Monday, July 13, 2015

White Tiger (orig. Белый тигр / Belyy Tigr) [2012]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoNews.ru listing*
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Film.ru (P. Pryadkin) review*
Gazeta.ru (S. Sinyakov) review*
KinoNews.ru (R. Volokhov) review*
NewsLab.ru (S. Mezenov) review*
OVideo.ru (A. Trunov) review*
RIA Novosti (M. Ganiyants) review*
RusKino.ru (S. Stepnova) review*
THR.ru (V. Ramm) review*


White Tiger (orig. Белый тигр / Belyy Tigr) [2012] [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Karen Shakhnazarov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* along with Aleksandr Borodyanskiy [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* based on the novel [GR]*[WCat] [Amzn]* by Ilya Boyashov [ru-wikip]*[GR-eng] [GR-rus]*[Amzn] [IMDb]) was Russia's submission to the 2013 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.  Additionally, it was nominated for (but did not win) three Nika Awards (the Russian equivalent of the Oscars).  Though the most "conventional" of the contemporary Russian movies that I viewed / reviewed as part of my 2015 Russian Film Tour, I did feel that it did have the official acclaim to include it in my tour. 

The film (fictional, of course) plays like a Russian adaptation of Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick set in the context of World War II: In the closing months of the war, Soviet tank formations come to be terrorized _occasionally_ by a mysterious (ghostly) WHITE Tiger Tank, that appears out of the mists, destroying many tanks, causing havoc in their ranks, before disappearing into the mists / swamps once more.

ALTERNATIVELY, the film could be understood as something of a Russian X-Men / Captain America style superhero movie, because the Russian tank commander Ivan Nadeynov (played by Aleksey Vertkov [IMDb] [KT.ru]*) who comes to be chosen to lead the crew of a specially designed/souped-up  T-34 "super tank" to find / battle this white/mystical Tiger Tank, had battled it before and had been severely wounded, suffering burns over 90% of his body.  YET, at every step of the way in his recovery when superiors / medical personnel were content to dismiss him first as dead, then as hopelessly mortally wounded ("why waste time on him when he's going to die in a few hours anyway?") and finally as destined to be a severely wounded invalid, HE PROVED THEM (almost miraculously) WRONG, EVENTUALLY BECOMING (save for a few scars) COMPLETELY HEALED.  Indeed, he came to be something of a "tank whisperer" claiming to his superiors that "tanks talked to him" and were helping him to hunt down this white, mechanical abomination.

And so with his tank crew, he encounters and battles this tank at least two more times.  And yet, when the War ends, neither he nor his superiors, from his immediate superior Major Federov (played by Vitaliy Kishchenko [IMDb] [KT.ru]*) up all the way to Field Marshall Zhukov (played in the film by Valeriy Grishko [IMDb] [KT.ru]*) are convinced that the "White Tiger" tank was ever really destroyed.  Instead, they feared that Ivan right, that after his last battle with it, having faught it to a draw, it simply disappeared once again into the mists / swamps, WAITING to RISE AND CAUSE THE RUSSIANS HAVOC AGAIN.

Parallel to their concern is the closing boast of captured (and eventually executed at Nuremburg) former Nazi German General Chief of Staff Keitel (played by Christian Redl [IMDb] [KT.ru]*) after signing the formal orders of surrender that "Though yes, the world will hate us now, we're only guilty of actually doing what the rest of Europe always wanted to do but never had the courage: Nobody liked the Jews or the Russians for that matter.  Everybody feared 'the hoards' from the steppes.  We tried to take them on and all that we're guilty of is failing to defeat them."

This is actually a rather frightening closing piece of dialogue in the film because it seems to equate EUROPE (today???) with the Nazis of the past ... and suggests that the "ghostly White Tiger tank" may one day "rise again."

How to talk the Russians down from that frightening assessment?   I suppose that the Russian government could invent reasons to fear us (and yes both we and they could still blow each other up) but there's NOBODY in Europe / the U.S. who would seriously consider an offensive war against Russia.   Yet it must be noted that _Russia itself_ is currently scaring a lot of the smaller European countries along its borders.  They too have still fairly recent experience / fears of tanks (mostly Russian) running across their lands ...

To them, the ghostly tank lurking in the forests / swamps ... would be a Russian one ... Heck, I'm 3/4 Czech ... I know something of tanks too ...


ADDENDA:

(1) How to see the movie?  The film is quite widely available, in Russian, on the internet.  Then subtitles in multiple languages are also quite easy to find on opensubtitles.org (thanks Nashi / FSB ...)

(2) How'd the film actually do?  Not too well, not even in Russia.  It did not break even financially (kinopoisk.ru) and did not score high among viewer responses (megacritic.ru).  Indeed, both recent Russian family-oriented (Moms [2012]) and young adult oriented films (rom-com My Boy Friend is an Angel [2012] / and the Twilight-Saga-ish Dark World [2012]) faired much better both in the box office and with viewer and even critical response.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser. 

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My Boyfriend's an Angel (orig. Мой парень - ангел / Moy Paren Angel) [2012]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoNews.ru listing*
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

New Russian Cinema (A. Forman) review
FanLife.ru (G. Mukhametshin) review*
Film.ru (P. Pryadkin) review*
OVideo.ru (V. Kavalevich) review*
RusKino.ru (S. Stepnova) review

My Boyfriend's an Angel (orig. Мой парень - ангел  / Moy Paren Angel) [2012] [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed by Vera Storozheva [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*, screenplay by Natalya Nazarova [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* based on the novel A Christmas Angel (Рождественский ангел / Rozhdestvenskyy Angel) [LiveLib]* by Mark Aren [LiveLib]*[WCat]) is a Russian Christmas err New Years' romcom that while dismissed by some more heavy-handed Russian critics (above), was embraced by others (also above) and especially viewers [Ivi.ru]*[KN.ru]*[MC.ru].*  I viewed / reviewed the film here as part of my 2015 Russian Film Tour.

RusKino's Svetlana Stepnova (review above),* who did actually generally like the film, nevertheless did duly note (quite importantly IMHO...) the vestiges of Soviet Era ideology in the otherwise light Hollywood style romcom:

In the 1920s, the Communists banned the celebration of Christmas in the Soviet Union.  Yet how can one _ban_ Christmas, especially even the various purely cultural aspects of it?  So in the 1930s, the Communist leadership reinstated various trappings of the holiday, moving it over a week to New Years (Dec 31st) from the the traditional Christmas celebration (Dec. 24-25).  So Stepnova notes that in the post-Communist era, by-and-large ONLY IN RUSSIA is a "Christmas Tree" still called a "New Years Tree" and gifts are exchanged by many on New Years rather than on Christmas, and so forth.  Here, and to the point, while the original (contemporary Russian) novel on which the current film is based places the events of the story clearly within the context of the celebration of Christmas (Dec 24-25), the film still shifts them to New Years (Dec 31-Jan 1).  Still viewers of the film will note that other (far more positive) references to Christianity / the Russian Orthodox Church which remained.  (Sigh ... the place of Christianity / the Russian Orthodox Church in contemporary Russian society and especially among contemporary Russia's elite remains somewhat dicey / ambiguous.  See my review of Leviathan [2014]).

Still, aside from the above mentioned concessions to Soviet era ideology and then recognizing that there still remain elements in Russian (Putinesque?) film circles for whom apparently the very idea of a happy little romance remains a putdown-able "petite bourgeois" concern ;-) ... the film is about as happily / positively rated (by Russian viewers [Ivi.ru]*[KN.ru]*[MC.ru]*) as I have seen ;-). 

So what's the setup to the story?

An angel named Saraphim (played by Artur Smolyaninov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) arrives on Earth (in Moscow) on the night of Dec 30th.  He doesn't even quite know why he arrived there, 'cept that he's "there to help."  Who?  He's not sure either, but it doesn't seem to bother him 'cause he's pretty certain that "God's will, will be done."  He does seem, _slightly odd_ though.  An older woman noticing him passing through a park notes: "You foreigners never wear seem to wear a hat and then complain that Russia is cold." ;-).  He kindly acknowledges her comment, perhaps advice, and just keeps strolling on his way.

The next morning, a 20-something Moscow college (geology) student named Sasha (played by Anna Starshenbaum [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) is woken-up by a phone call, "What time is it?" she asks as she picks up the phone. "5 PM," the voice on the other end answers.  "OMG!" she thinks she's slept through the day, "In Kamchatka ;-)," the voice continues.  It's her dad (played by Sergey Puskepalis [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*).  He, who's out there in Kamchatka as a volcanologist, tells her that he's going to be flying through Moscow later that evening, New Years (presumably for some conference in Europe somewhere), and that it'd be nice to meet-up.  Besides, he tells her that he has a guy, fellow geologist, traveling with him, that he'd like her to meet.  "But dad, I already have a boyfriend."  "Gr8 then bring him along, I'd like to meet him!" "Argh dad, okay ..." (She would have had other plans, but when dad's passing though, all the way from Kamchatka, one accomodates ;-).

So getting-up, she skype's her boyfriend Valery (played by Nikita Efremov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) to tell him of the change of plans.  But by skyping him rather than calling him, she gets to see more than she wants, "Who's the girl in nothing but the red ... who just walked past you to the bathroom?" "No one." "Valery, I'm not blind.  I just saw a young woman in nothing but red ... walk right behind you to your bathroom."  "Oh, her.  She's a cousin from ..."  "Valery, you're an idiot, and ... we're done."  She clicks end to the conversation.

But what now?   She's just told her father that she has a boyfriend, who he's said then he wants to meet.  And three minutes later, she's broken-up with ... said boyfriend.  While she's quickly thinking through alternatives, she notices that her lovely (and lively) presumably INDOOR cat has found her way somehow out her window and is now standing on the ledge of said window.  Sasha goes to grab her from her perch on the window, but ... the cat gracefully jumps to the ledge of the next (neighbor's) window.  The only way not to get her is to reach from her window to the ledge of the next.  Seeing that this would be difficult, Sasha does something stupid (but then lots of things are going on ..., so she's not thinking clearly....):  She climbs onto the ledge of her window in an attempt to catch her cat ... and ... Sasha falls from her window ... 3 stories down ... and ... guess who's there right there on the sidewalk below her window to break her fall? ... ;-) ... and until Sasha comes crashing down on him, Serephim doesn't know why he'd be there, at that exact point at that exact time, either ... The rest of the story follows ;-)

This is just a really cute story.  Yes, Svetlana Stepnova of RusKino.ru (review above) notes that it'd be hard to believe that a humble geology student with a mere volcanogist as her father would have been able to afford the apartment in the center of Moscow where she finds herself, but I would note that most people in New York don't necessarily live like Jerry Seinfeld and his friends did in his TV series either ;-).

What follows is a lovely Russian rom-com that perhaps showcases the trappings of upper-middle class life in Moscow today (glitzy shopping malls, very nice "Starbucks style" cafes, etc).  But honestly, it's not bad to see _occasionally_ a movie like this coming from Russia, or else we in the West would only imagine Russia to be covered by soot-covered snow with grey, dour / utterly joyless prols simply wielding pick-axes / welders'-torches, standing in bread-lines.  Yes, I do understand: Downtown Chicago _also_ looks far better than much of the rest of my city, but it does exist as well, and as in most cities, people travel from one section of town to another in the course of their day-to-day business. 

So good job folks, good job.  If this would be the only kind of movie coming out of Russia, then that'd be one thing.  But in the absence of films like this (showing generally happy young people with typical young people's concerns), many Westerners would honestly think that there'd be no reason for any sane Russian to want to remain Russian at all.

ADDENDUM:

How to see this film?  As with the other films in the series of recent Russian films that I've chosen to write about here, this film is quite widely available, in Russian, on the internet.  The challenge is finding the subtitles for it.  I found the subtitles for the current film on subs.com.ru.  Note that sometimes the subtitles file has to be synchronized to the video.  This can be done using a freeware program called Easy Subtitles Synchronizer.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser. 

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Sunday, July 12, 2015

Self/less [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (PG-13)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tollerico) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

Self/less [2015] (directed by Tersem Singh [IMDb], screenplay by David and Alex Pastor) is a rather _thought-provoking_ (smaller) summer-time "sci-fi-ish" film about a very rich man, a high-flying New York real-estate developer named Damian (played by Ben Kingsley), who's offered a means of extending his life when it would seem that, with terminal cancer, at least Death would finally get the best-of-him.

The process called "shedding" involved the mapping a person's brain and then transferring his/her consciousness by means of a parallel MRI-like device from his/her aging body to a much younger "genetically optimized" donor body.  One can't move one's head, can't have any metal fillings in one's mouth during the scan but ... in a couple of minutes one's consciousness would transferred from one brain to the other (kinda like "transferring one's computer files from one hard drive to another" when one buys a new computer ;-).

And the process costs "only" $250 million ... (probably not something that will be offered by as part of "MediCare Z" any time soon ;-)

There's "a hitch" though ... there's _always_ a hitch.  As Dr. Albright (played, in a perfectly / frighteningly "even-keeled" manner by Matthew Goode), founder and CEO of "Phoenix Corp" working out of (famous for its Voodoo folklore) New Orleans, calmly explained to Damian after he transferred his consciousness into a fit 35-40 y/o donor body (and is played from that point onward by Ryan Reynolds ... talk about "an upgrade" ;-), he has to "take a pill" once a day, for about a year, to "ward off hallucinations."

'Cept ... when Damian inevitably forgets to take his dose, one time, those hallucinations ... feel a lot like ... "flashbacks."  Hey, whose body was this anyway?  The rest of the story ensues ...


Okay, the film is, of course, science fiction-ish, because we can't really do this ... yet.  However, it struck me immediately that the director, Tersem Singh [IMDb], though working out of Hollywood, was Indian born.  And in India, actual occurrences of desperate people sacrificing themselves for their loved ones -- either to make quick-money to save loved ones or offering their organs (at the expense of their lives) for the sake of loved ones -- has been tragically quite common place.  A recent story of this type involving a girl committing suicide in order to _give her eyes_ to her dad who was losing his sight appeared in the Times of India in 2011.   Further some years back, my own Religious Order, the Servants of Mary, were involved in the EXPOSING of an organ trafficking ring operating out of Northern Mozambique (orphans were being drugged and killed for their healthy organs ...).  A BBC story on that matter can be found here.

The Catholic Church's position on organ transplantation is articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (paragraph 2296): _Organ transplants_ are in conformity with the moral law if the physical and psychological dangers and risks to the donor are proportionate to the good that is sought for the recipient. Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorous act and is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy has not given explicit consent. Moreover, it is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons.

So, though "a Hollywood film" of a "science fiction" variety, the issues that it touches are quite _contemporary_ today.  So good job folks, good job!


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Friday, July 10, 2015

Minions [2015]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-I)  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (R. Bentley) review
RogerEbert.com (O. Henderson) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review

Aggregation Sites (Critics / Viewer Comments)

Brazil - Adorocinema.com*
Czech Rep - CSFD.cz*
France - Allocine.fr*
Germany - Film-zeit.de*
Russia -  Megacritic.ru* / KinoPoisk.ru*
U.S.A. - Rottentomatoes.com

Other (M/L Random) Individual Reviews from Around the World:

Czech Rep - Červeny Koberec  (E. Bartlová) review*
France - Camera Oscura (Th. Grégoire) review*
Indonesia - Amir at the Movies (A.S. Siregar) review*
U.K. - Eye For Film (J. Fae) review


Minions [2015] (directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin, screenplay by Brian Lynch) invents an appropriately silly "origins story" for the legion of loveable yellow pill / "tic tac"-shaped minions that "arch-wannabe villain" Gru had working for him in the Despicable Me [2010] [2013] films.

Indeed, one of the heartening messages the whole series of films was that "It's REALLY HARD to be COMPLETELY EVIL."  As Gru tried REALLY HARD to be EVIL in especially the first Despicable Me [2010] movie, so too the Minions TRIED REALLY HARD to at least ATTACH themselves to (someone who was) EVIL in the current film.  But, it proved really, really hard as neither We nor They prove to be EVIL enough (or at least COMPETENT ENOUGH in Our / Their Evil) to truly "satisfy" ;-)

So ... in the initial sequence of the film, we watch these poor lovable wannabe "sycophants" JUST TRYING REALLY HARD TO "GO WITH THE FLOW" (and attach themselves to the MOST EVIL MONSTER out there) only to, though their own sincere incompetence, bring about the downfalls of ... The Dinosaurs, The Pharaohs of Egypt, Dracula ... and ... even Napoleon ... :-).  Again, they had their "hearts in the wrong place" but ... it was STILL NOT ENOUGH ;-).

So ... after causing Napoleon's army to freeze out there in Russia, they find an ice cave somewhere and spend the next 150 years or so seeing if they could come to content themselves to live "unattached" (to someone who was Evil).  But ... after 150 years ... they find themselves increasingly ... bored.  (Seriously, some of the funniest sketches in the film depict these poor, goofily drawn, yellow pill shaped Minions becoming increasingly, desperately bored with their "pointless" lives ;-)

So three minions Kevin, Stewart and Bob (all voiced by Pierre Coffin) "climb out their hole," circa 1960, and set-out (for the rest of the Tribe) to look for someone Evil enough to serve.  Eventually at a somewhat anachronistic 1968 "Villain Con" (held in a swamp where Orlando, FL would one day stand ;-) ;-) they run into a drawn-like Jessica Rabbit "Scarlett O'Hara wannabe" named Scarlett Overkill (voiced by Sandra Bullock) who impresses them enough to be worthy of their service.

And she does have a job for them ... Feeling herself to have been "under-appreciated" throughout all her life, she presses them to go to London and steal the Queen of England's crown jewels so that she could feel herself to be "a princess."

The rest of the film follows with these three yellow pill-shaped characters setting off on (as the Tribune Services critic Rick Bentley called) a "Three Stooges"-like attempt to pull off a Thomas Crown Affair [1968] [1999] like heist of the Queen's Crown Jewels.  Much, often very, very silly ... ensues ;-)

Okay, adults, YOUR LITTLE KIDS WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY LOVE THIS FILM ;-).  The concern is for you ... ;-)

BUT ... one of the joys of this film for adults is LISTENING TO THE THREE LITTLE MINIONS "gibbering." This is because as VIRTUALLY EVERY CRITIC THAT I CITE ABOVE NOTES ... they speak an amalgam of English, Spanish, French (and I identified Italian) that's both at times JUST PLAIN STUPID (one gibbers in garbled French apparently about "Sausage made of Mussels") and another REPEATEDLY gives surprisingly CLEAR DIRECTIONS ... IN SPANISH ("por aca", "por aba..." ;-) and a third, always "a little bit behind" calls out repeatedly (IN ITALIAN) "aspetta!" (which means "wait" ;-).  The mish-mash of languages that one hears will almost certainly entertain a fair amount of the adults as they realize "OMG ... I can understand these things" ;-) ;-)

Anyway, this is a SILLY MOVIE ... the kids will love it, and my sense is many / most adults will shake their heads and grudgingly admit that they kinda love it as well ;-)

A nice summer-time diversion then for most / all ;-)


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.  

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Calculator (orig. Вычислитель / Vychislitel) [2014]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoNews.ru listing*
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Kritikanstvo.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Film.ru (E. Ukhov) review*
Filmpro.ru (A. Temirdzhanova) review*
Gazeta.ru (D. Slyusarenko) review*
Kino-teatr.ru (D. Karpyuk) review*
Kommersant.ru (L. Maslova) review*
OVideo.ru (Barnidator) review*
RusKino.ru (S. Stepnova) review*


Calculator (orig. Вычислитель) [2014] [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed and screenplay cowritten by Dmitriy Grachev [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* along with Andrey Kutuza [IMDb] [KP.ru]* based on the novel [GR] by Aleksandr Gromov [en.wikip] [ru.wikip]*[GR]*[IMDb] [KP.ru]*) is a recent, relatively low-budget Russian science fiction film (though interestingly filmed in Iceland [IMDb]) that utilizes enough of the conventions of science fiction that American / Western viewers would immediately understand it as belonging to this genre.

I included the film in my 2015 Russian Film Tour an initiative of mine whose aim is to offer Readers here a better sense of the diversity of the film scene in Russia today than one would get if one relied solely on the relatively few Russian films that make it to "art theaters" outside of the country / in the West.  

Set a thousand years in the future,in an initial voice-over, one of the film's principal protagonists, 30-something Christina (played by Anna Chipovskaya [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) tells us, that humanity has expanded into the Cosmos, organizing itself into a "Free World's League."  Yet as she continues her initial explanatory voice-over, it becomes clear that not all that much has changed:  "Security" in the "Free Worlds League" is now being run by an omnipresent, computerized "Total Control" surveillance system and Christiana's being sent to a cold, desolate penal planet called HT-59 for ... having killed her drunk-no-good-violent-cheating husband (we learn later by hitting him over the head with an ashtray ;-).  So ... despite flying all about the Cosmos, people, both socially and individually, have ... remained people.  How's that for a Russian "wet-blanket" of an insight? ;-) 

So, in the film's initial sequence, we watch Christina along with a number of other condemned (for a random assortment of crimes deemed "grave" by the current "powers that be") arrive in an appropriately sleek/futuristic spaceship at the (penal) planet's principal (guard) base.  There they are reminded that since "humanity has advanced beyond the barbarity of the death penalty," they are not going to be executed.  Instead, they're being condemned to live out their days -- basically every man/woman for him / herself -- OUTSIDE the base on the cold, desolate planet.  They are then escorted outside the base, given minimal supplies to divide among themselves, and told that if after an hour-or-two they remain within rifle-range of the base, THEN they would be shot by the guards from their perches at the base -- presumably because it would no longer be considered an execution by the penal authorities but rather a security-action on the part of the base or a suicide on the part of the prisoner(s) in question).  Wonderful ... Siberia or Devil's Island ... 1000 years hence ;-).  

So who were the prisoners?  Well there was Christina, convicted of having killed her husband in a domestic squabble, as well as a motley crew of others: As would often be the case in a totalitarian state where presumably _everybody_ could have been guilty _of something_, the group of condemned included not just violent criminals, quickly "organized" by a hardened mobster thug named Yust Van Borg (played by Vinnie Jones [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*), but _also_ a(n Orthodox) priest named Yan (John) (played by Vladas Bagdonas [IMDb] [KT.ru]*), an assortment of lesser, more petty, crinimals, both male and female, and "a former Presidential Advisor", named Ervin Kann (played by Evgeniy Mironov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*), who had been a designer of the "Total Control System" (had been part of the Regime) but had now somehow fallen into disfavor now with "the President" (Figures like Kann have had a long history of existence in Russia, notably under the Communists, though under Stalin they generally ended up with a bullet in their heads.  In today's Russia, former Oligarch, since fallen into disfavor with PutinMikhail Khordorkov [en.wikip] [ru.wikip]*, could be seen as something of an Ervin Kann figure).

As "a former Presidential Advisor" and one who had been involved "in security," Kann knew something about the penal planet HT-51 as well as the way the "Total Control System" operated.  Yust Van Borg _also_ knew something about both, but obviously only "from the outside" (from stories of other prisoners, etc).

Anyway, early in the film, as the group of prisoners was dumped outside of the guard base and told to quickly make their way "out of firing range" Kann quickly makes a deal with Yust Van Borg for his (relative) freedom.  He (and Christi quickly joins him) would be allowed to break away from Yust Van Borg's group in exchange for taking a significantly smaller portion of the already meager supplies that the group had been given by the base officials before dumping them outside.  Yust Van Borg takes the deal because he figures that Kann / Christi are basically giving-up / committing suicide, while Kann knows that the supplies that they were given weren't nearly enough to ensure survival by anyone anyway.

Both groups, Yust Van Borg's larger group, and Kann / Christi then begin a trek (1) outside of firing range of the Base, and (2) toward a set of largely fabled Islands nick-named "The Isles of Happiness" where if they reach them, they could live-out their lives in relative peace.  But it's a long way across a marshy, cold, largely desolate planet, and much inevitably ensues ...

It's a pretty good story filmed in the black volcanic rock strewn wastes of northern Iceland [IMDb] and one that American / Western movie-fans would immediately recognize as following the conventions of classic contemporary science fiction.  I recently found the film, utilizing Russian website megacritic.ru.

The film is relatively widely available, albeit in Russian, on the internet.  English subtitles, machine translated from a set of Romanian (! ;-) subtitles can be found on the opensubtitles.org website.

Not a bad film!

* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.  

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Moms / Mamy (orig. мамы) [2012]

MPAA (PG)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoNews.ru listing*
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Gazeta.ru (S. Sinyakou) review*
KinoAfisha.ru (O. Egerova) review*
KinoNews.ru (R. Volohov) review*
Kino-Teatr.ru (M. Milian) review*
OVideo.ru (V. Kavalevich) review*
OVideo.ru (A. Trunov) review*
RusKino.ru (S. Stepnova) review*
UralWeb.ru (O. Petrov) review*
Volgograd.ru (R. Aprelev) review*
VsiSumi.com (A.Prikazchik) review*

Moms / Mamy (orig. мамы) [2012] [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* is a FUN Russian family comedy built around the celebration of Mothers' Day (err, International Women's Day, March 8) in Russia with which I chose TO BEGIN my 2015 Russian Film Tour an initiative of mine whose aim is to offer Readers here a better sense of the diversity of the film scene in Russia today than one would get if one relied solely on the relatively few Russian films that make it to "art theaters" outside of the country / in the West.

Intertwining the stories of eight mothers (and their children/loved ones) across Russia on that day, American / Western viewers would find the film's structure to be similar to light recent Hollywood holiday-themed productions such as Valentine's Day [2010] and New Year's Eve [2011].  As in the case of those Hollywood productions, the (Russian) film spawned two (Russian) sequels: Happy New Years Moms! (orig. С Новым годом, мамы!) [2012] [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* and Moms 3 (orig. мамы 3) [2014] IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* ... to similar (Russian) critical exasperation ;-) as that which greeted the New Year's Eve sequel to the fresher/more successful Valentine's Day film in the States.

Russian films of this sort, while both common and popular in Russia -- just look-up some of the reviews listed above, machine translation if not altogether satisfying is no longer horrible using the Chrome browser / translate.google.com -- are often _not_ particularly easy to find in the West.  YET I DO BELIEVE IT IS IMPORTANT FOR AMERICANS / WESTERNERS TO SEE THEM  or AT LEAST TO KNOW OF THEM.  Why?  Because the ONLY Russian films that find their way to the United States tend to be PONDEROUS "EPICS" that I do believe reinforce a A VERY PROBLEMATIC American stereotype of Russians as a backward, often filth-covered, utterly incomprehensible and above all _humorless_ people ... hence worthy of enduring MISTRUST and arguably HATE.  I recently reviewed one such PONDEROUS Russian "epic" Hard to be a God [2013], which while CERTAINLY AN ACHIEVEMENT -- the poor Russian director worked on this/his "sci-fi" epic for 18 years including 6 years of filming, before DYING before completing the work in the final editing phase -- PLAYED "HOOK, LINE AND SINKER" INTO THAT "utterly humorless, filth-covered people" STEREOTYPE.

So after seeing and reviewing that film and even talking to a number of the people at the Gene Siskel Film Center (generally sympathetic to my complaints, but arguing "What can we do? We can show only what's available.  There are distributors to deal with, etc ...") I went online looking for recent Russian films that were both "UNEXPECTED" (from an American/Western point of view) and  LIGHT.

Of the various Russian Film Databases that I generally list at the top of my reviews (of Russian films), MegaCritic.ru IMHO proves to be the most useful in this regard because it can sort films according, year, genre, nation of origin and POPULARITY.  In this way, I first discovered Moms (orig. мамы) [2012].

Then, Russian films, probably pirated..., are actually quite easy to find (IN RUSSIAN) online.  The difficulty is finding subtitles for them.  For Moms (orig. мамы) [2012], I found a SERBIAN .srt (subtitle) file (! ;-) using the opensubtitles.org website.  After downloading the Serbian .srt file, it proved not particularly difficult to (machine translate) the file using translate.google.com to create an (machine translated) ENGLISH .srt (subtitle) file.  Yes, the translations are often "imperfect" (LOL ;-), but they're much better than nothing ;-).  Then with a Russian version of the film and English subtitles created this way, I was able to see the film.

And IMHO it was definitely worth it ... because this was a LOVELY and often very funny Russian story about the celebration of Russian Mothers' Day (err, International Women's Day and some of the characters in the film were truly well-conceived producing a film that proved unsurprisingly to be multiple sequel-worthy "hit" in Russia, and one which Americans / Westerners really ought to know about.

So what were some of the characters / stories in the film?

Well, the film began with the story of an anchorwoman (played wonderfully by Anastasiya Zavorotnyuk [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) of a early morning news program for a local TV station "Oryol/Eagle TV" out in the regional city of Oryol, pop. 317,000, a couple hundred miles SSW of Moscow and about 100 miles NE from the border with Ukraine (Note that "orel/oryol" means "eagle" in Russian).

Oryol is the capital of Oryol Oblast with a total population of about 786,000 and WW II buffs may recognize Oryol's name as it that was a significant regional city not altogether far from Kursk (the site of the 1943 battle which finally irrevocably turned the course of WW II on the Eastern Front).  To give Americans a frame of reference, Oryol's population is somewhat more than Amarillo, TX, Baton Rouge, LA and Birmingham, AL (which are around 200,000) and somewhat less than Colorado Springs, CO, Minneapolis, MN, Omaha, NE and Wichita, KS (which are around 400,000).

Anyway, people don't necessarily _dream_ of being the "early morning news anchor" at a TV station in _any_ of these places.  And yet, it is a job, and this anchorwoman (as a woman...) was doing her level-best to be _professional_ about it, even if everybody else was still asleep, including her camera-man who kept dosing off during her broadcast and the late-night staff that left her to work with the previous day's notes (she begins her broadcast not even realizing that it was Mother's Day...).

As she's interviewing some unfortunate local government official (played again wonderfully by Andrey Fedortsov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) who, like her, was of sufficiently unimportant rank to be sent by his higher-ups to get up and be interviewed on the local TV station at such an ungodly hour, she's delighted to see that there's _someone_ "calling on the line."

She interrupts the good-natured if half-asleep and not particularly important government official who's dutifully (and still somewhat enthusiastically) rambling-on about whatever his still-no-doubt-sleeping higher-ups had sent him to the station to talk about, to say "we have a caller."

BUT WHO IS THE CALLER?  It's her 12-14 year old son (played by Sergey Pokhodaev [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*), who's calling in to complain: "Ma' did you take my keys again?"  (She did).  Flustered, she tells him (on the air ...) "Just go to school son, I'll be home before you get back," where upon he reminds her, "But mom, it's a national holiday" ("Mother's Day") so there is no school.  (She herself forgot, and the NOTES !$#% she was left with by the previous night's staff didn't say anything about this either).  More flustered now (and thanking the Heavens that NO ONE IS WATCHING ANYWAY ;-) she tells him then to "just stay home" and "entertain himself" until she gets back, where upon, of course, the 12-14 year old son, kinda rolls his eyes.  What can he do?

WHAT HE DOES DO ... is send his mother an e-mail -- while she's still interviewing the good-natured, if still-half-asleep flunky of a government official -- wishing her a Happy Mother's Day.  She again, interrupts the government official, announcing: "We have an e-mail here" and as she reads the e-mail out on the air, she realizes that it's from her son ... wishing her a Happy Mother's Day ... AND SHE BEGINS TO CRY ... ;-).

She leaves the government official on air for a moment, telling him "just continue on talking" ... and then comes back, STILL CRYING, WITH A PHOTO ALBUM ... and starts showing the still talking, still good natured, government official (as well as a the TV audience) pictures of her son, when he was a baby, when he was 18 months old, when he "kicked his first soccer ball" and so forth.  NOW IT'S THE SON who's THANKING GOD that "NO ONE IS WATCHING THE PROGRAM" :-) ;-).

But of course there is ... It turns out that there is a TV exec from Moscow (played by Igor Vernik [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) just getting out of bed and still dressed in "South Park" character emblazoned boxer shorts ;-), who's in Oryel visiting his own mother for Mother's Day, who sees this lovely regional TV announcer showing pictures of her boy on regional TV and ... has "an idea for a new show" ... ;-)

How can one NOT LIKE that story? ;-) ;-)

And there are 7 others:

There's one about a lovely family that's "gift challenged" ;-).  They are all nice people, but have no idea what would be an appropriate gift for their lovely mother.  So they wake her up (she played again wonderfully by Marina Golub [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*), they make her breakfast and then announce ... that they got her a ticket to go ... skydiving ;-).  Apparently, the son (played by Ivan Dobronravov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) was a local, again in some regional city somewhere, skydiving instructor.  She protests: "But all I wanted was a crock-pot" ;-).  The dad / her husband (played with wonderful, sincere cluelessness by Fyodor Dobronravov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) answers: "Honey, we can get you a crock-pot anytime.  This is something that you'll be able to remember your whole life.  10-20 years from now, your grandchildren will be saying 'We have one cool grandma'" and their smiling 10 year old daughter (played by Polina Stremousova [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) appears to agree ... much has to play-out ... ;-)

Then there's a tough guy boxer (played by Mikhail Porechenkov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) enforcer for the local, well, "powers that be" (mafya...), WHO GREW-UP IN AN ORPHANAGE (never had a mother) ... who starts getting phone calls on his cell-phone that day from an older, somewhat confused grandmotherly woman (played by Yekaterina Vasilyeva [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) asking for her son Kolya. "I'm not Kolya!" he keeps telling her, but she keeps calling.  So there he is, IN A MEAT LOCKER, ABOUT TO BEAT-UP SOMEONE WHO "OWES THE BOSS" MONEY, when she calls AGAIN ($#!).  She needs Kolya, to her help her with some plumbing.  At this point he's tired and having extracted at least some money from the guy he had, hands-tied up to a meat hook, to "make the boss happy" decides that he'll try to help the poor, somewhat confused lady.  After all, he may not be Kolya, and he never had a mother, but ... he did have "some skills and some connections" to fix whatever "needed to be fixed" for her ... ;-)

Then there's some SUPER BUSY, high powered, big shot Moscow exec (played wonderfully by Sergey Bezrukov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*).  When he "comes to the office" that day, his super-efficient / perfectly-for-her-position drop-dead beautiful administrative assistant (played again, perfectly for the role by Elena Korikova [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) has "all his gifts" ready for the day (it is "International Women's Day" after all).  So she's arranged gifts to be sent out: (1) to his two ex-wives, (2) for his four current mistresses, (3) six gifts for "the second bench" ;-), and then (4) random gifts then for other "potential future prospects."  He looks at them, approves, tells her to send them out and ... then tells her that _he's_ taking the rest of the day off.  (Honestly, "where's HER GIFT?" ... ;-).  BUT ... he has a place to visit ... which (spoiler here) ends up sending him on a much better course than it would originally seem.

There are two sets of stories about children of divorce.  One is actually very interesting because the boy (played by Semyon Treskunov [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) is from a rich family.  His dad (Yuriy (Gosha) Kutsenko [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) is a record producer, his mom (Kseniya Buravskaya [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) apparently an artist, and he talks to his guard (played by Sergey Badyuk [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) who's a "former paratrooper" who left his own family after coming back from the service because he felt he was "too messed up to be a good father."  The boy tells the depressed guard that his daughter would probably prefer a "messed up dad" to none at all ...

And there's a silly/funny story about a tough "under-cover anti-narcotics FSB agent" (played by Dmitriy Dyuzhev [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) who "learned all that is really important" from his school teacher mom (played by Liya Akhedzhakova [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KT.ru]*) ... who's actually learned all that SHE NEEDS TO KNOW about "his way of life" ... "watching TV" ;-)

Finally, there's a perfectionist father (played by ), who's really tough on his son (played by ), but then softens up to his no longer perfect (gettting older ...) mother (played by ).

It all makes for some VERY INTERESTING REFLECTIONS ON MOTHERHOOD, FAMILY and VALUES in general.  And it's sweet ... and it comes from our once decades-long enemy (and perhaps soon to be enemy once more ...) ... Russia.

So folks, you don't need to hear it from me: but good job, honestly good job. 


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser.  

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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Terminator Genisys [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (1 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  

Terminator Genisys [2015] (directed by Alan Taylor, screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier based on the characters created by James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd) is the fifth installment in the Terminator story/franchise.

The series throughout has gloried in appropriating Biblical / Christian concepts and recasting them in IMHO often fascinating / thought-provoking ways.

The basic story line was outlined in the first Terminator [1984] film (which came out when I was a college student).  In that film, both a "Monstrous" mechanical "Terminator" (played by young Arnold Schwarzenegger) and an "Angelic" (though human) warrior figure named Kyle Reese (played in the original film by Michael Biehn) were sent back from the Future to Los Angeles of 1984 to find a lowly waitress named Sarah Conner (played in the original film by Linda Hamilton), note Sarah's "Biblical name."  The monstrous mechanical "Terminator" (as fierce as ANY DRAGON, like that of the 12th Chapter of the Book of Revelation) was sent back to FIND AND KILL Sarah Conner, while the "Angelic" Kyle Reese was sent to PROTECT HER by her Son, John Conner (note the initials "J.C.").  Why?  Because, Sarah's son, John ("J.C.") Conner would grow up to SAVE HUMANITY in an Apocalyptic battle with interconnected sentient machinery which, born of human arrogance, that is, Sin, had decided (in a "monstrous nanosecond") to destroy Humanity, its unpredictable maker.  (Readers note here that my thesis paper at the end of my seminary years was based On the Marian Imagery of the Terminator (1996)).  

The rest of the subsequent Terminator series continued with explorations of the relationships between (1) Humanity and Computers / Machinery and (2) Humanity and (Super) Humanity, that is, something approaching Divinity: Would a person arriving from the future to a previous age be perceived by people of that previous age to be at minimum "angelic" / "superhuman" or perhaps even "Divine"?  Could a super-intelligent, super-capable machine or perhaps an "machine enhanced person" begin to appear "Superhuman to Divine"?

The current film certainly continues to explore these questions as well as some of the paradoxes of time travel (If one were to go back in time to change an event in the past, could one, "poof," just destroy one's own future existence, or would one continue to exist then in the "new present" ;-)

In any case, in the current film near the end of the climactic battle with the machines, Kyle Reese (played now by Jai Courtney) is sent by John Conner (played by Jason Clarke) back to 1984 to find / save Sarah Conner (played now by Emilia Clarke) as in the first movie ... BUT ... the circumstances of Sarah (and really of the world) have been changed by the time traveling interventions that have occurred in the intervening movies (YES dear readers, keeping track of the effects of time traveling thoughout the film-series is enough to make your heads spin ;-).  Indeed, an Arnold Schwarzenegger-playing cyborg is a now "Guardian" PROTECTING Sarah Conner rather than seeking to destroy her (something that poor Kyle Reese, who's spent his whole life battling machines, had a difficult time wrapping his head around).

Still the basic goal of Reese / Sarah Conner (by now very well informed about the future battle with technology) is to find the point in which the Machines would lash out at Humanity (Judgement Day) and STOP IT.

That day turns out to be in 2017, when a new GeniSys ("Killer") Ap is supposedly going to be lauched which promised to "seemlessly link together all the gadgets of the world" to form a universal (or at least world-wide) "SkyNet."

So Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner have to then jump from 1984 to 2017 to stop this ... and ... much then ensues... ;-)

AMONG that which ensues is an exploration of a new "interesting quasi theological question" (in the context of the whole Terminator storyline / franchise): If John Conner, born of a human mother (and of an "angelic" human father from the future ...) could be understood as a (Christ-like) "Savior figure" for humanity, what would an "anti-John Conner" look like and how would he come to be (created/conceived)?

Anyway, all the "Apocalyptic" violence aside (something that has also been part-and-parcel of the whole Terminator franchise...), I continued to enjoy some of the more thought provoking aspects of the story ;-)


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