Going the hard way: what movie premieres await us in January
Apparently, due to the excessively warm winter, there were far fewer romantic New Year's tales for viewers of all ages and genders in the January movie schedule than usual. But we are promised action movies in abundance - from the American "Alarum" with stone-faced Sylvester Stallone to Thai "Operation Blood Hunt" with furry monsters. Well, and, traditionally, with family movie entertainment will also not be a problem: with younger schoolchildren can go to have fun on "The Wizard of Emerald City", teenagers for educational purposes will be much more useful Turkish remake of "Holopa". About the most interesting movie premieres in January tell "Izvestia".
"The Wizard of Emerald City. Road of yellow bricks"
January 1
It is even strange that Alexander Volkov's fairy tale about the girl Ellie, the road of yellow bricks and a merry crook who reigned in the city with emeralds on the towers, all these years enjoyed such little demand among the masters of screen adaptation. An inarticulate 1994 film version and a puppet cartoon hailing from the 1970s - not too impressive considering the story's grand cinematic potential. The Oscar-winning "The Wizard of Oz," based on Frank Baum's source material, is a testament to that. So the appearance on the screens, and even at the very beginning of the vacations, almost two hours of children's saga can be considered a late, but the restoration of justice.
The creators of the picture, it seems, have made a lot of effort to move away from such a fashionable nowadays modern trends with the launch into the magic tales of computers with the Internet, or microwave and washing machine. Ellie, of course, has a smartphone - but otherwise it would be completely unscientific fiction, soon 10 years old child, it's high time. Well, of course, there are also some Easter hints for bored parents: the evil sorceress Bastinda wears a black patch over her eye in the manner of Quentin Tarantino's nurse-killer, and Ellie's jack-assel came to the fairy tale right out of "The Mask" with Jim Carrey. Otherwise, everything else is fairy-tale patriarchal - and even Ellie's smartphone in fairyland does not catch the Internet. So parents who dream of at least for a while to tear their kids away from gadgets, finally have a chance to convince their children that this is what a fairy tale looks like.
"Operation Blood Hunt".
January 2
1944. A team of experienced fighters are sent to rescue their comrades on an island lost in the Pacific Ocean, located not far from the Mariana Trench. With a group of special forces lost contact - and there is no explanation for what happened. Therefore, the best suspect the worst and are going to the island, as if in the last battle. Premonitions do not deceive: the special forces are waiting for boxes of bloody gold, guarded by bloodthirsty werewolves, and a battle with otherworldly creatures for their own lives.
The whole plot of the work of Thai filmmakers is completely within the title and as a whole does not promise fans of bloody action movies with monsters any surprises. Except for one, and not to say that it is too pleasant. Hollywood actors in the portrayal of infernal creatures practiced for decades and since "Alien" reached here quite gaping heights. The filmmakers of Thailand, on the other hand, and experience is lower, and budgets are leaner, therefore the monsters of the mysterious island may remind the sophisticated viewer of the gray wolf from the New Year's fairy tale in the district cinema. However, the skill of fighting and stabbing within the genre redeems everything.
"Megalopolis"
January 9
The strangest, the most scandalous and the most long-suffering project of Francis Ford Coppola finally came to the screens, and every fan of cinema simply must watch it - at least out of respect for the persistence of the maestro, who went to the realization of his plan for more than 40 years. The first drafts of the script of the future picture Coppola made while working on "Apocalypse Now", and the shooting was able to start only in 2021, investing in them the money from the sale of his own winery.
At the heart of the script - an episode from a treatise by ancient Roman historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus "On the Conspiracy of Catiline," which tells of an unsuccessful attempted coup d'état staged by patrician Lucius Sergius Catilina, the main opponent of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Coppola transferred the Roman passions to an alternative post-apocalyptic America of the 21st century, in which he combined the technological power of today with the sweet flavor of the decay of the late Roman Empire. In America's New Rome, genius architect Caesar Catilina dreams of creating a utopia on the site of a ruined metropolis using an eco-friendly building material he created. But a conservative mayor, Franklin Cicero, stands in his way, preferring the time-honored solutions of steel and concrete. Cicero's daughter Julia loves her father's greatest enemy, and she faces a difficult choice. Coppola promised the audience a peplum of a new era, a modern version of "Ben Hur" - and we finally have the opportunity to assess how much he succeeded.
"Alarum"
Jan. 16
Joe and Laura are secret agents for the CIA. After a romantic vacation on a secluded island, they had already decided to sacrifice their profession for love - but intelligence does not just let go of its networks. The agents witness an airplane crash and find a flash drive with data among the corpses and wreckage, which - surprise!- turns out to be classified information that could destroy the status quo in the global intelligence community. Of course, Joe and Laura are immediately followed by a battalion of assassins led by the brutal, cold-blooded veteran Chester, who must kill the traitors.
The plot of the action movie, of course, raises a lot of questions. So, it is very curious what kind of data can destroy all the intelligence networks of the world by the mere fact of its existence, why to store them on such an unrepresentable medium, as well as how the electronics survived the crash of an airplane, where the metal melted. But all of that, by golly, is trivial compared to the indomitable veteran Sylvester Stallone as Chester. He speaks in the smoky voice of an elderly Johnny Cash, snacks on whiskey with a check from a grenade, heavy-handedly jokes, pulling the trigger, and in general reminds his arch rival Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of the Terminator. Screen partner Stallone was Scott Eastwood, the son of the legend, who looks on the screen is not worse than a young father. Alas, until Eastwood Jr. has not found his Sergio Leone - we wish him that this happens as soon as possible.
"Four Quarters"
Jan. 16
Excellent girl Masha moves from her native St. Petersburg to Moscow, dreaming of quietly completing the graduating class of the physics school and get a gold medal. But a meeting with a new classmate, a talented sculptor Zhenya, dramatically changes her plans. First love makes the teenagers confront their parents, teachers, friends and acquaintances, defending their right to be together. However, the teenagers will have to confront not only the misunderstanding of others, but also their own youthful maximalism and uncompromisingness - and this hopeless confrontation will inevitably lead to tragedy.
Each generation reads the eternal story of Romeo and Juliet in its own way, and each interpretation - from Baz Luhrmann's rock madness to the communal drama You Never Dreamed - has its own truth. The current version, directed by Evgenia Tirdatova based on the novel by Alexander Yuk, is visually close to Ilya Frez's picture, which became the movie of the year in 1981. However, the modern interpretation, paradoxically, treats the feelings of the characters much more mechanistically. Passion here is not a thunderstorm that breaks destinies for decades to come, but fidgety movements, a reason for gossiping classmates and mom's nagging: say, you will do stupid things - exams will not pass. And he won't pass, that's the trouble. Mom won.
"Bastard. Magnificent Century"
January 23
27-year-old Turkish handsome Mite - heir to a huge fortune, who did not work a day in his trouble-free life. He squanders his father's money and thinks he can do anything, infuriating even his own patient parents in his unwavering conviction. And one day Mite's father decides to make a cruel experiment. Sending his son for upbringing in an Ottoman city of the XVI century, where he will have to lead the life of a miserable villein.
Klim Shipenko's film "Kholop" was released in 2019, to the delight of the public and the grousing of critics - and unexpectedly gave Russia the status of a trendsetter, at least in the genre of comedy about the golden youth and its retribution for wealth and idleness. The idea of educating boy majors with the effective method of whip and whip found sympathy and understanding in various parts of the world. The first national remake was released in Mongolia, telling the story of Damiran, the son of wealthy parents, who, as punishment for his habit of lavishing money, finds himself in the Middle Ages. Six more countries are in the pipeline, from Mexico to Spain. Now the Turkish version is being released - and the beauty of the "magnificent age" will certainly attract viewers to it. Although to a lesser extent than the desire to see how a boy from a good family is birched at the stables. This is how a romantic comedy becomes a social drama. Director Shipenko has a reason to be proud.
"Evil City"
January 30
The action of the movie unfolds in 1238. Khan Batyi's troops approach Kozelsk, one of the appanage centers of the Chernigov principality, but the inhabitants of the city refuse to open the gates to the Mongols. For seven weeks the small Kozelsk army resists the enemy, thousands of aggressors die under the walls of the city, and only after destroying all the defenders of the fortress, the Mongols enter the city. In anger Batu ordered to forget the name of Kozelsk, renaming it "evil city" - but its name, as well as the legend of the fortitude of the Kozelsk inhabitants, forever remained in the centuries.
The story of the seven-week defense of Kozelsk is well known from the chronicles, and the staging team only had to slightly color it, turning it into a martial Russian fantasy, where love rhymes with blood, swords ring and fiery shells from catapults picturesquely pierce the thatched roofs of huts. And let swords in the Russian army of the XIII century were available only to a handful of the most wealthy and noble vigilantes - but sword fighting is terribly popular among young role-players, so that the chances without a fight to familiarize teenagers with the glorious pages of Russian history look very real.
