The Mongolian Connection (2019) User Reviews

A great surprise. A well made thriller with a different background

[abisio · 9/10 · 22 September 2020]

A Mongolian cop mistake will allow an organized crime boss to go free. His only chance is a prisoner coming to Mongolia with an FBI custodying him. As always, corruption in the forces and the criminals made the delivery of the prisoner quite difficult so the three has to escape and try to survive while dealing with their own personal problems. Looks cliched; but is not. The director play with cliches but makes unexpected but very logical turns that make the movie more interesting every moment. The three unknown actors (at least for me) play their parts perfectly. The movie does not tries to be Rush Hour. There are a few humor moments; mostly product of languages difficulties; but is mostly serious and quite violent.

With Oriental movies; the fights are the best part and this one is able to maintain credibility and cut your breath away.

The sentimental part (sometimes too much in Oriental movies) is quite controlled here. The final fight has the "Honor Among Criminals" theme but not abusive and the fight is in itself fast and breathtaking

In brief; it is not a completely original story but a lot of details make it work very well and the action is intense and realist enough

Expected crap but was pleasantly surprised!

[nb-19881 · 7/10 · 19 September 2020]

Can't say that I would have enjoyed the 3-hour-long director's cut, but this wasn't the worst cliched action movie I've ever seen -- far from it. It's a movie we've seen countless times before, but it was a lot better than most of the '70s and '80s action flicks it harks back to.

Guess it's the Mongolian charm?

Contains some good action

[pubquiz · 7/10 · 20 September 2020]

Not a Oscar contender but a OK story with some good fight scenes although the body count is over the top

It does also contain some good comedy

You do need to know that Mongolia does have a lot of imported cars from Japan which is quite well exploited to good effect

The best Mongolian Action movie of all-time

[tsekanice · 9/10 · 17 January 2020]

As you might not know, this is the producer's cut of 1:30 hours compared with director's cut of whole 3 hours. This cut was way better than the original one because it just included most funny, action, intense moments and cutted out repetitive and inefficient long scenes.

Humor extremely well-thought and unprecedentedly decent for Mongolian film standards: making me laugh almost every dialogue that has jokes and teases.

Action scenes are good-enough for Mongolian movie. I actually quite enjoyed the experience of seeing car chase and shootout in my peaceful home city.

In addition to all the aforementioned brilliance of this movie, Serik's actor was not only charismatic and badass but also carrying the action scenes almost all by himself.

In sum, it touched my feeling more than any other action films I watched recently mainly due to the fact that I attached to Mongolia more than anything and it was great film which made the Mongolian action movie's standard over the roof.

Best, Tsekamaru

Quite decent actually

[thaicoons · 7/10 · 20 September 2020]

As we all know, American cinema has been pretty much dead for a while now, killed by greedy studios, boring franchise sequels and political correctness. So we're forced to look elsewhere, to South Korea in particular, but Mongolians, whoever saw that coming? This movie is low budget, has no star power and while not too original, it's competently directed and edited and the end result is surprisingly watchable and better overall than most non American crime thrillers. And American ones for that matter, if we leave out Dragged Across Concrete.

Adrenaline Rush from Start to Finish

[will-58057 · 10/10 · 15 May 2020]

As a moviegoer, you're always looking for that surprise thrill from a movie you have heard nothing or very little about. Holy moly - this was it. Non-stop action from front to back, and the fight choreography in particular was exceptional (coming from someone who grew up on John Woo films). The whole thing seemed like it was made for more money than it likely was. Think of it as the "Midnight Run" of Mongolia.

Kaiwi Lyman was a standout among the cast (his comedic chops were spot on), but don't sleep on Sanjar Madi or Amarsaikhan Baljinnyam, one of Mongolia's most feted actors. All three of them were great, and the chemistry between them was clear. I'm going to keep my eye out for all of them, but mostly I'll be curious to see what director Drew Thomas does next.

Really solid movie. Glad I found it.

First Mongolian Hollywood connection

[mybrat-95075 · 10/10 · 15 June 2020]

Working undercover on a human trafficking bust, maverick FBI agent Wade Dalton (Kaiwi Lyman), captures Serick Ibrayev (Sanjar Madi), a mysterious operative from the Mongolian underworld. With time running out, Wade must escort Serik back to Mongolia, and team up with hard-boiled police detective Ganzorig (Amra Baljinnyam), to deliver Serik to court to testify against a crime Syndicate that will do anything to stop them.

As a cop movie it's fantastic, it's fun to see Hollywood and Mongolia in the same movie. The acting is great and the action is the best, this is a promising start for international mongol films.

A Standout Action Film.

[maznavourian · 10/10 · 13 May 2020]

The novelty of watching an action film predominantly shot in Mongolia, with mostly Mongolian actors, is certainly an initial draw. But if the movie doesn't grab you in the first few minutes, that novelty wears off and you'll probably move on. But that is certainly not the case with THE MONGOLIAN CONNECTION. This has the look, feel and edge of a 1970s action film. There is a grittiness to the proceedings but also a beauty in the choreography of the action scenes. Director Drew Thomas knows his way around an action scene, and you'll find that out within the first ten minutes. As we all know, most shootouts are a bore. We've seen millions. But watch the first one in this film and don't tell me you don't see touches of Brian DePalma. In a later car chase scene (again, we've seen millions), you'll be reminded of Friedkin's FRENCH CONNECTION scene. Maybe that's going overboard for a lower budget genre action picture, but you'll notice this film is made with care. You'll care about the characters, and there is some humor. A lot of these action pix forget to throw that in, or they lay it on with a trowel. This has just the right amount to make it work, but then it gets back down to dirty business. A very intriguing film and well-worth checking out.

A bad mix of Bruce Lee and Steven Seagal.

[psxexperten · 1/10 · 20 September 2020]

If you like to watch a couple of good-guys kill bad guys with their bare hands and guns you will probably love this no-brainer. I think the total kill number was somewhere between 100 and 200, I lost count. It came to a point when all the killing where just boring to watch. My advise, stay away from this P.O.S. The "10 star" reviews were done by cast and crew.

Just like the Hollywood actions.

[greenglass-80093 · 6/10 · 31 January 2021]

Decent action filled movie guaranteed not to make you bored till the end.