My Name is Modesty, and You Better Take Notice...

I love B Movies which have a comic book feel to them.  "My Name is Modesty" (2004) is just such a film, complete with loud characters and a campy musical score.  Alexandra Staden ("The Task") portrays our heroine, and she is the epitome of glamour, clad in a sexy evening gown throughout the film.  Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays the evil Miklos.  He is a handsome hunk and part of us hopes that he and Modesty find a way to hook-up, even though we know she will chew him up and spit him out by the end of the film.

  The plot: Modesty manages the floor of an exotic casino in Tangiers.  She is an orphan from the war-torn Balkans.  Her mentor, Louche, owns the casino and she is his "right-hand-man."  Miklos and his gang ambush Louche in an alley, killing him, and then invade the casino.  Miklos wants to get in the casino's vault, but Modesty proves a formidable opponent.  Protecting the employees and outsmarting Miklos is her plan.  Miklos then enters a battle of wits with Modesty, promising to spare employees if she will tell him how she got her name.  Seeing this as an opportunity to buy time, Modesty goes into the story, which we see in the form of flashbacks.  As we hear her story, it becomes apparent to us that she is equipped to defeat Miklos and his machine-gun henchmen.  Unfortunately for Miklos, he is so taken with this woman, he never sees any hint of his impending doom.

   Staden is fantastic in the title role and you guys out there will have trouble taking your eyes off of her while she is on the screen.  Coster-Waldau is also terrific, and he has a story too, which enables Modesty to get inside his head with empathy.  As he looks at Modesty with lust and desire, she looks at him as a cat would view a lamb chop.  This movie is on Netflix, and proves a better way to spend your time than paying $12 to see "The Monuments Men" at your local theater.  One final note, do not be fooled by the DVD box, Quentin Tarantino had nothing to do with this movie.