Mentor (2006) Online

I have seen this film twice. While it certainly was not a great picture, it was enjoyable, it was poignant, it was plausible, the young leads were charming, the older man intense. The soundtrack was the biggest minus for this movie, instrumentation harsh & tinny (if that is possible) electric guitar, boiler plate instrumentals would have been better, in my opinion. I've seen much worse. The second time around I paid attention to details I had missed the first time. If I were making the film myself, I would have changed a number of things, but since it has already been made, I have to say I'll even watch it again if it comes around on one of the movie channels I subscribe to.

The main reason I watched this movie was that it had a rating of 9 stars at the time. I figured that it would be a great movie. Also, I like Rutger Hauer, so that made it an added bonus. Well, I was very disappointed. Only 50 people had voted on the movie before I watched it, and they must have all been related to the producer of the movie. In my opinion, this movie ranks somewhere between fair and poor. Rutger Hauer's performance was the worst I've seen by him. It was a tired shuffling through a terrible script, surrounded by third rate unknown actors. I watched the movie all the way through, but only because I kept thinking it would get better and merit the rating. I gave this movie 1 star to offset the 9 star fraud.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS...

It was a mess. I felt nothing but irritation at the characters and the quality of the film,the colors, the costumes, the presentation felt like an movie made several years ago. I didn't feel the storyline added anything new to for us to consider.

The muddled flashbacks were often disorienting.

Yawn. We've seen this theme presented before in a more appealing and skilled manner. It's substandard writing, directing and acting. Each of the the three principals has done much, much better in other roles.

The ending put the final nail in the coffin for me. It was telegraphed too plainly, was too convenient, and left me with a sense of being cheated out of a real story.

I was not invested in any of them.They were just predictably self-indulgent, "angst-ridden" stereotypes in a well-worn plot.

Finally, besides the fact that the soundtrack was driving me crazy, there was the constant smoking. Everyone was lighting up in scene after scene. Dress these characters in dark colors, film them in black and white, toss on subtitles and stir. All the makings of a mediocre bargain-bin foreign film.