Anna Karenina

Now to continue film catch up and first the period dramatization of the novel by Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina and her adulterous affair in pre revolution Russia, Anna who is married to an influential elder statesman who is much older travels to Moscow to convince Prince Oblonsky to take back her husband and father of their five children after he had an affair with the governess. While Anna is successful in her mission she becomes quickly infatuated with a rogue about town Count Vronsky and which is main subject of the film.

There is one important sub plot concerning the sister of Princess Oblonsky, Kitty, who at first turns down the offer of marriage from Constantin Levin a wealthy estate owner who manages alongside his tenants and as no inter in the social life of Moscow and St Petersburg. The sister is hoping to marry Constantine Vronsky and where she is successful as a family attempt to break his relationship with Anna..

The affairs between Anna and Vronsky develops and at first the husband refuses a divorce but then anger at the situation take hold refuses to allow Anne to have any contact with their son. Anna nearly dies giving birth to the child of Vronsky and later when he abandons her throw herself under a train. Her husband returns from country life and brings up the Vronsky child has part of his household,

Meanwhile Levin remeets Kitty whose marriage to Vronsky has also ended and they not only marry but she willingly rejects the social life of cities and takes to the country life working alongside her husband on the estate. She also shows understanding towards the brother of Levin who has commenced an affair with a prostitute and becomes dangerously ill. He is brought back to the estate with his woman living separately on the estate, However after nursing the brother back to good health Kitty also invites the woman into the household and she, her husband and gamily become the moral force in the tale and symbol of the Russia of the future. The story as the novel is a great one but I was put off from seeing the film in cinema theatre because of the production which places the story in the form of a traditional theatre setting although it is expanded at times but misses out on the grandeur and splendour of Russian cities and landscape as in Dr Zhivago.

　

　

　

Victim 2010

Victim is intended as a serious film about the poverty crime circle when two lifetime friends use a sexy young woman to lure wealthy men from the city using the London life who are then robbed, One of the young men use the money to pay for the education of his 15 year old sister and the gambling debts of his other. Just when things go well after he meet a girl from the other side of tracks his moth steals everything he has and takes up the offer of a crime boss to participate in a big job. The outcome is predicable. Mark Kermode was but on of the critics that pointed out that the delivery of the message had several shortcomings but is was a good start by the director Ale Pillai.

Savages 2012

Savages 2012 was a more enjoyable adventure romp which feature two young men in a an openly shared relationship who work out a way to create a potent form of pot which makes them a fortune which they put great use in addition to their own beach lifestyle. However a powerful Mexican drug baron( female) sends her enforcer Benicio Del Torro to make then an offer they cannot refused as does a corrupt Drug Enforcement Agency played by John Travolta. The film is long 131 mins and has a good ending.

    

 

Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad is loosely based on the true story that the Los Angeles Police department had an undercover hit squad to taking out organised crime by any means. Tales of such unit have been the subject of films before. The complication in this story is also not new with the main characters wife and family under threat and another character, something of a play boy becoming involved with the woman Emma Stone of the gangster leader Sean Penn. Nick Notle plays the honest police chief. The film engaged for a couple of hours.

The Dark Hour

The Dark Hour is a Spanish Film la Hora Fria made in 2007 in which a group battle to survive against aliens. However as the films draws to a close we learn that the action has taken place in a refuge on the Moon with earth already devastated devoid of human life. At one level film is a warning that man needs to wake up and take collective action to save the plant. At another it is a depressing tale of the weakness of man against eternal force whether of nature or extra terrestrial.

A Good Day to Die Hard 2013

Another different genre which did not impress was teh lastest in the Bruce Willis Die Hard series A Good Day to Die Hard, The film is best view in Imax 3D with Dolby surrouind sounds for the stunning visul effects galore ( there is little else ) but I saw on TV. The basic plots has Willis ona job which takes him back to Moscow and where he finds that his estranged son has been working undercover for th CIA for three years and through the course of the adventures shared together they make up and save each other’s life countless times. Thereis a complicated ploy of villains cuner viallans and villan bluf which you do not have to pay close attentiomn to enjoy the fun a waste of time nevertheless.

Knife Fight 2012

And now for something very different an extraordinary and brilliant political drama called Knife Fight with Bob Lowe from the West Wing in the main role as and a political media fix it. There is not any scandal which he cannot swing round to favour his client but find one event to far when he rubbishes a young woman who one Governor has seduced and misled and attempts to take her own life with the subsequent media attention.

Against his better judgement he is is persuaded by his assistant Intern who eanting to train as doctor to spoort a local welare doctor who decided to stand for govenor without funds, party support or experience. She is seen on prime time TV and the Internet persuading a druggy to hand over the knife he has at the neck of a staff member learning only later this was a stunt arranged by the Intern and his friend dark arts arranged played by Richard Schiff. She wins the race narrowly to close the film with the assistant going off to be a doctor and Rob although back to his job after going off into the wilderness, trying to nation some kind of standard in what has been anything goes business. .