burakovchik Reviews

Banditskiy Peterburg: Advokat (2000)

12 on a 10-point scale!

[10/10 · 27 February 2006]

The story: Sergey Chelishev is a young and promising prosecutor who is celebrating his career advance at work only to find out the next morning that his parents were brutally killed. The killer, however, is caught right away, but something doesn't work out in his confession and Chelishev suspects that this is only the tip of the iceberg and wants to continue the investigation. But for some reason, his supervisor (Basilashvili) is reluctant to investigate the matter fully and closes the case. Chelishev decides to find the truth himself and becomes an independent lawyer.

During a routine conversation in jail with one of his clients he accidentally sees his old friend Oleg Zvantcev (Serebryakov) who was thought to have died in Afghanistan long time ago. It turns out Oleg is alive and on top of that he is the leader of one of the largest organized crime groups of the city, working for "the godfather" - Antibiotik (Lev Borisov).

Oleg asks Sergey to help him out by going to an apartment to talk to someone, who turns out to be his wife. Surprise strikes Chelishev when he sees that Oleg's wife is their old friend Katya, whom he always loved.

As Oleg remains in jail, Antibiotik starts to like Chelishev more and more for his wit and courage and eventually Sergey starts replacing Oleg in business and... at home.

One thing never leaves Chelishev's mind - the death of his parents. Well, perhaps the truth is not too far to find anymore. He also knows, that eventually Oleg will find out about him and Katya...

The movie: Vladimir Bortko had certainly directed a masterpiece. It's not a good-looking and corny tale like "Brigada" but actually a strong, serious movie, which keeps the viewer intense and thirsty for the next twist of the plot. Casting is absolutely amazing: Dmitriy Pevcov - one of the top sex-symbols of the Russian cinema - not just plays the character of Sergey but actually develops it going from an honest prosecutor to a tough and cruel criminal. Olga Drozdova who plays Katya (and is Pevcov's wife outside the screen) is absolutely amazing. Not only is she astoundingly beautiful but her feminine part fully completes Chelishev with her emotion, love and fragile-looking strength. And, of course, Antibiotik is a true villain who really makes you hate him.

Combined with original music score by Igor Kornelyuk and brilliant supporting cast (one of my favorite roles of Aleksey Serebryakov) this movie will simply blow you away with its romantic plot, actors' charisma and will show you the criminal world of Saint-Petersburg from the top level to the bottom low life scam artists and murderers.

War (2002)

Absolutely astonishing!

[10/10 · 26 February 2006]

The story: Two British actors are kidnapped somewhere in Georgia and are delivered to Chechnya. The kidnappers demand a ransom, while victims are sitting in a hole in the ground. That's where they meet captain Medvedev (Sergey Bodrov Jr) and Ivan Ermakov (Aleksey Chadov). Medvedev is wounded and very strict, but Ermakov seems to have adjusted and is even helping out the Chechen gang (tribe?) leader with computers.

When Chechen leader - Aslan - learns that he can't get any money he let's the British man go home and get two million pounds to buy out his fiancée. As a gesture of generosity he lets go Ermakov.

The Brit - John - is trying to get the money, and Ivan experiences a post-war life for a Chechnya veteran in his town - no money, no work, ill father. Somehow, John, who was kicked out by every Russian official, finds Ivan and begs him to help him get his fiancée out. Ivan has nothing to lose and he agrees to back to Chechnya...

The movie: This is certainly one of the, if not THE, best movies of Aleksey Balaganov. The story that intertwines lives of Russian soldier, Chechen barbarian bandit and totally not ready for the war as it is British civilian. As always, there is a very deep meaning in every dialogue, every scene and even every look of every character. The music like in many other Balaganov's movies is mostly popular Russian and some Ukranian songs, that emphasize each act and add more emotional content to it.

Perhaps, the movie will shed some light on the situation in Chechnya, and the West will finally understand that you can't negotiate with these people and you can't let them have what they want, because it's never enough for them because they are different. If you're polite with them, they think you're weak - that's the main idea of Balaganov.

John: - Ivan, why do you keep beating this man?

Ivan: - Because this is the only way he will understand. (kicks the prisoner) Faster!

Enjoy the movie. It's a rear quality movie about war.

Blind Man's Bluff (2005)

Guy Ritchie's movie in Russian

[9/10 · 26 February 2006]

The movie shows how modern authority figures gained their power and capital. A lot of them came from not so clean jobs and the movies shows details of that.

Two guys - Simon (Duzhev) and Sergey (Aleksey Panin) - are working for a local mobster (Mikhalkov) as negotiators (extortion specialists actually) and killers. They are not brain surgeons and are quick to pull out a gun, which always puts them in different awkward situations. Considering there are competitors such as crooked cop, local dumb criminals and other low-life element, Simon and Sergey are in for a fun ride... Expect lot of gunshots and a sea of blood.

The movie has gathered a great number of Russian cinema stars even in episodic roles (Andrey Panin is an architect, Andrey Krasko is an unlucky neighbor, Dmitriy Pevtzov is a drug-dealing lawyer, etc.), which makes the movie so much fun to watch. Under a virtuoso management of the director Aleksey Balaganov all characters are simply dumb and extremely standardized, which makes it look like a joke.

Just like Guy Ritchie's movies this one can not really be taken too seriously. On the other hand it's too much dark humor and too much blood to be considered a comedy.

Just keep in mind that it is a true biography of some today's Russian politicians. Perhaps, that will leave you thinking.

p.s. "The Russian Ethiopian" is absolutely hilarious!

Law of the Lawless (2002)

Great but controversial movie

[9/10 · 24 February 2006]

"Brigada" was a breakthrough in Russian cinematography. It was also (and still is) one of the most controversial movies up to this day.

Young man, Sasha Belov, returns home from the army. His friends are happy to see him but his girl turned prostitute and he fights her pimp - "Muha" ("Fly"). After beating him up, he tries to live a normal life rejecting his friends' Cosmos and Pchyola offer of joining them in extortion gang shaking down small businesses and entrepreneurs.

But due to the chain of events, he is later accused in the murder of "Muha" and has to go into hiding. Again, the fate turns so that he leaves his desire to live a normal life and becomes a criminal, eventually growing to become one of the the top mafia leaders in Moscow with all the perks and, of course, consequences...

"Brigada" is loved by some people and hated by others. Some say "it romanticizes the criminals" (perhaps...), others respond "it showed the truth" (may be so...).

In any case, the movie is done in an absolutely brilliant fashion (it took two years to film): amazing casting (especially, Bezrukov, Duzhev, Guseva and Panin), incredible (beyond any words!) soundtrack whose melodies went to almost every Russian cell phone, and last, but not least, a completed scenario, with a rather "hollywodized" ending, but still very impressive, ending.

I would highly recommend this movie but in my opinion, it would be hard to understand for a foreigner who did not live in the 80-s and 90-s in Russia and can't really relate to the events depicted on the screen. Those people that have lived through that time, myself included, can feel anything from nostalgia to anger, those that haven't, can enjoy the plot, effects and romantic story (there aren't too many love scenes but the sexual energy of Guseva and their alliance with Bezrukov just flows from the screen and completely blows you away)

p.s. The most I liked in the movie was how it showed friendship between four men. Four ordinary guys that never quit on each other no matter what. This is probably the central theme of the movie hence came the name.