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Cast: Brett Goldstein, Natassia Malthe, Howard Marks, Michael Maxwell, Sam Page
While partying in a seedy nightclub, David (Sam Page) momentarily loses track of his fiancée, Georgie (Natassia Malthe), who gets abducted and turned into a sex slave. With his criminal father (Michael Maxwell) unwilling to help, David desperately sets out on his own to find and rescue her. Throughout the course of this dark thriller, he discovers disturbing family secrets and joins forces with a man searching for his sister.
I was looking forward to checking this out, the box-art really grabs your attention and this is suppose to be based on actual events which makes it that much more interesting. The story is about David and his fiancée, Georgie who wants to meet David's father before they get married. So the two travel to Spain where his father, a gangster and womanizer lives, but the night before she is to meet him she gets drugged in a local club and kidnapped to be sold as a sex slave by a crazed Russian who thinks hes an Arab, this guy is sick and twisted and even though he doesn't have much screen time it is easy to tell that he is no one mess with. Anyway, David attempts to seek help getting Georgie back but no one seems to care so he decides to snoop around and find her himself. That is pretty much all you need to know going into this, after setting up the story and after Georgie gets taken there really isn't much to talk about because David is just busy running around looking for clues to her whereabouts. There has been many films like this one done before, some better some not. I would say "Slave" falls is a decent but not an exceptional film, the plot certainly could of been better as far as developing the characters more and adding more suspense but I have seen worse plus this was Director, Darryn Welch's first feature film behind the camera so I see his future projects only being better. Sam Page and Natassia Malthe do a fine job as the leads and they show good chemistry together during the limited screen time they do end up having with each other, but the star that steals the show here is Michael Maxwell who plays David's corrupt father, he really sinks his teeth into the role and makes this man as realistic and believable as possible.
As far as the production values go they are pretty good for an Independent film that was obviously shot on a limited budget and the cinematography is very good capturing many of the beautiful locales. Could "Slave" of been better? Yes, but if you like the genre I still recommend picking it up to watch, it does have some redeeming qualities and the climax though predictable is still suspenseful enough to get the blood flowing a bit. Just don't go into this thinking you're going to see a life-changing film and you should at least have a good time watching it, plus it does make you think after it is over about these sort of things that go on in the world around us. As far as I know the DVD only comes with the Trailer but like I said before the movie only is worth a watch. You can add the film to your Netflix account or purchase it HERE.
Released by Phase 4 Films/Lightning Entertainment
** 1/2 Out Of *****