Main cast: Miloš Biković (Michael), Antonio Banderas (Gordon), Lyubov Aksyonova (Veronika), Evgeniy Stychkin (Tony), Yuriy Chursin (Kevin), Aristarkh Venes (Eric), Petar Zekavica (Alex), Sergey Astakhov (Victor), and Nikita Dyuvbanov (Leon)
Directors: Aleksandr Boguslavskiy and Francesco Cinquemani
Maybe something got lost in translation from Russian to English, but this version of the Russian film Beyond the Edge that hits the big screen at this part of the world comes with chillingly awful English dub, and all the guys here – barring Antonio Banderas who can speak English – sound like they are voiced by the same amateur fellow trying too hard to emulate the bad dubbing of Italian horror movies back in the 1980s, and this fellow uses various amounts of helium to change his tone and modulation for these different guys. Watching this movie is excruciating as a result, and I wish I’d waited for a Russian version with subtitles instead.
The plot isn’t too bad on paper. Michael is a con man who uses technology and cunning to set up his schemes, but his latest effort to seize some money from a casino is thwarted by a hitherto unknown rival who uses supernatural abilities to carry out his con. Accused of being the perpetrator, Michael now has a week to pay back the money or else. He soon gathers a bunch of misfits of science reject – a cab driver who can manipulate electronic devices, the oldest-looking “teenager” who also happens to be a telekinetic, et cetera – for a showdown with his rival. Antonio Banderas plays some twat who wants to learn the powers of the mind and to enter other dimensions from Michael’s rival.
Yes, that’s not too bad right? The plot intrigues me, which is why I end up watching this on the big screen. Unfortunately, the bad dubbing aside, the movie also sees leading fellow Miloš Biković doing… well, let me put it this way. Think of the two most annoying roles ever played by Jesse Eisenberg and that these two somehow mated and had a butt baby that is born with a permanent sneer on his face. That’s Michael. He oozes smarmy and repulsive smugness from every particle, and I am seized by a mounting irrational desire to smack him with a deck chair every time he does that “Ooh, I’m so brilliant and hot, and I know it!” thing on screen. The fact that whoever provides the English dub for this character speaks like the biggest douchebag that has ever douched only accentuates how horrid the character is.
Also, the special effects are super cheesy. When the misfits of science do their thing, for example, the show puts the character in a cheesy room full of laughably arranged props so that this person can do his thing in slow motion. Every time this happens, I cringe and feel first-, second-, and third-hand embarrassment for everyone involved in this movie.
It doesn’t help that the movie follows a mostly predictable and cheesy path. Therefore, there is nothing inventive or new in the execution to distract me from the atrocious dubbing, cringe-worthy CGI, ridiculously hammy English dialogues, and the supreme hatefulness of everything that is the douchebag lead character.
Beyond the Edge is really beyond the edge in every conceivably terrible way.
