consequent occasions - but the tension and relief are different for the different characters. This was the challenge for the actors and they have excelled.In order to truly appreciate the movie, one must be 1. mature. 2. able to imagine oneself as the different characters.

To some degree, everyone understands that there are universes that run parallel to the more-or-less civilized reality in which most of us go about our daily affairs and that these parallel universes are often as near to us as the other side of a car door. Parallel realities in which various laws or social norms are ignored and in which everyone's general health and well-being aren't necessarily the top priority.And while the shock value of '13 Tzameti' will depend on any given viewer's understanding of the sharp difference in sensibility that will so often characterize the inhabitants of these alternate worlds, newcomer Géla Babluani's second film is nonetheless a compelling parable about the other side of the car door.It is rather a precipitous plunge into just such a parallel universe by a young French handyman that is chronicled in this picture's evenly-paced 93 minutes runtime. The handyman, Sébastien, is making repairs to a beach-front home in France that is owned by a man of some means who has just returned from a trip. But something is wrong: The man is in a state of near total exhaustion. The police are watching the mailbox and the owner's wife is fit to be tied. The only clue as to the man's considerable distress is a letter that arrives before the police can intercept it and which ends up in Sébastien's hands. In it, cash is promised to the recipient for following mysterious instructions requiring travel by train. When Sébastien's fee is jeopardized by the chaos, he endeavors to prove he is the world's stupidest Frenchman by pretending to be the intended recipient and following the instructions himself.Without giving away the form Sébastien's nightmare actually takes in the film, suffice it to say that it is stark indeed.A warped sense of accountability came to define the world of Enron's top officers when that company imploded.Al Capone's parallel universe of speak-easies can be described as one in which Prohibition didn't matter.In '13 Tzameti,' we encounter a culture of behavior more typical of the Roman Empire – one in which human frailty has become a matter for sport.And like the makers of 'The Blair Witch Project,' and 'The Deer Hunter,' what Babluani knows about the horror of stories like these is not the physical peril itself, but its embrace by the weakened and beaten minds that could once have been allied against it. That's what really gets your skin to crawling: collaboration.The French Resistance shaved the heads of Nazi collaborators after World War II and it is fitting that in this French film, the question of collaboration, ultimately, elevates the theme above one of a mere "ain't this awful?" Will Sébastien be a shaver or a shav-ee? A question made all the more important as we learn in the film's DVD release that the story is rooted in real-life accounts of actual events.Shot entirely in black and white, '13 Tzameti' occasionally feels like the graphic novel Frank Miller might have authored had he grown some sense for nuance: The more intense a scene gets, the higher the contrast. At its best, the effect is one of universality -- at worst, an unpolished amateurism.The director's young brother, George Babluani, plays Sébastien and this conceit could have cost the film its authenticity. Despite an expressive face that conveys an interesting mix of intensity and innocence, the younger Babluani is out-acted in nearly every scene that counts and especially by the more experienced Aurélien Recoing who has over 100 films to his credit. Perhaps it is by virtue of the fact that George is playing an inexperienced outsider in this story that he gets away with the performance he provides.Ultimately, what '13 Tzameti' does best is what so many good independent films do and that is to consider topics and themes that go unexamined in the mainstream market.At the very least, after watching this movie, you will think twice about which car doors in life you decide to open.This movie review by Erik Gloor