I'm a hardened violent-film goer...

Rating: 4/10 (6 January 2006)

...and this one was hard for me to put into words exactly what disturbed me the most about this. In terms of positives, this is a survival movie, if you want to call it that, and the payback scenes had me and the rest of the audience cheering for the evil bastards' comeuppance. Having said that, though, the shock value of this movie is, especially for an R movie, off the charts. This really should have been NC-17, but I think Tarantino's involvement with this got it changed to an R. And this is a HARD R, probably the hardest R I've ever seen, and I see all the violent movies. I'm pretty jaded when it comes to this stuff, but this was gruesome in a way that has not been shown in American movie theaters yet. If this had come out in 1993, before anyone other than cult followers' of Taratino knowledge of Reservoir Dogs, this movie would probably have been NC-17 or straight to video. If this movie had come out 20 years ago, it probably would not have been made in this country, or it would be considered borderline snuff.
I'm sure most other reviews will either be shocked and revolted by it or will be the hardcore blood marks who loved it. I'm leaning more toward the shocked, and possibly revolted. I thought something like Pulp Fiction or RD, though having its moments of ultra-violence, had an artistic redemptive quality about it. I admit that this movie, once you can recover your stomach from the butchery (NOT an easy task)does a good job of getting you to root for the primary protagonist.
The use of female lures for these deathtraps was especially notable, as Natalya's mocking laugh as Paxon gets captured is replayed at the very end of the credits - it presses a lot of buttons there. It certainly makes you think twice about visiting any former Warsaw Pact countries, for fear you might wake up (if you're lucky) in a bathtub filled with ice, leaving you reading a sign that said your kidneys have been removed because the hottie you were flirting with is paid by the Russian mob to slip you a mickey. This movie is an urban legend on crack, steroids, and every other drug used in a Tarantino film.
I am still struggling to adequately describe this movie. I shall probably edit this at some point, but for now, I will close by saying the following: this movie does not push the envelope; it obliterates it.