Den of Lions: Movie Review

Starring: Stephen Dorff, Bob Hoskins, & Laura Fraser

Produced by Daphne Lerner & Gabor Varadi

Directed by James Bruce

The tagline on the back of the DVD for Den of Lions is Passion, Betrayal, and Deception. Well as the musician Meatloaf says, two out of three isn't bad. Watching this movie, I felt completely betrayed and definitely deceived as it did not live up to the full-throttle action it promised.

The story centers on undercover FBI Agent Mike Varga (Dorff) as he infiltrates the Russian Mafia in Budapest in order to help bring down the criminal kingpin Darius Paskevik played by veteran actor Bob Hoskins. Throughout the film you are led to believe Dorff's character, Varga, is working both sides of the fence, and you never really know where his loyalties lie.

Enter Paskevik's daughter, Katya, played by Laura Fraser. Naturally Varga falls for the Mafia leader's daughter creating even more trouble for him. You would think this would make things more interesting, but the story continues to drag from one tired movie cliché after another.

I would not say this was a low budget film, but it did not exactly come across as a high quality action thriller. What money they did have should have been invested in better editing. At many points throughout the movie it looked like the film had been spliced together with tape. It was choppy and many scenes were hard to follow. There were also several glaring inconsistencies that should have been edited out as well. My favorite was when a female captive was shown tied up with a piece of tape over her mouth then there was a cut away to a car chase. When she was again shown, she was completely free of her bonds. After another cut away, she was again shown completely tied up. The film was filled with mistakes such as this.

The DVD has no special features to speak of. It offers captions and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. There are not even the usual director's comments, but with a film this poorly put together I can understand why.

If you combined the story lines of the films Donnie Brasco and The Bourne Identity and then really dumbed it down, you would get Den of Lions. Stephen Dorff, who is a decent actor, just does not have the charisma to pull off a leading roll. This movie in no way lives up to its billings as "High-Stakes Thrills" and "Full-Throttle Action". I would have to recommend leaving Den of Lions in the clearance bin where it should be, and not adding it to a personal DVD collection.

Special Features

Caption and Subtitles in English, French, and Spanish

Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound

Shown in Widescreen format