Soldiers of Fortune

Movie Review: «Soldiers of Fortune».

English Title: Soldiers of Fortune.
Production: USA, 2012.
Release Date: 07.06.2012 (Kuwait), 03.08.2012 (USA).
Russian Distributor: KaroProkat (19.07.2012).
Official Website:
Genres: Action / Drama.
Director: Maxim Korostyshevsky.
Starring: Christian Slater, Sean Bean, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney.
Running Time: 94 minutes.

Such a crew in the Soldiers of Fortune film is introduced by Charlie Bewley, Sean Bean, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames and Dominic Monaghan. The latter was born in Germany, but is now known as the English actor, who took part in The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) trilogy and in the Lost (2004-2010) series on TV. The three leading actors recently visited Moscow to present the action flick, where Christian Slater gave warm attention to his fans and Sean Bean signed dozens of autographs. Ving Rhames even gave some out right after the welcoming speech on the cinema theatre’s stage. The whole company of the characters in the plot is trying to bring the most out of their backgrounds and some dark secrets. Best war training is demonstrated by Sean Bean easily handling any weapons, since his Roman is on the look for precious rare earth metals on the island.

Having lost the protection of the armed escort, the tycoons find themselves in a real war zone, though not only their lives bother them. Soon enough they submit a desire to intervene in the unfair dictatorship rule. Its only weak spot is the Lupo’s daughter named Magda and played by actress Sarah Ann Schultz, who is trying to inherit her own father’s cruelty. Stories of all the characters are uninspiring and bland, so the dramatic element of the plot does suffer greatly, especially when Christian Slater’s war hero loses his importance as an army veteran guide, what soon makes his meaning questioned. Yes, he was hired just as an instructor, not a war mercenary designed to kill the enemies, but still a lot more could be brought out of him.

Russia has filled the crew of the Soldiers of Fortune film with both the cinematographer Masha Solovyova and costume designer Natalya Sokolova, who has made the colorful uniform for Lupo absorbing war fashion styles from various historical eras and world regions. However, it wouldn’t help a movie that cost around 8 mln. USD, what is simply not enough to buy adequate weapons, rent cool armored vehicles, pay for eye-catching stunts or spectacular controlled explosions. It is even less than needed to construct a dictator’s palace on the set to make it a place for one final assault. The most unconvincing thing here is the supporting crowd. Lupo’s henchmen all behave like low-tier action villains taken out of 1980s shooting civilians and getting killed afterwards.

In the filmmakers’ list you could find many Russian names, but there is also Joseph LoDuca – a famous American composer, who has written another high-quality soundtrack for this movie. He is widely known for the works contributed to the fantasy TV series such as Hercules: The Amazing Journeys (1995-1999) and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001).

GameScope Verdict

Too many problems plague the new Action titled Soldiers of Fortune. Many of them come from a poor and undeveloped script, whose writers failed to create a good vivid story of a confrontation between an amateur military unit and a professional army of a dictator living on a remote island. When the dialogues and interaction between the characters fail, it is even easier to understand that it is, probably, an impossible task to make required special effects nowadays out of a small allocated budget. Therefore, all the gaps are partially covered with professional actors giving out all their enthusiasm to make this film at least somewhat better.

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Soldiers of Fortune Film Trailer

Movie Score by GameScope:

5.0 / 10