Hope Lost (2015) Reviews

• Arduously slow, depressingly dark and frankly might be too tortuous to watch

  quincytheodore2015-06-19

  You can't fault Hope Lost for not delivering the title. This is not an action or investigation movie, both elements are present here but in very minute scale. Hope Lost is a depiction of human trafficking and sex slavery down to its gritty nature. While I don't object the dark tone in the genre and the film does have a couple of refined moments, for the most parts it's a string of cruel acts towards frail ladies and this is definitely not for everyone. Sofia (Francesca Agostini) is a young woman who is promised fame and job by a stranger, as one might expect this is a bait to lure her into forced prostitution. Almost the entire movie is her struggle, meeting with violent mogul, dubious clients and another of the same fate. For what it's worth Francesca Agostini has performed admirably. Her portrayal of damsel in distress and overall material make it very easy to sympathize with her ordeal. The rest of cast is mainstay of action movie such as Michael Madsen and Danny Trejo. It's admittedly awkward seeing them in such heavy theme, for those expecting over-the-top gunslinging action, there's little to none here. Pacing is rather slow, with large portion of the film spent of twisted deeds. It's not much of detective work either, it may look like noir flick but it provides no in-depth thriller aspect. The film simply portrays the heinous nature of the crime, abundantly so. With tons of malicious scenes, it's really hard to digest. A few of these are realistically authentic, resembling the works of documentary channel, yet it often strays to pointless violence with repetitive torture. It may want to deliver a strong message, although it's hard to see the film be accessible to casual viewer or even fans of action or crime genre. The good acting and sense of realism might earn merit, but with such horrendous displays of cruelty, Hope Lost is clearly not for casual consumption.

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• Worth the effort of a negative review..

  Morhawkee2015-06-18

  Sorry, to all involved and to those who like me, decided to watch this till the end. Micheal, what the eff dude! Mischa, what the eff? Why?!?! Anyway, I turned it off at the abortion scene, and for an awful reason decided to continue watching it. Nope. Nothing more to see. I can appreciate the artistic nature of all film, especially this one, but dude... I don't know man. I don't know. Mindboggling. How it started, and where it went, and how it ended, are you trying to depict real life? Well real life doesn't blend well with classic movie twists. Pick one. Argh!! Dude, I'm actually upset at the makers of this thing now. The more I think about it, the more I want to punch something.

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• Entertainment?

  m_lecarre2015-06-18

  I cannot understand why or how anyone would give this movie a rating above one. It's a movie that I'd perhaps expect to be asked to watch if I were taking a degree in clinical psychology or had any interest in the workings of a psychopathic mind, which I do not. Dark not noir-dark, just dark and depressing. I don't particularly seek out stories that help me maintain a rose-colored outlook on humanity, but neither do I seek out movies that portray only the darker side of a certain type of life that surely exists but thankfully one that I don't have to embrace in any way. There was not a single character in this movie that one could either sympathize or empathize with in any way whatsoever and that doesn't make for an interesting or engaging movie. Sewers and sewer rats exist, psychotic people exist, sick lives are lived, but why make a movie about any of that? I watched the movie based upon another review which was very positive and I see that the review has a lot of likes - all I can say is that's sad. Basically a very disturbing and sick story which, although well-acted, will very quickly be forgotten. It's like a garishly over-the-top remake of a low budget 1950's or 1960's Italian B 'horror' movie but takes itself seriously. Times and tastes change but not always for the better; we went from 'The Hills Are Alive . . .' (hum the rest - it's okay) to 'The Hills Have Eyes' - into this kind of social cesspool movie. I always try to find some redeeming quality in any movie I watch but in this case I can't say anything good about it.

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• Unredeemed Violent Porn

  alanaronald2018-05-26

  This film should be trashed, as it's trash. On the pretext of "exposing" human sex trafficking, we are given a blow-by-blow litany of degrading images of sadism. Michael Madsen and Mischa Barton must be either desperate, desensitized and swimming in a spiritless artistic swamp or deranged. Maybe all three. What a terrible reflection on our society that this is portrayed as "entertainment". Shameful.

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• Just WOW!!!

  wishmaster_bs2015-03-19

  Honestly, first I think HOPE LOST is another cheap flick with some B-Movie Stars (You know: Danny Trejo and Michael Madsen). But the surprise was big, very BIG, when I realize that HOPE LOST is far away from a cheap flick. In fact HOPE LOST is pretty good and delivers more as just sex and violence. From the beginning to the very bloody end tells the movie a good story and delivers some very deep and believable emotions. Main actress Francesca Agostini is great as Sofia, but the real show stealer is Alessia Navarro as a female client of Sofia with a war background – her strong performance is just WOW!!! And the stars? Everyone of the famous faces delivers also a good performance: Mischa Barton is very strong, Michael Madsen is very evil, Daniel Baldwin is very sadistic and Danny Trejo is very frighting. HOPE LOST is truly a great movie – highly recommended and so much better as many other movies out there!!!

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