A petty criminal realises he has been betrayed and attempts to escape from a porn studio with his life intact.
Review by Ben Peyton
Directed by: Dimitris Tsilifonis
Starring: Konstadinos Aspiotis, Makis Papadimitriou, Mirto Alikaki, Christos Loulis
Petty criminal Alkis Vidalis (Konstadinos Aspiotis) agrees to star in a viral video exonerating a crooked Greek businessman from the crimes he’s currently in jail for and to help rebuild his damaged reputation. As Alkis comes to realise that those he’s trying to help want him dead as soon as he’s served his purpose, he faces a race against time to escape from the porn studio warehouse he finds himself trapped in.
Keeping its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, Do It Yourself swaps the contrived, stylised Hollywood action credentials of James Bond or Jason Bourne and replaces them with characters that are completely out of their depth and almost making it up as they go along. There’s an element of farce to some of the fight scenes, but it works as they fully commit to the action.
Leading from the front, Aspiotis produces an excellent performance that showcases his abilities to great effect as he makes snap decisions and draws on his improvisation skills to stay alive. Relying purely on his wits, he makes full use of his surroundings, his way around a smartphone and even a toothbrush to plot his flight. Indeed, a certain prop he brings out is very much a nod to Pulp Fiction and its infamous ‘gimp’ in one of many cinematic influences.
However, the real stars here are the direction and cinematography. Some spectacular use of drones, time lapse, all in one tracking shots and inserting the use of technology directly into the action (maps, pin numbers and scrolling through contacts are all cleverly superimposed directly onto the screen) all impress and that’s credit to Dimitris Tsilifonis and Angelos Papadopolous respectively. The fact that both are making their feature debuts makes this quite an achievement.
While there are some genuine moments of tension and the pace is consistently maintained throughout most of the film, something’s been lost in the Greek to English translation. Occasionally the sub-plots are confusing or too clever for their own good. Using flashbacks, deceit and deception are rife as rival criminal bosses plot against each other and peripheral characters with their own agendas threaten to overshadow the crux of the story. Identities aren’t conclusive enough to know exactly who’s whom and the impact of certain arrivals doesn’t quite hit the mark due to that uncertainty.
Quirky and not without humour, Do It Yourself is an inventive crime thriller boasting an exciting ensemble cast that makes the most of an amusing script, overseen by a switched-on director and creative cinematographer. It’s just a shame certain parts of the narrative were all Greek to me.
Do It Yourself is on DVD/VOD now.
