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Thalan
Reviews
The Beast (1988)
Hollywood story of a Russian war.
I have to admit that this is a great movie and deserves a lot more attention than what it got, but as a Russian I have a few objections to the movie. The film very realisticly portrayed the war itself, but the people in the movie acted too "American". Not that this is bad in all cases, but it takes away from the film. Soviet soldiers do not act like the actors did, but I guess it can be forgiven since the movie was made for an American audience. A great war movie overall, I give it a 7/10.
Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
Hidden Ideas on Pluk
Kin-dza-dza is definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen. One of my friends said that it was the Russian version of Star Wars, although I feel that it surpasses Star Wars in many ways. The basic plot of the movie is that two Russians (A Muscovite who was out to buy some pasta and a Geargian trying to return a violin) get transported to another planet (Pluk) because they pressed some buttons on a mashinka-peremishenia. Pluk is a desert planet and the movie revolves around the two guys trying to get back to earth. However, I feel that it has several ideas, which you don't get hit in the face with when you watch the movie. The first is that, although the society seems primitive, it has a lot of technology (pepelaz, gravitzapa, making phone calls between planets...). I feel that this is saying that we can't really judge anything until we know everything about it. Another idea which was present a lot during the movie was that Pluk may resemble post-apocalyptic Earth. During the movie we see many earth-like structures like small ships and skyscrapers buried in the sands. The remains of carnivals and the remains of a once great civilization. But what if the civilization never disappeared? What if it degenerated to this state? Could we, citizens of earth, turn our oceans into fuel for out space ships? Another thing, what is the difference between having patzaki sing in cages and have birds sing in cages? Finally, PZH is a leader, who just sits in a pool all day, he doesn't really do anything. Like kings from a time ago. This may just be another thing symbolic with degeneration. Nonetheless, I found the movie funny and enjoyable, even if you aren't looking for hidden ideas.
Le jouet (1976)
Funny movie. Better than the American version.
A very nice and funny movie with several ideas tied into it. It is the original movie which was followed by an American version, The Toy. I feel the American version lost some of the important ideas that they were expressing in the original.