The Assassin Next Door (2009) User Reviews

Gritty and well-done

[Siamois · 7/10 · 23 August 2010]

Galia is a Ukrainian prostitute stuck in Israel. Things get even worse when she is forced to carry assassinations for the criminals to which she is property. All day long, Galia does nothing but stay in her apartment, waiting for hit assignments. Eventually, she strikes a friendship with her neighbour, Elinor, who is herself victim of an abusive husband.

This movie combines several cliché elements yet delivers them in a captivating way and puts some real heart in what could easily have been another run-of-the-mill thriller. There's a definite Besson influence here, particularly elements of "Nikita" and "The Professional". Director Danny Lerner focuses on these two women, particularly Galia, and paints an ugly picture of a world where women are still basically "property". Alhough Galia carries cold, calculating hits like a pro, she turns into an obedient girl when facing her "bosses" and gets slapped around. As a viewer, it's tough not to cringe. Another interesting aspect as a North Anerican was the Israelian setting and the exploration of different cultures, since Galia herself is an outsider.

Ninette Tayeb is really solid as Elinor but it is Olga Kurylenko who really shines here. Other movies that she was featured in showed an actress with potential and here, she realizes much of it. In most scenes, she is very believable and the role is rather demanding as Olga shifts from recluse to opening to Elinor and from a fragile woman to a cold hearted killer. The script helps but the whole story depends on Kurylenko's ability to draw us in and make us understand when words are lacking.

The finale is thrilling enough and fans of "Carlito's Way" will see a nice nudge to this film's own finale as a bunch of crooks pursue Olga and Elinor in a terminal station. Much like Besson, Lerner has crafted a movie that mixes the grittiness of an old school Scorcese with the more naive vibe of a classic Hollywood flick.

The result is a solid thriller with an international flavor and a great cast.

Average action female killer film

[billcr12 · 6/10 · 14 May 2012]

A Ukranian woman, Galia, is working as a prostitute in Tel Aviv, when her friend is beaten and stabbed to death. She survives the abuse by the Russian mobster and he offers her a deal to stop selling her body if she will become an assassin instead. She is given a modest apartment and follows orders. Her passport is being held, preventing her from traveling to see her daughter.

Day after day, her neighbor, Elinor, is physically abused by her husband. She finally stabs him and the two run away as the mob turns on Galia after she steals money she is owed by her mafia bosses. The speaking parts alternate from English to Russian to Hebrew with subtitles.

There are the usual chase scenes and shootouts and Olga Kurylenko is sexy as Galia, the lead hit woman on the run from the bad guys. A desperate woman doing anything necessary to survive in a cold, cruel world, The Assassin Next Door is depressing and in the end an average action film.

Right step in the wrong direction

[dimagic · 5/10 · 1 October 2010]

Being familiar with Israeli cinema and hating it, I have to say that I welcomed the idea of this movie when it was announced. Among tearful melodramas, unnecessary and unfair political films, boring war pictures and idiotic romantic dramas, Kirot stood, at first, as the refreshing example of the much needed genre cinema in Israeli film industry.

Just imagine following pitch: sexy Ukrainian woman is forced to work as a prostitute after being threatened and violently beaten. Then she gets a gun and forced to become an assassin, also becomes involved in a lesbian relationship with her neighbor. But when she is given an assignment that she doesn't like, she rises against her abusers and her former pimps in old fashion bloody revenge.

Sounds great, isn't it. Juicy, violent and gory exploitation flick in potential. In some places such idea could turn out to be "Thriller: A Cruel Picture", in others it could turn to be ""Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion", even "Kill Bill", but for some reason in Israel it turned out to be "Kirot", which is more an insult than a compliment.

So maybe no one actually intended to make an exploitation flick here (and really why not?), but this is besides the point. The movie "Kirot" is a pale shadow of any good expectations I've had about the film. Instead of daring plot, bold direction and uncompromising violence all we got here is a boring story with carton characters without any ability to be liked, crude and dull direction, forceful and artificial manipulation on the viewer, and finally many rip offs and little imagination.

And although camera work is somewhat innovative, sometimes even very nice (single shots), it feels disconnected and pointless in connection to the movie itself. Because every part should work together, here each part is pulling to a different direction.

Lerner is not a good director and even worse screenwriter. His rise as the next big thing in Israeli cinema is not surprising, because he is not representing anything new, only an upgrade of the old. You can imagine how bad the old school is if even the younger upgrade still fails where the majority of world cinema succeeds for many years.

A viewer should not spend his time justifying narrative flaws and implausible events, viewer should not be forced to feel sorry for a female character for a sole reason of her being abused by a man, and a viewer should not have only that feeling alone towards her. Seriously, for each character in this film you can only have one single emotion, so underdeveloped and caricature they are. It's like being back in kindergarten when they said to you - "a cow goes moo", because this is the only thing she goes.

Instead of telling a story, defining the characters by their actions, Lerner decides it is time to play very sad piano music while showing the heroine walking on the street and crying, for like 3 minutes. Then to show the depth of her inner desires, wishes and hopes he shows her painting a sad picture on the wall with black colors. So sad (wiping tears). Instead of showing characters trying to deal with the world around them, he shows them escaping it. Instead of showing some kind of character development, because people do change under harsh conditions of reality, he decides that his characters will remain the same, keeping same faces, same attitude, same problems, same idiotic ideals. The characters are stuck in their private hell, each one of them, without any ability to evolve and change. And maybe that was the point of the movie, but doing stupid things intentionally doesn't make them smart.

Which illustrates my point exactly - Israeli filmmakers are simply unable to change, unable to adapt themselves to the current world of film goers and filmmakers. All the talking about new approach, new style, are false statements from someone who doesn't understand what does it mean to be different and innovative. Same all drama, same old forced tears, same old unconvincing conflicts and same old dramatic weaknesses.

Looking for a new path, a fresh start, a new wave in Israeli cinema is still not dead, but it sure will not start with 'Kirot' or Lerner. I am still looking for a day when Israeli filmmakers will not act like homeless beggars, going to film festivals just to collect their season donations. Still looking for a day an Israeli movie will be actually remembered one year after its release, or at least will have more than one comments page on IMDb board.

When announcing the film production Lerner said that the movie will be about two chicks and lots of guns. Far from the truth. More like a depressing love story about people accepting their fate and unable to change. How very relevant in that area of the world.

Awesome for an Israeli movie!

[nitsan-dvash · 7/10 · 12 September 2012]

who ever thinks that the story is unrealistic, is not familiar with the Russian immigrant's life in Israel. Some of them come from Russia as teachers and then, end up as security guards and even prostitutes, just because of the Language difficulties.

this movie performs the relationship between two women who gets hit and beaten by men who has power over them. It shows both their struggle and confrontations with the men in the movie, and their special connection. And that's the reason why I like this movie, it showed how much they both hated their jobs and their lives and how much they are the same.

So, yeah, it's not a Hollywood made movie, it doesn't have great action like most thrillers ,it's not brilliant or close, but it does have good drama, good acting, good shots (in my opinion) and good story ,that I've already said.

I'm Recommending it...

Nice try

[maskygen · 7/10 · 17 August 2010]

-- Review contains spoilers I liked the actors,I hated the story and music.

The movie has some really powerful scenes, in which we get a glimpse of the real human trafficking.

The story is beyond stupidity: A runaway mother from her mentally retarded child, which somehow is sold as a sex-slave in Israel, reached to become a bad ass assassin which kills all her owners + bodyguards and become friends with a sexy husband abused woman.

The action, is not really good and frankly the Hollywood stereotype of spaghetti arms assassins, it's getting boring. Actually the only good scenes are the ones where the girls talk and when we see some European human trafficker mentality towards his salves.

You learn how to use a gun but don't

[autumn09007 · 4/10 · 28 February 2019]

The final fun battle scene got me upset. How could you act so weak when you freely kill everyone that your abusive boss demands you to do? Where is John Wick when you need him?!?! This movie basically tells me that as woman, you are f-cked no matter what! Not a feel good movie. If you want to be depressed, watch it.

a too decent job

[dromasca · 6/10 · 31 March 2013]

Violent thrillers are yet a rather unexplored territory for the big screen Israeli cinema, and I really wonder why. The Israeli reality even if we put aside the political conflict is quite violent at least if one follows the news. While thrillers and detective stories made their way to the TV series, there are very few productions of the genres on big screens. Kirot (which means Walls, although the English title is The Assassin Next Door) is already four years old, and is one of the rare productions in the genre. It is almost a good one, but ...

There was no problem for the script writers to extract the medium and the characters that populate the movie. Local mafia is said to be in control of the sex industry, and many of the characters that populate it are of Russian origin, and the sex workers are also coming in numbers from the less fortunate countries of the former Soviet Union. So a former prostitute forced by the Russian mafia to become a killer does not seem to be an extraordinary story. Even less is exceptional the case of the young woman victim of domestic violence, with simple and naive dreams that are never to be fulfilled. These two characters acted by Olga Kurylenko and local rock star Ninette Tayeb are naturally drawn to each other by a shared record of violence and social injustice, by a lack of hope that makes their fate almost unavoidable. The best scenes of the film are the ones where the two get to know each other wining over the distrust and the differences in language and background, starting to trust, then become friends and eventually share fate. The rather non-professional acting backgrounds of both actresses help, bringing freshness, sincerity and emotion in the building relation between the two.

The story around is quite expected, and not badly written with the exception of the final which is unrealistic from many respects. The combination of woman killer, women in distress helping each other against violence, mafia movies, all in an Israeli margin-of-the-society environment works well because if does not take over the film, while keeping the interest of the viewers arise and balancing the story so that it does not become too melodramatic. Director Danny Lerner at his second film (he did not make any other film since then) shows quite a talent in directing actors, setting the camera at the right places, building a credible environment an Israeli can recognize. But here is the problem - there was enough good material in the film to make a more blunt social statement, or use some more striking expressive means. Danny Lerner did not undertake this challenge. Daring more and pushing the limits would have helped the film step ahead of the line. It is a decent film, a decent directorial job, and so it risks to be remembered (if at all) - decent, but not more.

Traffic

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 29 November 2010]

The action is pretty decent and it stays true to it's origins (language wise, you will hear a few languages spoken throughout the entire movie). It has a strong leading performance by Olga K. (also known for her role in the most recent Bond movie, not that much for her Hit-man turn-up). Apart from that you have good to decent acting throughout, but a few scenes fall short of the premise.

This is a very sensible theme and the director did a decent job in portraying that. Still there are quite a few flaws (like length and dialogue choices, clichés) that might hinder you from rating this movie higher. Than again, I just read a 10/10 review and the user sounded pretty convincing. So it's up to you, if you see more than I did or agree with me

Almost

[lobosolo0333 · 6/10 · 14 October 2013]

I truly wanted to rate this film higher but there are too many plot holes and the unreal, downright dumb ending made me mark it down. Overall, the plot was good but the writing was bad. The actors did a good job with the what they had.

***Spoiler Alert***

A few plot holes to show what I mean: 1. Once she was in the flat, she could hav easily gone to her embassy (most are in Tel Aviv) and told them that her passport was stolen and got a new one. I know, I hav to get a stolen passport replace'd.

2. Eleanor was in the Army yet she needs to go on the roof and fire a pistol in the air to get wonted to the sound of the gun? BTW, shooting a gun off a rooftop is dangerous and dumb ... What goes up must come down and those bullets came down somewhere in the city. Holding a metal object in your hand during a thunderstorm on a rooftop isn't too bright either.

3. They go thru the metal detector at the bus station but yet everyone still has their guns for the final shootout.

There are others. A few small ones I can overlook ... blatant ones I can't.

Dumb Ending.

The final shootout itself was OK. What was unbelievable was that a shootout that long wouldn't hav drawn the bus-hof's security out in full force. Even more unbelievable is that they would hav walk'd thru the hof with Galia bleeding from the wound and dripping blood and no one ... no one ... not a guard, not a bystander, not a train'd soldier came to help her. And even more unbelievable than that, was that they got on a city bus going ... where? I hope they were going to hospital but why not call an ambulance to the hof in the first place? Or at least get a taxi to a hospital. I am suppose to believ that they stood at a bus stop while she bled ... got a bus with other folks, while she bled ... and the bus driver didn't do anything? This could hav and should hav been a great film but the writing and editing fell far short of the potential.

Nothing here.

[bombersflyup · 2/10 · 5 September 2018]

The Assassin Next Door is a bad foreign film, that didn't have to be.

Instead of just leaving, Galia calls the neighbour and obviously heads into a trap. She then walks out of the apartment verse four armed men, killing three of them in a confined space, then like five or six on the bus once they have her surrounded. One of the worst endings ever, honestly. However, it still better than the bloody sleep inducing story-line of Galia and Elinor. The two different genres are so contrast, from murdering people in tense highly populated scenarios to the blandness of her and her neighbour day to day, in what's basically dead air. Elinor's just a terrible character and I was expecting better from Olga Kurylenko.

Compelling, gutsy glimpse, with a unique twist, into the dark world of human trafficking, the mob and so on- incredibly well done

[charles000 · 10/10 · 12 November 2010]

For anyone even mildly interested in this genre' of drama, this film is smartly done, intelligent, absolutely well crafted . . . could not have been done better. It's not just the dark and murky world of human trafficking, the mob and all that mixed into the interesting backdrop of this piece, but also the amazingly well articulated relationship that evolves between the two central female characters.

The ending is a bit rough, as in it's gut wrenching and then some, but the entire story moves along at a pace that makes every scene count for its maximum potential value.

As for Olga, who co-stars in the leading role . . . what can I say? She is seriously smoking hot, and in her own unique way, delivers her character like no other actress possibly could.

This film may not be for everyone, but for those who can connect to this genre' of story and filmcraft, it's beautiful, harsh, and tragic all at the same time, hits every button that can be imagined in such context.

This is a work of art . . . well done. 10+ in my book.

A substanced thriller

[hoychris · 6/10 · 2 October 2021]

The content in here was pretty intense for a large part with some decent performance and dialogue in kind sprinkled between the polarizing characters and mixed with some flashy action. I'd give it a recommend if you like the genre or subject in particular otherwise I think it can be tough for a casual watch.

Yuk

[compugor · 1/10 · 8 November 2020]

This proves that even a movie starring Olga K. can be completely unappealing. Dull, dark & dirty, the pace is torturously slow and the story goes nowhere... and you DON'T say to yourself "What a wonderful world", rather "what a trashy waste of film" and refuse to watch it to the end. I certainly did not suffer this through, even with the fast forward button. Who would want to wallow in such depressing depravity for entertainment?? Spare yourself from this crud. Olga, you're not doing your career any favors being associated wit this garbage.

.. needs to be more female action films

[bjarias · 7/10 · 2 November 2014]

Sometimes you come across a film that gives you more than expected. Nearly one hundred sixty thousand viewers said they have 'liked' this movie.. for a foreign film that's a lot of positive votes. Olga Kurylenko.. bit.ly/17NhB0G ..(tell me she's not a spot-on Rashida Jones twin.. bit.ly/179Bwol ) and Ninette Tayeb.. bit.ly/15WZTXw ..both perform admirably throughout the entire time. Their exceptional good looks wisely toned down for roles in this film. Don't be looking for a Nikita style film from start to finish.. it's near the end the real action kicks in. And the actual ending itself is an unresolved outcome (guess there are no emergency medics or ambulances in this town).

Foreign Action/Drama film with great acting

[mmarrochello · 6/10 · 17 November 2010]

Some slow areas. However, this Foreign Action/Drama will keep you on the edge of your seat. You really believe she doesn't want to shoot the people she shoots.

The beginning is a bit confusing. Where is she? Who is chasing her? Why is she there? You figure it out as the movie unfolds.

She show's she is a good friend. The spiritual scenes could have been left out. Why did they have them in there in the first place? I thought she was going to convert.

The ending shared similarities with Carlito's Way - Train Station chase.

The acting is excellent. I didn't realize there wasn't background music until they started playing a sad violin in one part.

Does the producer think that women are stupid?

[inezgusa · 2/10 · 12 February 2020]

Throughout the movie the script portrays the two women as the most stupid beings that have ever existed... the ending even worse, what would Eleanor do with a corpse? How come there was that shooting and nobody seems to bother in the station at the end? Even a low budget movie at least some logic and common sense. Not this one...

Ms 45 Whistleblows on Bound.

[effigiebronze · 6/10 · 27 December 2011]

This movie reminds me more of Abel Ferrara's MS 45 than anything else. Also, it achieves the impossible: I no longer have the slightest interest in seeing Olga Kurylenko naked.

I rated this flicker higher than I normally would, partly because it's a character study grafted onto a shoot 'em up, a sort of sub-genre I'm a sucker for, and mostly for Kurylenko's visceral performance. The action elements are rote and banal; the real interest here is the interplay between the two female characters.

Ultimately, despite the tiresome elements, it worked for me as a brutal indictment of the treatment of women in patriarchal societies, of which modern Israel is as guilty as many other supposedly less enlightened places. The crucial opening scene is, I hate to say, dead on and made me cringe; the only change I would have made was turning the Semitic-appearing men into pasty dimwits from New Jersey in Israel on 'religious study'.

Most people don't know Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, is a major trafficking point, with the usual merchandise, i. e. poverty-stricken Ukrainian and Moldovian women. Knowing Kurylenko's background (provincial Ukrainian), her performance makes more sense, and is a stunner; I think personally the inconsistencies in her acting are due more to a scatter-shot script than her own skills; although, I gotta question whether she was actually 'acting' as such. This movie and role had to, had to, hit home for Kurylenko. She pulls a scary performance out of her stylish leather coat.

Personally, for me, I've spent time around these people in real life; and the guys are just as bafflingly evil as depicted in this movie, the women just as bafflingly confused. The subject material is depressing in the extreme, I guess. The moment where this movie hit me is a scene on a bus, in which Kurylenko is either scrubbed of makeup or made up to look that way; and I realized with a shock she is a dead ringer for someone I once met in real life, right down to the clothes. That woman is now undoubtedly dead.

Watch it for the schizoid movie it is: half popcorn, half deadly serious.

Scene stolen directly from the movie The Outfit (1973)

[computersavvy · 5/10 · 12 December 2010]

Two spoilers for the price of one!

I just happened to have watched The Outfit (1973) with Robert Duval four days ago. If you like mid 70's movies, it's worth watching on a rainy afternoon.

Spoiler #1:

In the movie, The Outfit, Robert Duval's character kills a Mob Boss in his home, while exiting the Mob Bosses 2nd floor bedroom, a goon starts charging up the stairs. Duvall, at the top of the stairs gets the drop on the goon, the goon stops half way up on a landing.

Duval calls out from the top of the stairs, "Stay out of it, he's dead, you're unemployed."

Spoiler #2:

In this movie, Galia is at the top of the stairs, she gets the drop on the goon, the goon stops half way up on a landing.

Galia says to him, "Your Boss is dead. You are out of work. Go... (slight pause) Go.". These two scenes are nearly identical, only the dialog is different.

How the camera shots are set up are pretty much the same in both movies.

Seeing these two nearly identical scenes really lowered my opinion of this movie because the similarity of the two scenes was so blatant. It's one thing to pay homage to a movie but it's entirely something else to do what they did here.

I assume that the writer & director think we have short memories and won't find shortcuts like this. They are wrong and I may think twice about buying tickets to, renting or collecting any of their future work because the odds are, I may have already seen it elsewhere before.

Bruce

"La Femme Nikita" meets THELMA & LOUISE

[charlytully · 7/10 · 26 July 2011]

While nobody in their right mind would claim that THE ASSASSIN NEXT DOOR is as entertaining as EITHER the ground-breaking poster girl for the National Rifle Association found in LA FEMME NIKITA or the classic distaff buddy flick THELMA & LOUISE, it still stands as a better than average effort. Whereas NIKITA undergoes extensive training to make her assassin forays somewhat plausible, the bad guys in ASSASSIN simply give a random hooker a gun and tell her to start blowing guys away. Whereas THELMA & LOUISE feminize the ending of BUTCH CASSIDY AND AND SUNDANCE KID--which can be summed up as "together to the end"--ASSASSIN lets the girl buddies go their own ways, as short as the way forward may be for one of them. Though the final shootout on the bus stretches credibility, so does the ending of THE GAUNTLET and countless other American hits. The one real downer about ASSASSIN is that it seems the hitwoman's little girl--Lena--gets left in the hands of one mean dad (or guardian). Throughout this film, shot in a hot climate, the cast seems well-hydrated, which means credited "water girl" Prague Benbenisty deserves a shout out.

A Great Dramatic Thriller

[tabuno · 8/10 · 8 January 2019]

3 November 2017. It's important to be aware that this movie is not an action movie, but a dramatic thriller. With the word Assassin in the movie title, there's an implicit bias towards believing that this movie will be full of sophisticated violence in the mold of Haywire (2010) or La Femme Nikita (1990). Instead what this predominately Israeli production offers is a drama involving a woman who apparently is trapped in a vicious criminal gang who forces her to do awful things. As such, the storyline actually involves two women, both having to contend with their own abusive situations.

The forlorn musical score along with a strong script involving the plight of a ordinary, but rather good looking females facing very difficult life decisions tugs at the heart and thrills with the unknown outcome and life choices facing each women. This is a straight forward no-nonsense look at human trafficking and domestic violence along with a gun for added suspense. Additionally, in a moving and riveting musical number with the ending credits, Ninette Tayeb who played the principal role of Elinor, that she wrote and sang. Rarely has the lyrics during an ending credits been so intertwined with the movie itself that it actually becomes part of actual movie as a lyrical scene unto itself.

Most audience members who come into this movie with preconceptions might easily be quite disappointed with what they experienced to what they wanted to see. Nevertheless, the movie itself, such disappointments can't take away the definite foreign flavor of this intense and moving movie. The only few problems with the movie might include the over-use of the same lonely and sad melody which could have been remedied with perhaps one additional piece, the almost unbelievable gun battle scenes with what might be considered too many against one, and finally the surprising absence of local security or rapid response around various public places considering this movie supposedly takes place in Israel, not the most safest place in the world.

However, these few weaknesses don't really diminish the captivating storyline, the human interest and internal struggle of these two women who have to make tough decisions against great odds.

A must see!

[keremrs · 8/10 · 30 August 2010]

This film is really good. Although there is more than enough adrenaline , I don't think of it as an action flick.

The story and the characters are very good. The human aspect of the story is very well conceived. Everything is brutally natural and realistic. Although there are some scenes with some problems, I was so grasped by the film that I didn't care. Although the story is kinda sad, it is never boring.

The cast and especially Olga Kurylenko is very good too. Some may say the opposite but yes; I do believe that an ordinary woman without a specific background can be a hired gun as good as Galia. (Dont worry, this is not a spoiler)

There are many things in every scene that is so familiar with everyday life but also striking. The "trivialised" woman trafficking and prostitution could not be told any better without the audience looking away once in every 10 minutes.

The directing hides itself behind the natural flow of the story but silent quality of storytelling is in every scene. If you are looking for an "entertaining" action movie with a lot of bloodshed, this one is not for you (except for the bloodshed)

Well done to all the crew.

We are always more than we appear to be

[taraholman-70711 · 9/10 · 13 November 2020]

I appreciate how well the characters are crafted. These women are not just "victims"; they are multi-faceted creatures. They are much more than their pain.

Really of many females

[jlabc · 8/10 · 2 April 2021]

This story is compelling full of lessons of survival, friendship and amazing acting. It touch my heart how the main characters were willing to do whatever it took for freedom and love for their child.