Translated material
Cruz without markings
Watch from June 24 on Moscow screens
“Knight and Day” (USA, 2010, James Mangold). June (Cameron Diaz - There's Something About Mary, Honey, The Package) was going to her sister's wedding but instead finds herself in the midst of a dangerous adrenaline-pumping adventure after her companion on a domestic flight turns out to be an irresistible "guy" Don't Miss" who calls himself Roy (Tom Cruise - Top Gun, Rain Man, Troop Troop) and appears to be an out-of-control secret agent. Focusing on genre samples from twenty years ago, it’s a purely summer story that helps pass an hour and a half of summer time while waiting for the next episode of “Impossible Mission.” There are several absolutely brilliant gags in the film, but overall, this whole romantic-spy farce brings, alas, not as much joy as expected after the absolutely flawless trailer. Even the completely stupid “Killers”, released the week before last and cut according to approximately the same patterns, look much more energetic and funnier. Also starring Peter Sarsgaard, Olivier Martinez, Karl Elleine, Marc Blucas, Jeffrey Corazzini, Maggie Gryce and Greg Paul.“Little Big Soldier” (China, 2010, Shen Ding). As a result of a brutal internecine battle between two Chinese principalities, only two remained alive on the battlefield - army private Liang (Jackie Chan - "Rush Hour", "Tuxedo", "The Spy Next Door") and Army General Wei (Lee Hum - Wang -- "Chinese Strike Force", "Lust", "Punishing Fist"). The Big (that is, older) Soldier takes the Little Soldier prisoner and intends to deliver him to his master, hoping for a reward and demobilization. But along the way they will face many challenges, the result of which will, of course, be a reassessment of values and “the beginning of a wonderful friendship.” A very good (in any case, much better than Chan’s latest Hollywood experiments) historical and clownish adventure action film, the idea of which Chan came up with twenty years ago, but only brought to life now. Also starring Xiao Dong Mei, Lin Peng and Yoo Sung Jung.
“Chimera” (Canada - France - USA, 2009, Vincenzo Natali). A couple of ambitious biologists (Adrien Brody - "The Pianist", "King Kong", "The Brothers Bloom" and Sarah Polley ("Existence", "Dawn of the Dead", "Mr. Nobody") conduct experiments on crossing human DNA in their own country house and animals. The result of their experiment is the birth of a creature named Dren (Dolphin Shaniak - “Extreme”, “Brice the Magnificent”, “Pink Panther”) - an unknown animal capable of changing the fate of civilization and at least the life of its creators. The first budget project of the amazing director Natalie, who has been teetering on the brink of genius for almost a decade and a half (Cube, Coder, Emptiness), which received wide distribution (purely commercial expectations, however, did not live up to), and was also a success at the Sundance and Sitges festivals, where it won a prize for best special effects. In any case, one of the most interesting and significant films of the season, especially if you don’t tune in to the next “chronicle of mutants”, but look at it from a psychological point of view, or even more. or rather, a psychopathological parable. Also starring Stephanie Baird, Amanda Brugel, Abigail Chu, David Hewlett and Brandon McGibbon.
“The Skeptic” (USA, 2009, Tennyson Bordwell). After the mysterious death of his aunt, lawyer Beckett (Tim Daly - "Year of the Comet", "Dangerous Heart", "Storm of the Century") moves into her mansion, where, according to rumors, all is not well with "paranormal activity". The new resident really begins to be overcome by strange mystical manifestations, but, being by nature a convinced materialist, he tries to find more or less rational explanations for them and attracts specialists of various profiles for this... Quite an entertaining film, at times reminiscent of classics of the genre like “13 The Haunting" (1960) and "The Haunting of Hill House" (1963), but most of all it still resembles a very high-quality episode of some television series like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Not many reasons come to mind to go watch it on the big screen. Also starring Zoe Saldana, Tom Arnold, Edward Herrmann, Andrea Roth, Bruce Altman and Robert Prosky, for whom this film was his last.