Very disappointed :(

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The acting in this movie is really good.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

My girlfriend is Bulgarian so I've traveled to the city of Sofia many times and often watch films that are shot in her home country because the nature there is very pretty and it's fun for me to recognize some of the sights that we've been to together. Even though I had read reviews of this movie which warned the reader to steer away from it, for the most part, I already have quite low expectations when I watch films that are shot in Bulgaria, because they usually have a very low budget and star B list actors. So because of that and the aforementioned emotional connection I'm always very forgiving of them and since I thought it might be nice to see a film which was shot in Sofia that's also actually set there, I figured it can't be as bad as all that and decided to watch it all the same. Boy, was I wrong. This movie was just awful. Bulgaria is absolutely nothing like it's being presented in this film. It seems to me the director mixed up Sofia with Istanbul or some other Arabic city. I've been there a lot and I have never come across people selling Arabic clothes on the streets or seen any local bars with belly dancers. In fact, of all the major European cities I've visited, Sofia probably has the smallest Muslim population of all, but they make it appear like the larger part of its inhabitants are Muslims and because of that, terrorists apparently use it as a base from which to attack the rest of the continent. The score also mostly consisted of Arabic music, which only served to further misinform the viewer about what the city is really like. I must confess that I was so annoyed by all of these misrepresentations that I couldn't pay attention to the story at all. Maybe if you've never been to or know anything about Bulgaria, or Eastern Europe in general, you can still enjoy watching Christian Slater and Donald Sutherland in this, but please keep in mind that Sofia in real life is nothing like they make it out to be in this movie. I read one review of someone saying that he had no idea Bulgaria was so culturally diverse, but that he should have guessed considering its proximity to Turkey, so this film has already completely misinformed him and I just wanted make a little contribution to try and prevent it from doing any more damage. If you'd like to watch a movie which is both shot and set in Bulgaria and that represents the city more accurately, I can recommend "Doubly Identity" with Val Kilmer. That definitely also has its flaws (it represents the country as being under military rule but is set shortly after the fall of Communism to make that more believable), but it's still much more truthful than "Sofia" AKA "Assassin's Bullet", which, of course, isn't very hard considering that they got pretty much everything wrong in that. The films which are shot there but supposedly take place in America are actually way more truthful to what the country is really like, since Bulgaria in real life is just as western as any other member of the European Union.

Not being satisfied with killing the western genre, Christian Slater turns his sights on spy thrillers. Slater plays a former FBI official who now works at the US embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria. There is a vigilante assassin of "bad" Muslims that for some reason is a problem. We get to see that the killer is a dark haired woman.In order to get Christian Slater back into the FBI business, the film incorporates the acting of Donald Sutherland, Hollywood's go-to guy for black ops since "JFK." In addition to the killings, the movie centers around Slater's obsession with a red headed belly dancer and a psychologist talking to a blond woman who teaches English.The film gives you clues and key plot points almost in a manner of "Student Bodies" with a big arrow and the word "clue" by it. The camera will zoom in and pause to let us know the director thinks his audience is composed of idiots. Slater was unconvincing. Elika Portnoy was boring. This is not an action thriller, but a poorly developed drama/mystery.On the plus side we did get to see some of the old architecture of Bulgaria.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, no nudity, minor bed scene.

A mysterious assassin is killing terrorists in Bulgaria, terrorists that not even the Americans could find.Slater's character Robert, a former FBI agent now in charge of language instruction (?) at the US embassy in Sofia is charged by the ambassador to investigate. Otherwise, he ambassador doesn't care about a whole lot about anything, he's just there to live the good life.Robert is joined by two of Sofia's finest who clearly are up to no good. His best friend is a therapist with whom he visits bars with bellydance shows on a daily basis. Eventually he falls for the least attractive dancer. One of the Dr's patients is an English instructor traumatized by a terrorist attack as a child.Meanwhile there are two more killings and Robert has very little to go on but some symbol on a grainy photo. By sheer chance he sees the symbol and goes in pursuit.I did want to like Assassin's Bullet. It is filmed in Bulgaria and makes use of the city, but not enough. Direction is pretty good and so is the cinematography. I usually don't care for Slater but here he does a good job, and of course Sutherland is always awesome. The main story itself is alright. But clearly they didn't have enough budget. The movie is short and there are far too many scenes in the bar as well as of therapy sessions with the teacher. More story was needed, more killings and more characters as well. The whole investigation with the dirty local cops doesn't go absolutely anywhere, but it should. Roberts bizarre chance encounter with the symbol is just impossible. The relationship with the dance doesn't really amount to much. At least there is some mystery around the identity of the person who hires the killer for the missions. The motivations of the killer are also worked out well, but the ultimate explanation about the killer is always a bit problematic, perhaps it could be handled better and it would work.It is a shame production didn't give this movie what it needed to be good- a larger script, more budget, more characters. This movie could easily have been enjoyable and entertaining. As it is though it's a missed opportunity.

This is one of the best movies in recent decades, all the fuss about movies like Shawshank Redemption being on top, this is the real Oscar contender. His captivating role in this film builds up such an enticing atmosphere, by his role, you all know who I'm talking about. The Slater. The S Man. The one actor that should get the Oscar. No. That DESERVES an Oscar for his award winning performances in movies such as this, and the classic Lies and Illusions. Which I also gave a 10/10. No surprise there. Anyway, this is one of the best films of our generation. And I haven't even seen it! 10/10.CS