Audience Member
At the very beginning there is a statement about the story being based on real events, but probably only so far as the cuban crisis and the killing of JFK are historical facts... all the rest is fiction devoid of any credibility. American and russian spies are all good chaps: the bad guys are the u.s. military industry tycoons, who fight among themselves to conquer power over the world. They have own secret services, own soldiers, they tap telephon lines of both CIA and KGB. They are able to place own ICBM missiles in NATO silos in Turkey and to access the russian missile computer network in 1963 when such nets did not yet exist. The movie delivers finally another highly fictional explanation of Kennedy's death: killed by a group of conspiratorial entrepreneurs in order to avoid a nuclear war hatched by their competitors. Total crap.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Black mark is a terrible spy thriller. The movie is low budget and it shows as it mostly takes place in just a few indoor locations. The script and pacing are all over the place and the acting is campy. A spy thriller that tries tie in the JFK assassination it’s a bad B-movie that’s hard to follow in every sense.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/28/21
Full Review
Audience Member
I love finding well made little underground indie films like this. I saw this movie and was so impressed by the quality of this unadvertised picture by an unknown director, with an unheard-of cast, I did a little research into the people who made it.
Blackmark is an independently produced film by first-time writer/director/producer AJ Martinson. It stars several unknown and lesser-known talents who are nowhere near the Hollywood A-list (yet), but regardless, are very good in their roles.
Kaiwi Lyman, who has many supporting credits in some well known films and TV shows, plus a few leads in independent projects and straight-to-video titles, plays Timothy Daniels, a rogue American spy, the main protagonist in this picture. Jeff Hatch, an actor who's career has been quite obscure with only a handful of credits on IMDb, is the title character Arthur Blackmark- our principle antagonist. Corey MacIntosh, another unknown actor, plays a Russian military commander, Alexi Popolovski, in the classic role of the Noble Enemy. These three turn in solid performances, very ably anchoring a roster of C and D-list veteran actors as well as some other surprisingly polished undiscovered talent. John Henry Richardson, Lana Gautier, Jon Briddell, Tim Oman Brian Ide and Elliot all turn in very capable performances in this uniformily good cast.
Perhaps the most noteworthy discovery of talent from this film however, is the writer/director, AJ Martinson III, who pulled this project together over the course of 3 years with a shoestring budget, a motley cast and crew and, no doubt, hundreds of called-in favors. (The link below to a YouTube video posted in 2015 tells a bit about the creation of this film that should be inspiring to any independent filmmakers out there who wonder what is possible to accomplish with not much else but talent, teamwork and perseverance.)
Thanks to quality acting, a top-notch script, skillful direction, high caliber cinematography and sharp editing, this underground indie feature actually feels like a worthy addition to the high-tension political/spy genre right beside big Hollywood Cold War movies like Bridge of Spies, Hunt For the Red October or classics such as Failsafe and 7 Days in May.
The story is a fast-paced, complex political thriller that takes place in 1963 during the highest tensions of the Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States. It involves a shadowy organization working behind the backs of the Whitehouse and Kremlin to initiate a nuclear showdown for reasons that do not become clear until the end.
Arthur Blackmark, (Hatch) is the head of a military industrial corporation that develops weapons for the US and engages in espionage. He is also a shot-caller in a secretive and powerful international cabal that seeks to perpetuate wars around the globe for their own profit. From his US headquarters, he leads an intelligence unit trying to track down one of his own spies in Russia who, for reasons that become clearer as the plot unfolds, has gone rogue. Timothy Daniels (Lyman) is the spy who has hacked into the Soviet's missile command system, and is threatening to launch a Russian missile at the USA. In Russia, the commander of the USSR's missile defense system, Alexi Popolovski, (MacIntosh) is also trying to track down the spy and stop him. Will Blackmark's men reach him before the Russians? What will happen if they do? And why has this spy seemingly turned against his own country?
Twists, double-crosses, treachery and a unique conspiracy theory unfold in a fast paced, well executed, tension-filled story from a first-time director/writer who helms a beautifully shot, truly independent feature film.
The big knock on this film from negative user reviews has been the complexity of the plot and overly dramatic feel of the acting and writing. It is a bit hard to follow at times, but if you stay with it, it pays off. A second viewing with subtitles on satisfied some questions that left me scratching my head. I like movies that challenge me to keep up as all the puzzle pieces fall into place. The movie does not quite "stick the landing" at leading the audience to its final conclusion but it executes a high degree of difficulty so it only loses one point there. And then there are a couple of over-cooked speeches by Blackmark that felt a bit melodramatic and unnecessary, but given the rookie status of the filmmakers, I thought it was a nitpicking quibble to deny the writer-director a scenery-chewing moment or two for his villain, so it only loses one more star for final rating of 8/10.
Overall the quality of this movie, especially considering it's a first time effort with a tiny budget, is impressive. I hope this movie will find the audience it deserves and I'm quite interested to see what Martinson does next.
https://youtu.be/qXEqajFcJps
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Solid Cold War film. Not a movie you can do other things while watching. You have to give this your full attention. Complex plot and great acting = enjoyable flick.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
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