"Eastern Promises" **** (out of four): Like it or not, the Russians have their very own "Godfather" with David Cronenberg's dark, brutal thriller about the inner-workings of London's Russian mafia featuring another powerful performance by Viggo Mortensen.

Raimi, Jackson, Cronenberg. How is it that one-time horror directors are becoming some of our best filmmakers? After driving the tongue-in-cheek "Evil Dead" series to cult acclaim, Sam Raimi's biggest shock ended up being the depth of 1998's taut fraternal crime drama "A Simple Plan" (later, of course, he would go on to helm a franchise about a certain web-slinger). Meanwhile, Peter Jackson was making goofy, gory schlock like "Dead Alive" before taking the reigns of a little trilogy called "Lord of the Rings". And now David Cronenberg - the one-time director of horror classics (and not-so-classics) like "The Fly", "Dead Ringers" and "Scanners" follows up his meditation on brutality, "A History of Violence", with "Eastern Promises", a deep, dark Russian-infused masterwork. Unlike 2005's "History", "Promises" doesn't aspire to be anything more than what it is. And what it is happens to be a brutal, taut thriller about the inner-workings of the Russian mafia in London.

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