User Reviews

Calling this an action movie is a stretch since there are only 3 or 4 very short action scenes all under 1 or 2 minutes. For the most part this is a crime/drama with a lot of people sitting around talking. Armand gets the most screen time. Bolo and Don are wasted. Bolo has one short fight where he throws two punches. That's it.

The cinematography is decent which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. Having this many b movie stars in one place should be a treat, but most of these are cameo appearances only. I ended up fast forwarding through the movie in a futile search for the action. One final note: the climax made no sense any way you look at it. These characters are truly stupid. Skip this and go watch Skin Trade instead.

This is one of those low budget movies some of the talking is dubbed, the acting is really bad the CGI computer special effects are bad, there are a few movie errors, i only gave it 4/10 and I think that's being kind had more money been spent on it with some good actors it would have been a good movie

It's a shame this was Peter O'Toole's last movie. Fortunately he's not in it much. We may have to question his sanity in accepting this role. If your'e a fan of the gold medallion wearing 80's crowd then this badly written cheesy B-Movie is for you. What ever happened to Armand Assante?...this movie is what happened to Armand Assante. All Hollywood producers and directors know Michael Madsen is the kiss-of-death to any movie he's been in since Reservoir Dogs. You'd have to be living in Kazakhstan not to know this...It's bad, really bad.

This is the worst film I have ever seen - even worse than Freddy Got Fingered.!! How did they get Peter O'Toole in this as He died in 2013 ? The film has 2016 in the credits ( It is on Netflix )and 2017 on here (Imdb)

I cant see anything to suggest that the film took 3 years or more to make. It looks like a 3 to 4 weeks job !!

They had a lot of material to work with. It looks like an OK movie ended up on the cutting room floor. The production value was there, the acting and dialogue wasn't great but who cares? It needed at least a few scenes in civilization so the low budget wilderness wouldn't be so obvious. Too many twenty foot high doors being opened by tiny people.

This is just . . . strange, surrealistically bad. It's intended to be (I think) some sort Kazakhstan interpretation of cliché action movie vignettes, woven together into a bizarre concoction of what is supposed to be a story, of sorts.

As a sort visual art piece, it does have its moments. Clearly a lot of work and technical effort went into this production, not to mention a budget to make this possible. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this film is who they managed to get to star in this strange production.

The voice dubbing is beyond comical, but then again, that description summarizes this entire production. Clearly, this is not for everyone, or even that many, but for those looking for a weirdly out of sync, attempted cultural experiment in hybrid Kazakhstan dark comedy filmcraft, this might be your cup of tea . . . maybe.

Rating? OK, 3 stars for effort.

Wow, this is so poorly made it approaches "The Room" levels of unintentional hilarity. Highly recommended if you're on the hunt for terrible movies. Otherwise steer well clear. Terrible. 1/10.

In our time, there are only few movies which has lots of stars of 80s we can see in action. Seeing Bolo Yeung, Don Wilson, Hiroyuki Tagawa and Armand Assante in one movie was so unique experience. Besides this, film is flowing pretty smoothly and I can easily say director Salamat made a promising movie for his first feature as writer, director and producer. 10 from me.

With a talented cast (Peter O'Toole was my main reason for seeing this and it was interesting how his final film and role would fare) and with such a good idea for the story, there was an at least decent film somewhere in 'Diamond Cartel'.

An at least decent film that never comes out. 'Diamond Cartel' could have been far better. No, scratch that, it should have been far better. It could have been a diamond in the rough, it would not have mattered so much if it was not quite a gem considering the budget, but it fails to even be that and it completely fails to sparkle.

Lets start with the few good things, being a fair (or try to be) reviewer who tries to see the good things in bad films. The photography and production design are not bad at all, looking generally colourful and slick. Armand Assante also attacks his role with enthusiasm, he is the actor who tries the hardest, is the least poorly used of the actors and is definitely the actor who comes off best.

Regarding Assante though, it is clear that doing something with what he was given was not easy for him in having to work with such limp and unnatural sounding writing, too many far-fetched and on the wrong side of odd moments and an insipidly written character. In his favour, as said, he was clearly giving it a go and he was not completely wasted.

That cannot be said for everybody else, with the rest of the cast looking uncomfortable and miserable in roles that are far too limited in writing and screen time. This is including Don Wilson and Bolo Yeung, have not seen in a while a film that wastes its cast like 'Diamond Cartel' does. It also has to be down there with the worst final films for any talented actor there is, Peter O'Toole deserved much better than this. There were talented actors that went out on career lows but still managed to be the best thing about the film in question (even the only good thing), Boris Karloff comes to mind. O'Toole was nowhere near close to being as lucky, didn't see the need for his involvement with his role being little more than a useless cameo with embarrassing dubbing that robs him of his distinctive speaking voice. The less said about Michael Madsen's phoning in the better.

The dubbing as an overall whole, as has been said before in previous reviews, is terrible to the point of unintentional comedy. It certainly affects the dialogue, what was already a limp and cheesy script has those factors plus the strangeness and stilted-ness multiplied to the maximum. It also makes it difficult to take any of the characters seriously, a big problem when they were not interesting or likeable in the first place with insultingly stupid character behaviours.

Moreover, the story never comes to life and is far too bizarre and far-fetched. The climax is far from spectacular, it was actually ridiculous beyond belief and not buyable or thrilling for a second. The action is clumsy and very deja vu, complete with confused editing at times. The effects are less than special as well, their slapdash look sticking out like a sore thumb.

In summary, a long way from sparkling or a gem. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Before watching this movie, I had never seen a movie made by Kazakhstani filmmakers before. After watching it, I have no desire to see another effort, at least any time in the near future. This movie goes wrong in just about every area you can think of. The only positive things I can about it is that it's decently shot, has (mostly) decent production values for what clearly wasn't a mega budget, and it has a one in a lifetime cast (though most of these well known actors are wasted in very small roles.) However, the movie is for the most part such a mess, it's hard to get any enjoyment out of those positive features. The story is extremely confusing, as if something went terribly wrong when it was translated into English. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic or interesting, with the only interest being how badly a lot of them are dubbed into English. Also, the movie doesn't know what it wants to be. Sometimes it's an action flick, other times it's a suspense thriller, and other times it plays like a very black comedy. With no constant tone, it's hard to keep your mind focused on what's happening, so much so that you'll start to forget the few coherent story details minutes after they unfold.... and you'll forget the entire movie minutes after the end credits start to unfold. I usually love B movies, but this particular one is really bad, even for my low standards.

Splashy, confusing gangster picture set in Kazakhstan that suffers badly from its director's determination to make the world's coolest movie. It's a mess, no doubt about it, but strangely watchable thanks to its eclectic cast of has-beens and never-wases.