Apologies, it’s been too long since my last post. So, interesting stuff this Russian cop movie. Since, ‘Nightwatch’ I’ve been slowly becoming a big fan of Russian movies and this is no exception.
After a confident score opens the film, (I’m sure I’ve heard the musical phrase it uses somewhere else!??), we’re launched into an impressive gun battle that reminded me of a sequence in Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’: an armed gang calmly takes on the police in a roaming gun battle through the city streets.
Actually its just occurred to me that there are several sequences that remind me of other films – rocket launcher from window takes out van, “the quarterback is toast!” I remember thinking. I digress.
This is an independent Russian Swedish co-production so I’ll let it off the hook. Where was I? Yes gun battle.
Unfortunately, this is part of a police stakeout gone awry, leaving a major PR disaster on the police department’s hands.
So what do they decide to do?
Well, they agree to turn the hunt for the criminals into a tv show – to be broadcast live. Despite some iffy, naive and convenient plotting throughout the film, including why a TV broadcaster would wish to risk innocent bystanders getting blown apart live in front of it’s viewing public – I really enjoyed it – and it has a few surprises up its sleeve as the gang gets cornered inside a massive urban tower block.
It’s great to see entertaing action movies from outside the USA and Asia, and I’m looking forward to a couple more Russian films that are in the pipeline.
Filed under: action, cinema, drama, entertainment, film, movies , Anders Banke, Andrei Merzlikin, Горячие новости, Goryachie novosti, Heat, Mariya Mashkova
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