Archangel
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Movie Reviews of Archangel
Movie Review: Intriguing rehaersal
Summary: 4 Stars
Like Layer Cake, this is another vehicle of sorts for Mr. Craig to rehearse his Bond role. He just doesn't handle a gun in this one. But aside from that this is still a very entertaining film featuring a gorgeous and utterly sexy Russian actress named Yekaterina Rednikova. The premise is not entirely credible but the action is exciting in a Jason Bourne kind of way. Craig simply steals the camera every time it is trained on him. With a less predictable ending this could have been a great feature film. Nevertheless, it should hold your interest as you watch the best-ever James Bond in the making.Movie Review: Not just in the American South is the past not even the past
Summary: 4 Stars
Russia has many ghosts, and a haunted past that won't seem to die. This movie was about one of those ghosts still haunting Russia, Josef Stalin. If you liked "Thief," "The Russia House," "Gorky Park," or "Tycoon," you will like this movie.Movie Review: Surprised!
Summary: 4 Stars
I was very surprised that I enjoyed this movie. The cover and the title through me off. It kept my interest all through the movie.There was compelling dialogue, and the action scenes where well done. It is definitely a movie to see.Movie Review: Surely the novel can't be this ridiculously simplistic?
Summary: 2 Stars
Robert Harris writes surprisingly good popular upmarket airport bestsellers aimed at Sunday Times and Guardian readers that once upon a time would have been made into self-important overproduced movie potboilers but now (Enigma aside) get made in to misfiring TV series instead (Fatherland, Selling Hitler). Latest failure is Archangel, a historical/political conspiracy thriller set in modern-day Russia where the Maguffin is (initially at least) a hunt for Stalin's notebook before turning into something infinitely sillier. Unfortunately the end result is so flat in almost every single way that you're left with little to do but notice the many plot holes and increasing absurdities in the pared down script that hits plot points but never makes you buy into the story or the clichéd characters in any way and seemingly goes out of its way to avoid dealing with any interesting issue that might threaten to crop up en route.
The trick to plots this absurd on the printed page is to surround them with big themes (the ongoing malign influence of Stalin and Russia's communist past, the commercial and political exploitation of history) and a lot of recycled historical research and local color to make people think you know what you're talking about. The trick to this kind of nonsense onscreen, however, is to keep it moving and put enough of a spin on the stock situations so that the audience doesn't stop to think, but screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Fresnais come up empty every time: when you see Beria having a soldier bury secret documents IN HIS OWN BACK GARDEN in a hole no more than 18 inches deep, you know that no-one's even making an effort here.
Professionally made and watchable if you've nothing better to do, but it has that tired and uninspired factory feel to it. And who on Earth thought that Daniel Craig was perfect casting for a middle-aged American history professor? He's a fine actor, but he can't bring anything to the table against those kind of odds - not even an American accent. But even he isn't faced with the kind of ridiculous casting that Konstantin Lavronenko fails to conquer as a character who is supposed to be at least 52 years old but looks no older than 30 (although he's actually 45), rendering the final twist even more unbelievable on the screen than it is on the page.