Best movie of this year hands down!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I think this film is a bit under-rated(3.4) Well, first the upsides: The plot is quite good. There is a sad and chilling main story behind, that is genuinely impressive. There is a certain atmosphere mainly depending on the space. It is suffocating and has a morbid effect on the viewer. The children's discretion adds up to the dark aura of the film. This is not the kind of film for an average viewer with an expectation to be entertained; you must have some patience to get some taste. I think it is not a typical thriller/horror film with cliché Hollywood scenes. It feels kind of experimental and some credit must be given for that.The downsides are many: this is also not the kind of movie that can satisfy any good viewer (sorry to say). Despite the toil of all the cast and crew, the result is not bright: -There is a great cast but the acting is somehow missed by the camera... -Although I am a huge fan, I am starting to grow an opinion that Val Kilmer doesn't really know how to choose a right project. Not only is he seen only as long as a cameo, his awesomeness is also totally ignored. How and why his group is dwelling there is a boring riddle that I don't want to solve... -Someone must tell Vincent Gallo that despite having a very characteristic face, being expressionless all the time can only be afforded by great and aged actors... -The screenplay is also bad: the dialogues are not integrated, nor able to add up to anything... -Misleading without intention is frequent. A more dedicated director could have made a great film with this story because here, opportunity to boost the mystery is lost while also some explanatory scenes were omitted as well (such as the revolution incidents) -The motive of the children (are they all children?) is also not clear: is it fear or vengeance or protection or punishment??? Also the sadness of the situation could be emphasized someplace. while a simple reflex of grudge must not be an issue here. -Tension and relief is a chemical must for such movies even for a marginal example. Here both the dialogues+acting and the maze shoots are monotonous. -The relationships between the main characters are totally vague and without any depth. - Just a little more effort on the visual effects could have been much useful. And I don't mean expensive CGI, but some some sweat for editing.Last word: This movie is only for freaks like me who love to experiment and review new possibilities in cinema and choose to waste time on it.

A fascinating concept: Moscow has an underground entrance to Hell that must be blocked off soon to prevent shadowy demons coming into the city. Underground, through tunnels and subways, are the homeless who, if they wander too far, become food for the dark, although this is left to the imagination, largely, through acting and sound that disturb the imagination. Before Hell is closed off by a Muscovite gang, led by Val Kilmer, unorthodox priest Father Owen (Vincent Gallo) must look for an anthropologist who has been seeking the way from the labyrinth back up to a church and is a lost, lone explorer. A small group of rescuers is led by Owen (including guide Joacquin Almeida (Clear and Present Danger), and the elfin Oksana Akinshina (The Bourne Supremacy), who turns out to have a prophetic significance for ghosts of children who were hidden under the church in 1920 with a guardian nun whose spirit advises them, including a lovely little girl in white who is like the good fairy while the other ghost-children, dodging demons, are less congenial, as the hapless rescuers find out. Following the advice of underground boss Tolstoy (Joss Ackland: K19 - The Widowmaker). they penetrate into danger and imminent madness following maps to a maze that don't quite make sense. There is a possibility of happy ending implied, but it is not definite, which some watchers will find disturbing. The hand-held camera-work in the dark is only confusing until you realize that it is exactly what the characters are going through, as they are taken by the darkness and the demons and pursued by the disappointed children who want to be free in the overground.It was a difficult task for actors but they resist a temptation to act big to overcome the limitations of darkness. The discontinuity is real; the unexpectedness is real; the real-time moments are real. Even the talking-to-himself of the object of the search, anthropologist Sergey (Rade Serbedzija: Shooter and 24) feels real. Amidst fantasy, the human situation is real, with no "National Treasure" moments leading to clichéd millions of dollars to send an acquisitive audience home with a warm fuzzy feeling in their slightly-emptier wallets. It is for friendship or fees that the little group go down to the underworld, and the survival of a few - if they do survive - is also very realistic.Vincent Gallo claims to love America and detest Europeans but this film shows his European roots, in the darkness of an older world of faith and conflict that exists just as much under Los Angeles as under the grim fairy-cake of Moscow. A mixture of languages, Russian and English, is also realistic in its awkwardness. This film deserves to become a bit of a cult. It may seem partly Blair Witch Project, or partly film-noir, but it is all worthy, aided by brave, fine actors. And brave they had to be, for a member of the crew died during filming. If you want Hollywood, watch Hollywood. "Moscow Zero" is a brave movie, whatever the faults (real or imagined) rude armchair critics shout about (who have never done anything in their lives but drink coke, eat popcorn and switch on a DVD that was made by somebody else). One critic must have spent hours writing a review that bewailed his 'lost 82 minutes' of life. Blood, sweat and tears movies are wasted on such shallow egotists.I found Moscow Zero fascinating. Even experiments have a purpose in a brave, real world. This deserves respect. I'm glad I have the DVD: I intend to see this movie, again and again, taking in all the details.Of course, it may not be an entirely happy memory for cast and crew, but it is not unknown for those who make a movie not to realize its significance. I may be a minority but I think this one's going to last.Even if it doesn't, here is one who will take it down from the shelf.

Sit in your basement with the light out for an hour and a half. That's about the same as watching this subterranean search for the Devil's door. An American researcher Owen(Vincent Gallo)travels to Moscow and gathers a rescue team to search for his friend Sergei(Rade Serbedzia), an archaeologist who has disappeared in the catacombs beneath Russia's capital city. They will be shocked to discover subterranean dwellers thriving in the dank and dark complex system of caves and tunnels. The searchers will come upon the gatekeeper of Hell, Andrey(Val Kilmer), and will strike a deal to continue their venture; only to succeed in being scared almost witless when realizing they are among walking dead. Also in the cast: Joaquin de Almedia, Oksana Akinshina, Sage Stallone, Joss Ackland and Julio Perillan.

This is by far the worst film i have ever seen it has next to no plot and the plot it does have is very scattered. The story line is lacking in both content, suspense and subtitles, as what would appear to be story line is in Russian. The set appears to be only one room with various lighting effects and at the moment you think something good is about to happen you are let down by the total lack of acting, drama, suspense, horror, gore, story line and mythology. The directing style has been done to death(The fisheye camera). It would seem that the only action in this film is within the last 10 - 15 minutes and the action is made worse by the actors inability to portray the suspense correctly. The only interesting thing about this movie was my dog barking at the surround sound.