It has been years since Modesty Blaise was a homeless girl living out on her nerves and luck in the bombed out shell of the Balkans and it is years before she would form her criminal gang "The Network". We find her working as a skilled croupier in the casino of Henri Louche. When her employer is murdered by a gang led by criminal Miklos, Modesty and the other staff are held in the casino while they await colleague Garcia, who has been called to return and open the casino vault. With Miklos threatening to kill staff until he gets what he wants, the cool-headed Modesty buys time for as long as she can.The fact that this film was made to retain Miramax's rights to the character and allow them to make more films in the series, and the way that this film was just dumped onto DVD in Europe and was hardly pushed in the US suggested that this film would not be made to any high standard and indeed was just a commercial move by the studio who had their eye on future films rather than this one. Despite this though, with a passing knowledge of the character, I decided to give it a try; plus, like many others, the link to Tarantino caught my eye.Indeed my suspicions were found to be warranted because, although not without value, it is hardly any good. Others have already said it, but it does feel exactly like a TV pilot that is setting up backstory and character to then run a series. Of course released as a movie and with no series coming off the back of it, you do have to wonder what the point is for the viewer (like I said – we already know what point the film does serve, but it is to Miramax's benefit, not mine). The concept is interesting enough, with the casino scenes actually working reasonably well. However the flashbacks fail to really engage and, giving these are the heart of the film, then it is a problem. The end result is a rather dull and talky affair that is slightly interesting but ultimately doesn't feel like it is doing anything other than just filling time.The cast aren't really given a lot to do. I'm not so familiar with the character of Modesty that I was fussed by Staden for those reasons. However I did find her performance limited. She works well in "cool-headed and confident" mode but when asked to go below the surface she is unable to do it and in the flashback scenes she is clunky at best. Coaster-Waldau is a very simple character but he works it well and has a good presence and an easy sexuality that I thought worked well with Staden. Pearson is an obvious "wise old man" cliché – not all his fault perhaps as his material is weak, but he can't do anything to counter it. Teodosiu, Yuan, Cruz and others all provide basic fillers but nothing else.Overall then a basic film made for studio reasons and thus tends to not really have the audience in mind. It is vaguely interesting but doesn't really hang together and, like many others have said, it does feel like a pilot for a television series rather than a movie in its own right – which is a shame because it is as the latter that it has been presented to the audience.

If you are a Modesty Blaise fan, you will know if you have watched this film its miles better than the strange sixties one! but it is a rather low budget film, well almost a no budget film in fact.The problem that Miramax the owners of the rights to make a Modesty Blaise film had was they could not agree on a script for the big budget film version of Modesty and their rights to make a film were about to run out. In order to keep the film rights they had to make a film, and this is it.In the past such a film would get shown for one night in the middle of nowhere to show it had been made and shown, and then they would bury it in the film company's vaults never to be see again. The only one they wanted you to see was the big budget version they hope to make soon as they had a script they could agree on. However with with DVD rentals and sales, their is alway the chance to make some money on a DVD of the low budget version however little it cost to make (and this one was shot in 18 days with a director hired one week before shooting !!).However I like it, its not the film of Modesty Blaise I would have expected to see, but it sticks to Modesty's history reasonable well, and for fans the icing on the cake is a 40 minute interview with Peter O'Donnell in the DVDs extras, as well as an annoying one with Quentin Tarantino and his buddy the director at their most infantile. By the way, Quentin Tarantino hopes to direct the big budget version when, and if ever it gets made.

This is what happens when you're living in China and the local video store is running thin on English-language titles—you are blessed with this work of what appears to be, yes, Romanian cinema. Nevertheless, I think that it has real comedic potential.Spoilers technically follow:Though I don't think that it would in fact spoil anyone's viewing pleasure to ask why a film set in a casino has a scene of beach archery, even in flashback. That mystery, and many other conundrums, remain to be exploited by desperate comedians, perhaps when they're stuck in Bucharest.Let me also wonder aloud why perfectly good-looking people allow themselves to abuse themselves on film like this. It's sad.

I was huge Modesty Blaise fan in my teenage years, and was really delighted when i saw DVD in video club. I haven't been this disappointed with a movie in a long time, total flop.Quentin Tarantino's name is on the cover but he has nothing to do with it, except making excuses in bonus material why this was movie was made, and why he backed of from making his own version.Director Scott Spiegel totally blew up the movie, some camera shots are really lame, film time-line and time span is really confusing (spans across 40 years or so covering Modesty's preteen to late 20-ies or early 30-ties). Low budget filmed in Romania, thy even used stock material of Morroco instead shooting on the spot.MegaFlop!!!