Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2017
Images from the Internet
Diamond Cartel
Directed by Salamat
Mukkammed-Ali
Cleopatra Entertainment / Shoreline
Entertainment / BES QARU Films / MVD Visual
77
minutes, 2016 / 2017
It’s
always nice to occasionally get the chance to review a straight-out action
flick, especially if there’s some chop-chop added in. But first some very quick
background… Mukkammed-Ali is from Kazakhstan, part of the former Soviet Bloc. He
started out as lead singer of a Kazakh rock band called Enoch, and then segued his
way into television production, and then finally into film.
His
first film, from 2015, was called The
Whole World at Their Feet. This was then re-edited and is now being shown
in the West as Diamond Cartel, a much
more palatable name for a violence-focused part of the world (ours).
 |
| Armand Assante |
One
aspect that makes this stand out is the sheer star power behind it in front of
the camera, with the likes of Armand Assante, Peter O’Toole (his last film as
he passed in 2013; here he looks feeble and older than his 81 years), Michael
Masden, Bolo Yeung (aka “Chinese Hercules,” who has aged phenomenally well for
his 70 years), ex-basketballer Tommy Lister, and Don “The Dragon” Wilson, among
others. All but two are basically cameos, but still. Assante is one that lasts
throughout the feature.
Nearly
all of the dialog is dubbed into English, including the English speaking
actors, but actually it is usually done quite well in the foreign-to-English
actors, though sometimes dodgy in the English-to-English, such as Masden and
Assante. Lister is given a bit of a stereotypical “Black slang” voice, which feels
odd on so many levels (I almost expected him to say, “Yo mama!”).
The
plot is both simple and complex. An international criminal named Mussa (Assante,
often wearing a jacket with bare chest underneath, ironically appears and sounds
a bit like Sylvester Stallone, as they played brothers in 1995’s Judge Dredd). He’s ready to pay $30
million for the Star of East diamond, in US$10,000 bills, no less.
 |
| Kadygash Mukkamedzhanova |
After
double- and triple-crosses, young lovers Aliya (Karlygash Mukkamedzhanova) and
Ruslan (Aleksey Frandetti, dropping a young Keanu Reeves vibe complete with whoa-period hairstyle) are on the run
from both ruthless sides of the diamond sale equation, having absconded with the
diamond and the cash, as they drive through
Kazakhstan with the others in pursuit. But it’s Nurlan Altaev as enforcer Arman,
who is a childhood friend of the two runaways and is now one of the parties
chasing them, that steals the film in his cool clothes and mostly stoic stance;
he plays his emotions very subtly here.
The
story is a bit convoluted, and the dialogue is quite overwrought, but
all-in-all, it was pretty enjoyable. There is lots of primary references
throughout the film, such as Scarface (1983),
I, Claudius (1976), Sergio Leone
westerns, and a subtle nod to Bruce Lee’s The
Way of the Dragon (aka Return of the Dragon,1971),
but especially True Romance (1993).
 |
| Nurlan Altaev |
There
is a lot of action going on including some martial arts, but mostly it’s gun play
of various calibers, with people getting blown up good, real good, from a variety of weapons. Most of the blood and gore is
digital, and it certainly looks digi, but there is a fair amount that is
unexpected, pretty graphic, and made me smile.
The
physical artistry of the film is nicely handled, such as the camerawork, the
lighting, the editing, and the framing of shots. There are also some nice
visual, digital effects used to warp the image at times, or change hues. But I
do have a multi-fold complaint and that is mainly with the sound. There is a
segment in which the sound is reverbed and hard to make out, and even though
the dubbing is well handled relatively speaking, the tone of the dialog is
flattened so everyone sounds like they’re at the same level, whether close to
the camera or not. This took me a bit out of the story, especially the echoing segment.
Most
the acting is pretty typical for Asian dramas: lots of wide eyes showing
emotion, or cool-as-ice anger. Aleksey and especially Mukkamedzhanova fall into
the former, and Altaev excels in the later. O’Toole looks like he’s just barely
conscious about what is going on around him, but the over-acting award
definitely goes to Assante who looks like he is trying to top Pacino at his
most manic as Tony Montana. Often it comes across as clownish, but part of that
may be the overdubbing of his voice, which at the very least contributes quite
a bit.
Even
when holding back, a lot of the high drama acting of most of the characters is
kind of like horses straining at the rein, but again, that’s pretty common in
many Asian action films. This story plays more like something out of China or
Japan than from Soviet influences that I’ve seen elsewhere, which tends to be
more towards the understated.
There
is a nice and varied soundtrack that runs through, from metal and punk, to
noise and more soothing, background type stuff. Some of the bands included are
Christian Death and Anti-Nowhere League (Animal was actually quite nice when I
met him in the ‘80s, but so what, I digress…).
The
extras are a noisy kind of black metal/rap-ish thingy by DMX and Blackburner, a
2:43 slideshow of clips, and the trailer. Oh, and chapter breaks, of course.
So,
you may be asking yourself if this worth the investment of your time? Well, if
you like crime and/or action films, yeah, it is. There are at least two nice
shoot-em-up set scenes and some cool car chases and crashes. But the real
violence is held for the guns, which is done kind of imaginatively, even though
shooting from a motorcycle sailing overhead has been done to – err – death.
Not
as gritty as some of the Japanese crime dramas, but there is a level of glee
that you can share with the action. In other words, if you don’t cringe at
Assante’s emoting, then you most certainly will get a good contact buzz off
whatever it is he seems to be on.
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