The early 90s were a magical time for action movies. Each week something new was available at the video store featuring guys like Roddy Piper or Mark Dacascos. Plus, the movie theaters were still being flooded with films from Stallone, Van Damme, and of course Schwarzenegger. Most of these movies featured simple premises, non stop action, beautiful love interests, and plenty of machismo. Enough with the lists, you get the idea. Every now again, one of these action flicks would dance into our beloved genre when their featured antagonists would act a bit more gruesome than some of the others like, one of my favorite examples, the Steven Seagal vehicle Marked for Death. Each one of these 90s action movies were swift and fun, a feeling I don’t think has been re-captured ever since.
Black Rose is the feature directorial debut of former Mr. Universe Alexander Nevsky, star of Moscow Heat and Showdown in Manila. No stranger to the action genre, Nevsky taps into the spirit of those 90s action movies for this film. Black Rose is about a Russian Police Major who’s brought in by the LAPD to find a serial killer who’s torturing and killing Russian prostitutes in Los Angeles. Nevsky also slips into the lead role of the Major who’s partnered with one of LA’s finest, a police officer played by Kristanna Loken.
If the plot sounds pretty cut and dry to you, it is. In some ways, that works in the film’s favor. Running at a breezy 78 minutes before the credits, Black Rose delivers all the necessary action beats in rapid succession. Once the Major is introduced, bullets start flying in Moscow and continue on when he’s brought to LA. Despite having a tried and true premise, I was never bored. Nevsky has some skills behind the camera and has a real knack for directing action. He keeps each scene, whether it’s an action scene or a exposition scene, moving along like a filmmaker who really understands pacing.
That said, there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of b-roll and stock footage shots of LA an Moscow that fill out the runtime. I wouldn’t be surprised if the film lost 15 minutes or so is all that stock footage was cut out. Every exterior is established. Every cut features some stock footage either one of the major cities. I don’t know if this was a deliberate choice to fill run time or if the filmmakers thought they really needed to establish time and place with each scene.
The acting here also leaves a lot to be desired. While Nevsky really understands timing as a director, he’s not very good at it when acting in a scene. Each line he delivers comes off so confusing. Sometimes he’s smirking when talking about a girl’s murder. Other times he looks so stone cold serious, you can’t read anything off of him. Loken does a fine job as his partner, but the script really doesn’t do her any favors. She’s got nothing to do here. There’s a tacked on element of a developing romance between the two leads in the last five minutes of the movie that’s just so painful, I wanted to scream.
Robert Davi (Remember that guy?) shows up and get’s to do his angry police captain thing here. Instead of yelling at the Major for using his excessive “Russian” tactics, he encourages it though because he thinks America has “gone soft” and that the “criminals have more rights than the victims” these day. Yeah, it’s one of those kind of movies. I think these ideals are what traps this movie in 80s/90s action movie mentality. Anyway, the real standout in the movie is Adrian Paul who still really isn’t given much to do, but gives it 110% as the police officer who thinks LA doesn’t need someone to aid the LAPD in their investigations. Guess how that all goes down. You probably have the ending already figured out.
The serial killer character in the film is what really makes things dip into our genre. He’s brutal and there’s some pretty gnarly neck slice effects in the movie. He’s a creepy killer who leaves a calling card with the titular black roses. The film really basks in the torture scenes and the blood flows pretty freely. Those scenes are probably the most cinematic in the film since the film looks more like a TV movie than a feature. It’s mostly well shot though for what I assume would be a smaller budget. The score of the movie is pretty fun and is what really keeps things moving along in the scant run time.
Overall, the film is well enough made and features a heavy dose of 90s action movie nostalgia, but that quickly wears off when you realize the film isn’t really doing anything new. The script is thin, but Nevsky does a good job of moving it along quickly. The acting leaves a lot to be desired unfortunately. Nothing particularly makes this film terrible, it’s just not very interesting. Horror fan would enjoy the film’s serial killer. This makes for a forgettable watching experience, but one I don’t necessarily regret. If you happen to catch it, it’s not the worst way to spend, say like, a Sunday afternoon.
1.5/5
Check out the trailer here:
Black Rose is in Theaters on April 28th and on VOD and DVD on May 2nd.
Watched this movie
once , it was scary experience.