The Crew

I love this awesome movie. It covers the various complexity of human relationships in a wonderful emotional and action packed manner. Great acting by every single actor. A brilliant experience.

So, the quality of CGI and special effects coming out of Russia on tiny budgets compared to the engorged Hollywood blockbusters is excellent. The storyline was also well-paced and several sub-narratives kept pace.

For a non-Russian, the narrative of the donated toys for an orphanage being put onto a rickety cargo plane by the benefactrice is revealing of the degree to which humanitarian aid may be more due to personal initiative than a mega-charity or the State; it is also telling that the distribution and transport seems to be not as taken for granted as in the US; that's hardly surprising for a country that's the largest in the world but "only" 144 million inhabitants; much internal distribution must be by cargo plane since a dense road or rail system would not be economically feasible.

The lead, Danila Kozlovsky, is a fine actor who is also extremely handsome, as if he had stepped out of an idealized comic book. He is an attractive brunet in the style of a young Olivier Martinez of France. If he were fluent in English, he could be a star in the West, not just in Russia.

Now - nothing to do with the film - the English dubbing was only "acceptable".

1. The mix of English accents is odd, a mix of Estuary English and various regional accents that are mixed in an unnatural manner. If the dubbing company cannot accurately cast the accent actors to reflect British society, it should stick to a General American accent, since there is little of the socio-economic and highly regional character found in Britain (where there is NO majority vernacular, even today). It's just make the dubbing "false" to British viewers.

2. The English translation of the Russian dialog was "sub optimal" with mouth movements not corresponding to the English dialog. Before anyone thinks I am too harsh, I wish to point out the one country where films are shown both in "Original Version" and "French Version". Dubbing in France is of superb quality, and not cheap: a) The translated dialog is reworked so that the duration, syllabic delivery, and the culturally-appropriate terms are correctly interpreted. If you see a French dubbed version of an American film, you are struck as how well the facial movements and expression matches the French dialog. This means that the dubbed screenplay required someone skilled in linguistics, body language, and non-verbal interpretation (as much of "language" is dependent upon gesture and inference.) b) There is one French actor who dubs for one foreign actor. The French actor may dub for several foreign actors, but each foreign actor is assigned the same French counterpart. When you see the process of dubbing in France, the entire body language, tone and expression is uncannily reminiscent of the source foreign actor's performance. This means that foreign "stars" are coherently recognizable and marketable on a speech - vocal basis. Again, this required much training and practice; the more one dubs a given foreign actor, the better the result. This means that the designated French interpreter/actor gets royalties on the French dubbed versions, and that no one else is allowed to replace him without a specific authorization.

Personal Comments of a fluent bilingual, long resident in both France, the UK and the US: It is very odd to see the French version of the UK (Peter Sellers) or US (Steve Martin) Inspecteur Clouseau films. In English, he has a "French" accent, so, the French version doesn't sit naturally, as he is given a weird, oddball manner of speech; in some ways, the populist imagery of the stereotypical qualities embodied in Inspecteur Clouseau is irrelevant to French viewers, much as Fawlty Towers (John Cleese) uses English accents that most Britons do not have.

Many blockbuster American relationship-based films are adaptations of successful French films. The Birdcage (set in South Beach with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams) is an interpretation of "La Cage Aux Folles" (St. Tropez with Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault); Sommersby is an interpretation of "Le Retour de Martin Guerre"; Three Men and a Baby, of "Trois Hommes et un Couffin" etc. So, the dubbing of the American interpretation of a French film is going to end up with an entirely different "feel". There are many human story film themes in France that make it, but in the mass market calculation of US cinema, such themes face the prejudice of being "chick films".

The Russian disaster film, partially inspired by the 1980 film of the same name. One of the film to do good business outside the domestic market, particularly in Japan and China. So there are lots of great stuff about it, from filmmaking to the box office and I enjoyed watching it, but did not like it as overwhelmingly. That does not mean it is overrated, but I liked it less, that's all.

It is set to tell the story of life of pilots, their personal life, such as trouble with romance, family issues and tackling obstacles in their professional line, especially when they were needed the most. So in the first half it was all about drama, an introduction to what comes in the latter half. A pilot father struggling with his troublesome teen son. And another pilot who got fired from the Russian air force, now in a private airline where he meets a woman, but having a difficulty to stabilise the relationship.

When the second half begins, the narration completely flips. Like it is a different film, particularly brings attention to the action- adventure fans. Fate brings them all together in a plane and they decide to evacuate people who are stranded in an airport near the Alaskan region island when it was hit by volcanoes and a series of earth quicks. The remaining is to reveal the heroic acts by the pilots and Co.

"He's a pilot gifted by God. My hands are only hands, his hands are wings. I have never seen anyone like this before."

Visually, it was good. All those crucial parts of the graphics were rendered neatly. Even the stunt sequences were composed so well. But some of them were unrealistic. That's very common, even for a Hollywood film, so I think it's not a big deal. My issue was the film length. It was over two hours long and I did not like much of the first part. The next half was quite good, because of its thriller. When I thought it's over, the narration surprised with another adventure followed by in the final segment.

Like usual this Russian film too has been built on the corruption plot. Not the whole film, but in the initial stage. The influenced people who target the honest employees for going against them. Really a good theme, but when the disaster part takes over, everything will be forgotten. Then it gets edgy, so that's where you will forget the time and sit straight to enjoy it. If you had seen plenty of similar heroic films, then it will be another okayish type. If not, you will have a good time with it.

It took an hour to get into action-adventure, but in those times, it failed to build the romance part to its best. I'm disappointed with that since it had fine actors and situation to build on. The Father- son duo looked much better. In the second half, nothing of these sentimentally appealed as it should have been, not for me. Because it became more a heroic type with sacrifice than family and relationship influence. So overall it's a good attempt, a nice film for the weekend watch.

7/10

This movie was a surprise for me. I knew that Russian cinema is good, but I have never seen a Russian movie with complicated special effects, and I was very pleasantly surprised. Without going into the details of the plot, this is a movie that has a mix of issues that are usually dealt with separately, and here they are interconnected. A love relationship, two separate son-father relationships (between Alex, the main character and his father, as well as between Alex's boss and his son), adventure and even satire on the way workplace relationships are handled in Russia, as well as a basic human desire to help fellow humans and be brave, all are smartly combined to produce a very satisfying movie that keeps you in continuous suspense. The special effects are impressive and would not shame a Hollywood movie. Highly recommended.

Ok this filmed is filled with Cliché characters, bad dubbing and rather unrealistic . But if you can get passed all that, and understand this is a foreign made film streaming on Netflix and keep your expectations accordingly. When the action finally starts ramping up. It's a fun, exciting, on the edge of your seat action film. I actually enjoyed it.