TONITE’S BEST BET: Bondsky, Dzheims Bondsky Шпион/The Spy (Russia, 2012) (Rossiya 2, 18:15) -- > Who needs 007? Here you get two super-spies for the money (and hot Soviet chixxx to go with ‘em, o’ course) in a big-budget, Boris Akunin-based espionage thriller pitting ace Abwehr agent Wasser against the intrepid (and conflicted!) Russian counter-intelligence team of Maj. Oktiabrsky (F. Bondarchuk) and Lt. Dorin (D. Kozlovsky). These three circle each other relentlessly in the shadow world of Moscow, spring 1941, as the heretofore birds-of-a-feather Nazi-Soviet alliance is, what-ho, rapidly deteriorating and the opening scene of World War II’s second and decisive act is preparing to stun the civilized part of civilization. You get totalitarian goose bumps just thinking about it! OK, you’re right: this *is* a reshuffled-for-TV version of that much-anticipated spring theater release which…didn’t do v. well at the box office and drew some Mikhalkov-like hate-reviews (e.g. “трэш”). And hey, full disclosure: it now scores a modest 5.2/10 on the IMDb scale (from 500+ voters), which shouldn’t exactly encourage Akunin-adaptation fans (or anybody else) given the great success his other novels-to-the-screen have enjoyed. That said, bear three things in mind: (1) the premise – Adm. Canaris putting out disinformation about German intentions/preparations in order to mislead Stalin – is historically sound; and the plan worked, of course, making this essentially a movie about the Abwehr outwitting the Organs, which is not something you see every day here; (2) there is no shortage of spectacle and wonderful silliness here, with Minsk playing a sort of idealized-generic-Soviet-capital made from various unrealized 1930s ideas, including the totally-totalitarian (and thankfully never built) Palace of Soviets and the Dzerzhinsky statue looming over Lubianka Sq. (where it didn’t actually appear there until the 1950s). Given that level of Kultura Dva fun, it’s easy enough to take Hitler and Canaris doing a little anachronistic video-conferencing – at least nobody Skypes. (3) Bondarchuk is *always* entertaining. And what else are you going to watch in this time slot – how about “Worldwide Conspiracy: Invasion of the UFOs” (Ren TV, 18:40)? OK, put on you own pair of NKVD night-vision goggles (which weren’t used until after the war, as you probably guessed) and sit back for some weirdly entertaining, faux-Inglorious-Basterds derring-do. The password is: “СМЕХОТВОРНЫЙ.” Pass it on…
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 02:37:51 +0000
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