A small-time crook, Alkis, agrees to star in a video which will be used to restore the public image of a corrupted businessman. When Alkis realizes that his accomplices are going to kill him, he only has a few hours to escape from the porn studio in which he is imprisoned.

Somewhere at the beginning of the movie the protagonist muses, “Along with most other Greek action movies, we’re simply a wannabe Hollywood knockoff”, but Do It Yourself (2017) is much more than that. In this movie, comedy and suspense do the sirtaki (a Greek rhythmic group-dance, YouTube it!) together, deftly choreographed by Dimitris Tsilifonis who both wrote and directed this fresh and tech-savvy crime thriller.

The premise of DIY is this: A two-bit criminal, named Alkis (Konstadinos Aspiotis), is goaded into making a (false) confessional video for a businessman whose reputation has been failing after being accused of corrupt dealings with a mob boss. Alkis is to confess to stealing evidence that proves the businessman is wrongly accused, as well as to murdering said mob boss to make the video go viral, however, Alkis figures out that the businessman’s crew want to tie up the loose ends and kill him after he is no longer needed. He decides to attempt an escape, MacGyvering diy tools along the way to help him get out of the building – a building that just so happens to be a very large porn studio with hired thugs at every turn, if not nude scenes being filmed!

DIY very quickly gets into its comedy aspects, though its morbid suspense and mobster sort of characters ground the movie as a thriller. It comes through on the action as well; I would liken this one to Guy Ritchie’s vibe with its similarly snarky dialogue and stylishly fast-paced sequences. A further credit to this black comedy – as technology changes, directors are having to figure out clever ways to depict things such as text messages or articles without breaking the pace of the movie or drawing attention away from the narrative, and that said, Do It Yourself seamlessly toggles between the “real world” happenings and the tech aspects to the story, such as everyday Google and YouTube searching, and it even shows a clever way to portray unlocking a cellphone. Tsilifonis also makes use of a GoPro camera to offer POV shots so that even the mundane goings-on feel a bit frenzied, and with the escape-from-a-building premise, the POV action sequences sometimes felt like a videogame – it was pretty awesome.

Maybe it’s the voyeur in me, but I do love a movie where I am privy to the protagonist’s thoughts. This movie sometimes cuts to first-person dialogue, with the “hero”, Alkis, breaking the 4th wall and by us being able to hear his anxieties, and yet, despite this audience awareness, the script is smartly written in a way where there are still bits and pieces that only make sense later on in the film, keeping the arch of the story exciting. The movie was led by Konstadinos Aspiotis as Alkis, who played this role with great body humor but without coming off slap-sticky. Young director, Dimitris Tsilifonis, may show his age inserting references to 4chan and #TheFappening into the dialogue, but this is an all crowds, thrill ride kind of movie that is sure to please those with a sense of humor and who appreciate the rollercoaster of a nonchronological storyline.

This action-packed escape thriller is “based on the true story that never happened”. It has the heavy suspense of a 1940s noir, darkly comedic relief, the body count of a Tarantino movie, and let’s not forget that it is all set in a porn studio. Do It Yourself is Tsilifonis’s directorial debut for a feature film and is definitely worth a watch. Catch it on DVD and Digital HD beginning March 5th.