Reviews

It is an animated movie, but i sat through the whole thing without ever thinking that it's animated.

It is a musical, but i sat through the whole thing without ever thinking that it's a musical (i HATE musicals).

Best of all - don't read any reviews or comments about the movie. Not even this one. That way you'll get the most from this masterpiece, 'cuz ANYTHING that you will read about it will be a spoiler.

But if you insist ...

After loving the penguins (and not much else) in Madagascar, i thought that it won't hurt me to go and see this cute kiddies movie about dancing penguins. What i got is a superb story of love, courage and ambition that made me cry. This is a movie with a strong message and not just an environmental one.

It is not flawless. Some plot lines go unexplored. For example, i didn't understand what exactly is that huge vicious animal that chases Mumble to the Latino penguins. I didn't understand why exactly Mumble looks so different from the rest of his nation. The resolution of the plot is a bit too quick and easy. (Maybe those things will be solved in the DVD.) But there are just enough parts in this movie that are so strong, that all flaws seems unimportant.

This great film is a proof that the animated movie industry is growing up very well.

Not a very good sequel. The first movie was set in a beautiful magical forest and the second one is set in a weird electronic land of transistors and it looks as bad as it sounds. Maria and Mirabela are played by different girls this time and their acting is much more childish. The music, courtesy of Eugen Doga, is still beautiful though. And the animation is still nice. It might be worth watching for having a healthy laugh at Romanian escapism and for the good message of doing something good with your life instead of wasting time, but the plot is too childish and this movie doesn't bring up good nostalgia, like the first "Maria, Mirabela". But hey, little children might enjoy it ...

This movie is a parody of different styles of crime movies. If you are a serious cinema lover - give it a few minutes of your time and you're gonna love it. Don't mind the fact that it's in Russian, because there's not much talk - the pictures speak for themselves.

Part 1 is American: everyone kills everyone, crashed cars everywhere, etc. Then there are fancy-dressed ladies who watch a male stripper! Quite amazing that Soviet censorship allowed such a movie to be released and shown to children (even if it criticizes America...).

Part 2 is French, which is also my favorite. It is black-and-white, the background music is very characteristics of film-noir, and the characters are modeled after French actors: Louis de Funes, Alain Delon, Jean Gabin and Brigitte Bardot.

Part 3 is Italian. It is a hilarious parody of Italian movies about poor neighborhoods.

Part 4 is Russian, or to be more precise - Soviet. The main character is modeled after a famous Russian-Jewish comedy actor Saveli Kramarov and the plot is short and funny.

This is a Soviet movie version of Jules Verne's "Un Capitaine de quinze ans" (A Captain of Fifteen Years). Actually, it's the second Russian movie version of that novel! In case you didn't know, the Soviet movie industry produced a lot of adaptations of non-Russian books, and French adventure epics like those of Jules Verne and Alexander Dumas were particularly popular.

I haven't read the original novel, but i have seen the older Russian black-and-white version and it is far better and entertaining. This version is very grim and violent - a lot of characters, good and bad, are killed in very vicious ways. This adds nothing to the plot, but eliminates the entertainment value completely. Maybe it is closer to the book, but i've got a hunch that it is not. Most probably, the producers were just enjoying the loosening of Soviet censorship and tried to make a American-like action movie. I guess that they imagined that a good action movie has to be scary and violent. Well, they were wrong. Scary it is - but unimaginably boring.

This movie is surprisingly good. Unlike in other movies about fictional young pop-rock bands with a personality, the music and the plot are enjoyable throughout; Peter O'Toole is a wonderful bonus. I wonder how could it remain unnoticed in the sad world of "That Thing You Do". One to rent.

This movie is basically one long sketch from the famous Israeli satirical TV sketch show "The Cameric Quintet (Hakhamishiya Hakamerit)" - and a very good one. All the five stars from the show plus a host of other talented young actors make this a worthwhile, intelligent and fun comedy portraying one crazy (or as some might say - a very usual...) night in a quiet Tel-Aviv neighborhood, along with some trademark Cameric 5 tasteful adult jokes.

You definitely should watch it if you speak Hebrew, and if not - find a good translation.

Four stars out of five.

A memorable quote: The police officer (Rami Heuberger) to young cops: "Is that what I taught you?? Can't you tell unimportant from ... NOT UNIMPORTANT!?"

"Mimino" is one of the best and most popular Russian-speaking comedies ever made, it's a classic and is still often shown on TV. There certainly is a reason - despite a simple plot it's not primitive at all and is still funny even after the twentieth watching. The only big problem with it is that people who don't speak Russian well probably won't understand the humor, as most of it based on the characters grammar mistakes and accents (Georgian and Armenian).

In several small roles famous Russian actors are cast, notably Vladimir Basov as the opera singer and Savelij Kramarov as the convicted criminal.

A memorable quote: "Listen, I'll tell you one clever thing, just don't get hurt: I must drive to the airport first, because in the airport there's one Georgian, my familiar friend; I'll come to him and tell him - 'Hello, Valiko-chan', and he'll say - 'Wah!'; so it will be pleasant to him and when it will be pleasant to my friend, it will be pleasant to me and when it will be pleasant to me I'll drive in such a way that it will be pleasant to you too!" (as you see, it's quite hard to translate the style - the original is a lot better).