taranchic Reviews

Everest (2015)

High-grade film

[9/10 · 4 January 2016]

I give films a vote of above 7-8 really seldom and let me begin with explaining how I rate them. At the beginning I consider the film to be perfect with 10 points. But in process of watching film I deduct point by point for some minor aspects. Most common minor aspects are stupid dialogs, stupid acting, weak places of plot, absolutely unrealistic moments. That tally 7-8 point for the greatest films of nowadays. Getting down to our film, I had almost no reason to deduct any of points for the above-mentioned minors. Everything in film is nearly perfect. The film begins with absolutely outstanding shots of the Himalayas. Every technical part of film (sound, picture, editing) is perfect. In such kind of films it is more than important to have a viewer deep in the atmosphere. The plot was written very carefully, due to the multiple sources, such as books of the participants of the notorious climbing, which took place on Everest mount in 1996, documentary film (1998) and true facts. I can't imagine plot to be any better, because it is always hard to adopt true story for a film, especially with a genre like this. But there are still a few shots, I consider shouldn't have taken place in this film. That goes to "not perfect plot" and the reason of vote 9 out of 10. At the same time film is not overextended, I would even say it is rather brief, keeping you near the screen all the time.

I will not tell much about acting, it is just very impressive. And there is not unrealistic exaggerations in the film. It also contains some moral about a lot of things, shown in small dozes. The movie is very colorful and simply beautiful, you can enjoy Himalayas all through the film. I watched it in 2D and can assure you, it looks much better this way, don't bother yourself with 3D version!

Striped Trip (1961)

One of the greatest soviet union comedies

[10/10 · 26 January 2014]

Due to my not declining years, I have seen this film only two times: first, being a child, and now, being a student. I may confess, I didn't like the film very much first time - it seemed not very funny, perhaps, I expected more. But after watching it now, without any superstitions, I can say that my opinion on this film has fully changed.

Let's begin with the great acting, which is proper for almost all soviet comedies and soviet cinematography altogether. I cannot distinguish any actor personally, but all of them were trying to keep up with an unequalled Evgeniy Leonov and they had accomplished their mission. What can I say about a plot? It looks expected and simple enough, but I think, that's a great advantage to the film. It's the comedy, and, I think, fan comes out of everywhere in this performance, to begin with acting, mentioned earlier, and to finish with jokes and dozens of funny situations. Fun of this movie tastes very easy, understandable and pleasant. To get a little bit down, the story is constructed around the animals, people relations and affairs. It looks like there's nothing odd in the movie, all the occurrences, dialogs and locations look appropriate. This film doesn't contain a lot of morale (unless you would seek between the lines), but you'll get a lot of quotations from it - funny and surely to remember.

In the end I will say that it's really a great comedy and even after half of a century past, it remains actual and funny.

Ivan's Childhood (1962)

Totally different, but great point of view

[10/10 · 3 January 2014]

This film is a story about a 12 year old boy Ivan, who happened to spend his childhood within the world of Great Patriotic War. He wasn't supposed to be a part of such a cruel occurrence as war, but having lost parents, chose to help his companions-in-arms in risky and crucial way.

In my opinion, Andrei Tarkovsky has made more an art house film than just a typical soviet military drama. We don't see cruel battles, we don't see divided by war love, we don't see a war itself after all. All we see is the consequences of the war in theirs different appearances. The objective of this movie is common - to show what gore and sorrow the war is holding. But Tarkovsky shows us this gore and sorrow in an interesting, unusual way, through the eyes of little boy, through his mind and dreams also. A black-and-white sharp and high-contrast shot adds definition and dramatic atmosphere to the picture. There are a lot of really frightening and inappropriate for children scenes in the movie shown by Tarkovsky in order to achieve necessary level of horror that war provides.

So I think Andrei Tarkovsky made a great and strong film showing all horror and gore of war in a different style. A am sure, you won't see any familiar to this one military drama, it's totally unique.

Rango (2011)

Simple

[7/10 · 22 March 2011]

I had been looking forward "Rango"'s premiere for a long time. I was expecting it in 3D, but if the film is very good, 3D is not a big deal. This film is first of all for the western lovers. It tells fantastic story of a little chameleon, who happened to be thrown in the middle of the desert. He founds a village (ranch), where he meets new friends and new enemies instead of his past friends: clockwork fish and a half-bodied mannequin of a girl. The first part of the film is devoted to the Rango's handling with new environment, his making new friends. The main events of the film are happening in desert, where the main squad of "good" heroes, headed by Rango trying to find some water for their thirst village. I find this part some kind of boring. There is a part similar to the large quantity of films: chases, fights etc. I would like to distinguish the ugliness and visual enormity of all of the heroes in the movie. While the other studious are trying to do their characters funny and amusing, here we see almost vomitive heroes notwithstanding the Rango only. As for me, Rango was one only hero, who was making fun and entertaining the public. There are present some adult jokes, lame and odd, no one of the audience was laughing. I may mark a nice music accompaniment by the Mexican owls, they where pleasant and funny. So, this film deserves for attention, but there are a lot of better animations. It's very unusual for the minute, but I can't say lucky unusual. I was expecting more.