User reviews

A great soundtrack. A thrilling story with a good pacing. Good stylish cinematography well directed. I cared about the main hero and the people around him. Although the main hero played just OK, the supporting cast did a very good job. This is one of those few rare gem non-cliche movies.

The Whiskey Robber tells the story of a cultic bank robber in the '90s of Eastern Europe. It sounds a bit boring? Well, sometimes so is the movie - but luckily you can always find joy in the details. One can only praise the work of Nimród Antal and his crew, they did an exceptional job with turning around a plot that would otherwise settle down outside the action scenes. Superb sounds and music, great cinematography, costumes and locations providing more insight to the story than the conversations. Basically this movie could be about anything - a milkman or an insurance broker - it would still be interesting.

Quality made Hungarian heist movie from director Nimrod Antal, who has made many other decent action movies before. This is not a masterpiece, but certainly quite a lot better than other run of the mill heist movies out there. Dont shy away by the fact that it is a Hungarian picture, this heist flick can stand the comparison with any great American heist movie. Honestly.

It's an underdog story, based on true events, about a Hungarian kid without any money or a job, who starts robbing his first bank out of sheer need for money. His first heist goes smoother then expected and he gets the hang of it. His many succesfull robberies become a national Hungarian media spectacle and he sort of becomes a Robin Hood. It's even more fun to watch, since this all has actually happened for real.

The photography, editing and soundtrack are all of high quality. I mention these technical details because many action movies just dont get the filming of action scenes right. This one fortunately does though, resulting in really suspenseful, action packed chase scenes. With good acting to top it of. Like I said it is certainly not a masterpiece, but it is really an enjoyable underdog heistmovie, which deserves more attention from the true heist movie fan, because it has all the ingredients I could wish for in a good heist movie.

Nice hungarian movie with. More attention to details...: the Opel Astra Police car 441BIT witch is crashed during the pursuit, reapear at the end of the movie when Whisky Man is arrested :))

'A Viszkis'/'The Whiskey Bandit' is a biographical crime-thriller written and directed by Nimród Antal and stars Bence Szalay as the notorious 1990s folk hero of Hungary, Attila Ambrus, who committed 27 bank and post office robberies from 1993 to 1999 until his eventual capture. The estimated amount of money stolen is more than 100 million HUF (approx. half a million USD) at the time.

Nimród, who I am a huge fan of after first seeing his acclaimed existential thriller ('Kontroll'), establishes the atmosphere of this immaculate thrill-ride right in the opening tracking shot of Ambrus committing one of his robberies after a shot at the local bar. What the director does so well is achieving a rather heartfelt childhood backstory to this character thus providing a deeper understanding of the Robber's motive. He was an outcast, an underdog. Then he became an antihero. We could interpret this film in a way as a coming-of-age drama, or a deeply affecting tragedy, but eventually it is a highly compelling true story.

On one hand 'A Viszkis' is a thorough character study, a suspenseful crime thriller and a heartbreaking social commentary. For one, Bence Szalay's fully embodied central performance and screen presence is undeniable. The gripping robbery scenes, the well-choreographed action sequences and the aggressive, cynical humor might just very well please the popcorn audience, while the conventional non-linear narrative actually serves a thoughtful purpose of navigating between good and evil. Moreover the production design is pleasantly convincing, the visual effects are top-notch and the mesmerizing cinematography elevates the film from its true crime counterparts. (There is no denying of how gorgeously this film is shot, I can tell you.) Operating with clichés like raised in a broken home, immigration to an other country without papers OR money and telling a non-linear narrative after the capture could have come out terribly wrong in the context of the film. Nonetheless Nimród accomplishes the same sort of sympathy for the Robber as was (and has been) felt by many Hungarians back then, still he never indulges in glorifying his deeds. The popularity of this individual in the public eye is derived from the fact that many had financial difficulties after the fall of the communist block. The Robber was a symbol of daring to spit capitalism and the banking System in the face.

However Nimród has never been as much of a compelling writer as an outstanding director when it comes to storytelling. Despite achieving terrific visually aesthetic heights, the second half of the story drags a little leading to certain side characters' motivations not making much sense - meaning the character development of the detective and the love interest. By no means does the film become boring. There is a certain amount of investment in the protagonist established in the first half. On the other hand the second half loses some steam down the road despite its spectacular action sequences. For example in one particular scene the actual motivation of the Whisky Robber is explained to us which could have been cut out entirely since the film has already made that clear minutes ago. I believe some scenes could have been easily cut out to tighten the structure. But maybe I am just nitpicking.

In the end 'A Viszkis' is a masterpiece of a film. Flawed? Yes. But still an unforgettable cinematic experience owing to the fact that the filmmaking elevates the source material with exceptional energy, stunning action, confident and passionate direction and a powerhouse central performance.

I like based-on-true story movies. It was a nice story but poorly filmed.

Suprisingly good, i tought to myself.. is this really a hungarian movie? Well made well acted.. Story is good, music is also top, can you ask for more? No, i think it was a top 10..

I think this is a very well made movie. It's not just very well directed but it successfully creates the authentic Hungarian/eastern european '90s atmosphere. It's amazing how authentic this picture feels. The casting is also amazing. Bence Szalay in the lead role just feels so natural but all the others are doing great. The director Antal Nimród is simply the best Hungarian director these days.

As a side aspect of the movie (in the first quarter) it portrays the vicissitudes of being Hungarian in Transilvania especially during the Ceausescu era.

I was truly surprised with the movie. I read the book first, and loved it, so when I saw there is a movie based on it, my first thought was "No way it can be good, simply because so many things happen that there is no chance they put all that on the screens, and if they omit something, then it's not gonna be good". Turned out I was wrong. Yes, in comparison with the book, the movie is simplified, some events and characters are omitted, but still it was a beautiful watch. I enjoyed from the beginning till the end, almost unblinking.

Is a very-very good movie! I loved it! I'm Hungarian! / Ez egy nagyon-nagyon jó film! Szerettem! Magyar vagyok!

I had high hopes for this movie as it was finally the return of Nimród Antal to European cinema after 15 years of Hollywood. It seems now that those 15 years have taken a great toll on his storytelling, because he managed to turn an extraordinary life to a boring movie. The only reason I kept watching is because I visited Budapest recently, had a great time there, and wanted to see if I could recognize some places.

A Viszkis is a predictive movie full of expected twists, and the director doesn't leave you guessing at any time. New characters and items that are going to be used later are introduced in the most obvious way possible. There are many cringy scenes and phrases which make this movie an insult to one's intelligence. Basically the audience for this movie are 12-year-old kids who love action movies.

In the end this was a huge disappointment after Kontroll.

The presentation of the story is amateur, there is no character developement, the main actor is not believeble, action scenes are filmed and edited badly, there is no drama, sound is missing. This movie could have made a good movie if correctly approached: the lack of sound, music gives a low budget amateur feeling to the entire movie, we could have seen a true 90's party, vacation scenes, get and insight how did the main character lived and spent the money. The issues start with the main actor who is not a clever, cool guy, doesnt have an understanding how to be a 90's daredevil, too young to have seen how people acted back then. Back then, people had nicknames, went to parties, clubs, lot of great music was back then. We dont get to experience the atmosphere that was back then. It isnt clear how the main character went from robbing a post office, to robbing central banks, how his confidence increased, his personality changed, how he spent the money only a few seconds of badly edited and framed sex scenes and dinner scenes. The lack of international scenes gives it a low budget feeling also because the robber lifestyle which motivated him should be a central motive in the film. Dear Antal Nimród, please watch a few gangster movies and learn how a heist story like this can be presented.

Kontroll(2003) was such a good movie for me and I expected more from Nimród Antal.

I'll never count on the rating again it's really waste of time

i give it 1 out of 10

Going into this I felt my expectations are set quite high, due to having only seen one movie by Nimrod, and that of course was Kontroll. This movie lacked many qualities of that movie, including the image quality, composition, montage, the characters, humour and deeper meaning.

Since the story was based on real events, I wondered why was there no reveal of more reasoning. Why did the main protagonist do it? Besides that he drank and got his high from doing this, no other reasons were given. Other characters were no deeper than this as well.

Regardless I stayed till the last minute and I think the film picket up some pace and regained itself towards the end. It didn't leave a bitter taste, but a shallow one.