Sara

"Sara" is a pretty good Polish crime/action flick. It has what must be a pretty typical Hollywood-type plot, and handles it well enough, but what is more impressive are its shoot out sequences, which are more reminiscent of John Woo.

The plot involves a down-and-out ex-Special forces squad mate, now an alcoholic, who is employed as the bodyguard for a mob boss's daughter. Typically, the daughter hates him at first. Can you guess where this is going? Has there ever been a more trustworthy tip off in a movie that characters are going to fall in love, than them hating each other at first?

What's surprising is that the movie provides frequent nudity from Sara, the mob boss's daughter, but I don't remember any actual sex. It just cuts to straight after it. Is there some Polish restriction on simulated sex in movies?

Of course, they can't let the mob boss know that they've become an item, but you know he's eventually going to find out, and there are some violent shoot outs that are very well handled, and even a surprise ending.

The movie falls short of greatness, though, for a few reasons. One, the titular Sara never emerges with a personality of her own. Pretty much all her actions are dictated by the needs of the plot. Plus, the movie kind of drags and feels overlong at almost two hours.

Still, it's so much better than you might expect, for a violent mafia thriller-cross bullet-fu flick... from Poland, of all places.

I say check it out.