Let's face it!
Some said MDL is the best Romanian movie, some said it's good but the acting/photography/plot/title etc are bad.
Well, I loved it myself, it's maybe the best in at least 20 years, nevertheless the image, the sound etc are poor compared even to Lorenzo Lamas or Don "The Dragon" Wilson (haha) films.
But let's face it: WE MAY HAVE GOOD FILMS, BUT WE DON'T HAVE FILMS THAT MATCH THE HIGH LEVEL OF CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THE WEST.
We almost don't have a cinematography; what we have is still very immature technically and often artistically. Old moviemakers live in the 60's (which is a bad thing, since we're in 2005!), while almost all younger moviemakers dream about symbolistic, art-packed, (f)art movies - which theoretically are good, of course, but you can't make THE GODFATHER without making 50 bad policiers first. You can't be an instant Antonioni, Tarkovski or Coen.
So, I pretended I didn't see the low budget effects, while I appreciated the sound (ONE OF THE FEW ROMANIAN FILMS WHERE YOU CAND UNDERSTAND THE DIALOGUES!)and the fact that IT HAS AN IDEA and manages to defend it very well. I think the film's bad aspects are Romanian cinematography's bad aspects, but (as a plus) it also has qualities THAT ROMANIAN CINEMATOGRAPHY doesn't - and this is MDL's main quality.
Oh, lieutenant, your men are already dead.