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Road House (2024)
The wrong roadhouse
We live in a world of remakes, man. It's hard to come up with a truly unique franchise these days. Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? I don't know, but that's not the point today. Even if a film isn't a remake, it can still be inspired by other films and even copy them in places, giving off a remake-like vibe. These films can be literally anything from action films from the '80s to kung-fu flicks. Even though they're technically different franchises, you can sometimes get confused about who the characters are, like in those "pseudo-sequels" that the pirates made. The house on the road, for example, is a movie from our childhood - it's so rustic and has silly dialogue, but it's also full of testosterone and drive, although that might be debatable. We're going to talk about this guy, Dalton, who's a secret superhero with an unknown background, but he's got great physical skills and can kick ass. It's all in the best tradition of action movies and even westerns, you know? He goes to a new city and nobody knows him, so he makes some noise. He's not very social, has some weird habits, and has a secret that stops him from being fully open with anyone. If you grew up watching action movies from the 80s and 90s, that role might be really familiar to you, but is that a bad thing? Is that house by the road the McGregor car from "The Fugitive"? Jake Gyllenhaal absolutely nails this image of a mysterious psycho with good intentions, you know what I mean? At first, it all went smoothly. We were introduced to the characters, the "house on the road", which is the local name for the bar where the action takes place. The lead character works as a bouncer there, calmly taking down all sorts of thugs, and drinking black coffee until it's time to cross the street to see important people. Then these guys decide to threaten the people that Dalton cares about. As we all know, that was a huge mistake. Dalton was the quiet guy from behind the desk, but as soon as those guys gave him free reign with their threats, he was already out of state. The only person who can get out of the car is another car, and that's what makes the movie so interesting, besides Jake, of course, and Connor McGregor in his big movie debut. He's pretty good for himself, with a mountain of muscle and just a KamAZ that rumbles around, knocking everything in its path down. But KamAZ is a bit off, because he walks around smiling and looking glassy, and, sorry to say, with a naked butt. Men might like that image, but it scares me. It makes me feel like I'm watching Terminator 2, with McGregor playing the role of the liquid terminator that relentlessly chases the main character. Is the house near the road McGregor's car? The film has the usual structure for action movies, but it stands out because of the setting. Florida is so beautiful and fresh! But we're here not to talk about the beaches, we're here for some testosterone-fueled mayhem. And that's basically it, except for some choreography that's influenced by the UFC. There are plenty of captures and some really brutal stuff in this movie. There's also that action cam that does a great job of making transitions seamless. All in all, it looks pretty cheerful, with some great techniques. But there are some weird choices. In those kinds of films, magic used to come from realistic special effects - explosions were real explosions. Here, we decided to use a lot of CGI to create the effects, and sometimes it can be a bit unsettling, like in the scene with the car on the highway. Another crazy thing they did was to add graphics to the fights. Sometimes, characters become polygons for a few seconds and fly a hundred meters away. That artificiality is even stronger in the punches - the main character takes dozens of hits to the head and there's no visible damage, no dissections, let alone more serious injuries. And the sound of the punches are like a sledgehammer hitting. The action camera is great, and the choreography has its moments, but it doesn't feel like people are fighting. It's like McGregor is hunting Dalton like a Terminator. I'm starting to wonder if that's how it's supposed to be. Another downside of this movie is how long it is. The movie, despite having a cool main character handing out crayons, can't impress with anything really special. But for some reason, they try to add a love story, which they immediately drop. Just for one thing, functional characters are added that are only needed for one purpose - to get Dalton out of his shackles. Because of those moments that didn't work for anyone, the movie lasts 2 hours even though the average time for those types of movies is usually 80-90 minutes. I'm not sure why they decided to slow down for that, though. So what do we have? We have a decent B-movie, which is mainly about Jake Gyllenhaal and secondarily about McGregor. Unfortunately, it's only okay in the action department. The director should have worked more on the dynamics of the events and the practical effects. The film's job isn't to introduce new facets to cinema, it's just to take us back to childhood and give us a nice evening. Basically, it does that, but with some nuances. It'll help you pass the evening, but that's it.
Slovo patsana. Krov na asfalte (2023)
Mediocrity
The atmosphere of the late 80s in the series is recreated very accurately: devastation, poverty, queues for alcohol, video salons... Everything is so. The only thing is that it does not feel like the action is developing in a multi-million city - they went overboard with conventions, unfolding the action in a couple of courtyards and interiors.
The cast is good. Yankovsky and Kologrivy have long proved that they are excellent actors, Burunov is wonderful. Young people are good too. The only exceptions are Krasovskaya and Alexandrova. The first one is absolutely inert and does not play, and the second one just fiercely overplays (and strictly speaking, she is a very bad artist). And yes, I remembered that, in fact, she mostly played at Mr. Kryzhovnikov's and continued even after the divorce. Is this his gestalt closure or Stockholm syndrome? I don't understand.
But by and large it is not clear what they are playing. The heroes have a sleeper instead of an arch. Yes - the hero's sleeper, along which he travels from point A to B, sweeping away logic and common sense along the way. And there is no development of the image. At the same time, without doing anything good, there are no positive characters at all. This is quite acceptable to oneself, but with a good story they could perform - depict noir. But this is not noir, but blackness.
A typical blackie, which was shown at one time in a number of criminal TV series. This was especially evident at the climax of the story. Not only is it shot very clumsily, but it is also predictable. Or the episode with grandma, which seemed scary to everyone. Seriously? Yes, "Cargo 200" is much scarier. And this is a maximum of a children's horror story and nothing more, let alone a lack of empathy.
Comparison with the best crime dramas is simply inappropriate here. And when, in an interview, the disrespectful director stated that the screenwriter of the project loves the Godfather and, apparently, wants to make a trilogy himself, he begins to feel a strong "haha". The same Vova Adidas is an attempt at allusion to Danila Bagrov. But only very weak and not convincing. And if you look closely, you can see many more such borrowings - the authors play quotes, but do not understand their meaning, as well as they cannot really express their thoughts - it is not clear why it is impossible to prescribe interesting images, life situations. Solid cardboard. Not to mention the fact that the story of the "Kazan phenomenon" was presented in 2 minutes in gallop and Europe mode, which would be better not to do.
To be fair, the creators absolutely cannot be blamed for romanticizing crime. Heroes do exceptionally bad things and get punished for it. But only the authors do not really explain the essence of their idea: is it about karma or what? The authors did not bother to clarify.
And in general, I think that an adult sane person will not find any value for himself in this craft, not to mention the fact that he knows "what is good and what is bad." I would like to remind you separately that the rating is 18+, therefore I do not consider another target audience.
This is an empty, meaningless, overrated and unprincipled work, which was promoted as a brilliant discovery even before its release. It has happened more than once, but it is not clear why people are still being led and believe.