The title of this film refers to the main character, Mike Varga (Dorff), Hungarian Native and FBI deep cover agent infiltrating the den of the Russian Mafia run by Darius Paskevic (Hoskins) in Budapest, Hungary.
The central theme being that Mike may be getting just a little too close to the people he is supposed to be taking down. Not an entirely original plot, the undercover agent getting too involved theme has been done time and time again and without even thinking up examples I can guarantee that it has been done a lot better than in Den if Lions
From the over accelerated beginning complete with explanatory voice over (just in case you’re too slow to notice that Mike is an FBI agent, and a good guy) to the dragged out ending, this film just doesn’t seem to click. Apart from the unoriginal story, the acting and production of this movie are equally second rate and derivative. Every trick in moviemaking 101 has been used here, shaky camera, slow motion, quick cuts, voice overs, fast panning, slow panning, it’s all here and it conspires together to do nothing but bore and confuse the viewer.
I may have been spoiled by recently reviewing the brilliant Spartan which has a similar theme but even mentioning it in the same review as Den of Lions is an insult to Mamet’s brilliance, so just forget I did, ok?
In fact, rather than reading any further in this review, go check out Spartan, despite the mistreatment of the material on the Spartan DVD, it would be a much better use of your time to watch that, rather than the drivel in Den of Lions.
The audio options on this disc allow you to choose between the usual English 5.1 or English 2.0. Usually the difference between a 5.1 and 2.0 track is pretty obvious but upon switching between the two during movie playback I couldn’t notice any discernable difference.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix the sound is flat and dull; surrounds and subwoofer are rarely used even when presented with the opportunity, in the multiple gunfights. The centre channel even gets some abuse. It’s not unusual in some low budget movie DVDs to find dialog being of variable volume between difference scenes, but in Den of Lions we are treated to variable volume levels within the scenes, but don’t bother reaching for the remote, you’re not missing anything.
The video presentation is a bit of a mixed bag. There is no excuse for the presence of compression artefacts on a dual layer disc containing a movie of less than 100 minutes but they are there, and quite obvious in places despite a relatively high bitrate. Black levels are too dark and even fiddling with gamma or brightness did nothing to bring the detail back.
On the good side, grain is minimal and the sometimes deliberate gritty feel of the vision is preserved well (I’m assuming it’s deliberate, if it’s not, move that praise to the previous paragraph and call it a criticism).
The extras on this DVD consists of a Theatrical Trailer running at just under two minutes, complete with low rent voice over and collection of the ‘best’ scenes cut together. Also included is a seven minute “making of” documentary which features short interviews with the cast and crew punctuated by behind the scenes footage, not worth watching.
I think perhaps the two minute unskippable piracy warning at the beginning of this DVD is redundant because the content of the disc is about the best anti-piracy protection anyone could ask for.
Overall, combine the poor video presentation and the lacklustre audio with the paper thin plot and hack acting and the Den of Lions DVD will make a nice shiny coaster.
