gennadylevitsky Reviews

Fool Me Once (2024)

Good mystery movie

[8/10 · 27 January 2024]

I was surprised by the amount of the negative reviews. Not fair, in my view.

This is a good and entertaining mystery story, with the unexpected ending (at least it was for me) and numerous twists along it. I am not a big specialist on the actors' acting (in genera) but for me they acted fine (particularly both detectives) and naturally. As to how much this story is "believable" - why someone could expect believable mystery story? These stories are made exclusively for the entertainment. Nothing else. It is as much believable as any other mystery, from Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie.

Anyway, I enjoyed it. I hope you will too.

Image of Victory (2021)

Strongly recommended

[10/10 · 8 December 2022]

Exceptional movie. Someone wrote it is anti-war movie. It is not anti-war movie, it is anti those who start the wars, who abuse peoples' elevated emotions and send them to kill and to be killed, instead of trying to resolve the existing grievances in a peaceful way. It also directed against those who makes an entertainment from the human tragedies depicting them as an "image of victory", just like ancient Romans found a fun in watching gladiators fights. It tells how little progress we made in the last 2000 years, despite our achievement in technology and science. It also gives a clever idea that what you may see as your victory in reality could be the image of your defeat.

One objection I have to the movie is how it portrays Aba Kovner. Aba Kovner was one of the leaders of the unground resistance in Vilnius ghetto, a heroic fighter against Nazis and a prolific poet. You can find more information about him by surfing the internet.

The Present (2020)

Good propaganda movie

[1/10 · 6 February 2022]

This movie is intended only for brainwashed and ignorant people who know very little about the situation on the Middle East. Israeli checkpoints are put in places where Palestinians need to enter Israeli controlled territory but not in the opposite direction. In other words, the father and his daughter couldn't cross this checkpoint twice. It was a lie.

Movies, that are based on lies and hatred cannot be good movies, disregarding their artistic values, just like those which were made in Nazi Germany.

(Note. As bad as these checkpoints are Palestinians still can visit Israel; Israelis don't have this option; they are prohibited from entering Palestinian controlled territory)

Hatred (2016)

Just imagine

[8/10 · 10 July 2018]

BBC documentary "The war of the century" depicts UPA as "good guys" who fight "bad guys", Hitler and Stalin, Russians and Germans. Such nonsense. From the historical perspective the film is one-sided. It doesn't show response of the Polish nationalists (Armiya Krayova) to those massacres. It was on the lesser scale but equally brutal. Overall the film was made pretty good (just a little bit too much brutality, I think) and introduces ignorant western viewers to the real horrors of war.

Come and See (1985)

The movie shows the true picture

[10/10 · 4 April 2017]

I will not write about the movie per se. This is my answer to those reviewers who claim that the movie is unrealistic, Soviet propaganda and so on. I will tell one story I heard from the residents of the small Byelorussian town called Starodub. They told me that during German occupation German police caught a woman who supplied information to the local partisans. She was interrogated but kept silent. Then Germans brought her to the watch-tower at the local fire station so that she could see how they will burn her house. She had three kids. Germans told her that they will throw them into the fire and let her to watch it unless she will give information about the whereabouts of the partisans. And when she refused they tied her elderly son and threw him into the fire. After that the woman jumped down from the tower committing suicide and thus saving lives of the other two kids. It is up to you to believe this story or not but I don't see the reason why the residents of the town (not just one but several) would lie to me. In other words, if you are spoiled by the good life naiveté - you may continue to be one or you may wish to become more educated. Make a choice.

Cargo 200 (2007)

The country without a soul.

[9/10 · 3 March 2017]

I don't know if anyone noticed that most critical, "one star" reviews emphasize the movie's agenda rather than anything else: the primary object of their critique is not a play by the individual actors, extreme violence or disgusting scenes but director's attitude toward Soviet reality. An they are right. Every small detail in the movie is intended to show that it was indeed rotten and decaying society. The year 1984 was chosen not by the accident: it is the answer to Orwell' book "1984" where British author tried to predict how the communist society would look in 25 years. Balabanov's answer: it is worse than Orwell could even imagine. The letters "USSR" on the T-shirt are not accidental either. This is another Balabanov's answer, this time to the official Soviet literature which presented young people (komsomol)as heroes, ready to sacrifice themselves in defense of their mother-Russia or save little babies from the fire. This real "businessman-komsomolets", who was educated by the Soviet reality, who saw how Soviet officials meet fallen soldiers from Afghanistan, won't do anything like that. Indeed, the movie wants to say that such pervert like captain Zhurov could live anywhere, in any country. However, he could thrive only in USSR, in the country which lost its soul. Great movie.

Goryachiy sneg (1972)

The battle of Stalingrad from the Russian point of view

[9/10 · 31 August 2016]

To all those folks who know about battle of Stalingrad from the Beevor's books and movie "Enemy at the Gates" this movie is must. The person who wrote the screenplay himself was artillery officer and participated in the same exact battle this movie depicts. Therefore it very likely that despite of the several shortcomings (like participation of Tiger tanks in the battle) and a little bit of propaganda (like appearance of the political commissar who, unlike stern and often unfair general, always acts humanly) the movie shows the battle the way he saw it himself. As a side note: some primitive people don't understand what the word "propaganda" means and how it works and therefore claim that every Soviet movie is a lie. I am sorry for you.

War of the Century (1999– )

A propaganda movie

[3/10 · 6 June 2016]

It is basically a propaganda movie. It depicts the war on the Eastern front as a struggle between two evils: Hitler and Stalin (or, in more general terms, between Nazis and Communists) completely ignoring the fact who was the aggressor and who was the victim. In order to promote their ideology of "two evils" and brainwash the viewers the authors of the movie often manipulate the facts, ignoring some of them and exaggerating others. For instance, in the second part, when the movie deals with the occupied Ukraine, it presents German occupation authorities and Soviet partisans as the "two evils" who commit all the crimes against locals while, at the same time, it shows Ukrainian nationalists (UPA) (the "third force") as the "good guys" fighting "the bad" ones. In reality Ukrainian Resurrection Army committed a lot of horrible atrocities: it massacred civilian Polish population and wiped off entire villages in Galicia and Volhyn, many members of that army served Nazis and willingly participated in mass murder of the Jewish population in Western Ukraine. The movie is mute about those facts and when it shows the village with the massacred inhabitants and presents it as a crime committed by the Soviet partisans I am more than sure that it was rather a work of the Ukrainian nationalists (and the victims were, most likely, Poles). Anyone who doubts it can look at wikipedia to see how many Polish villages "good guys" destroyed exactly the same way. This is just one "inaccuracy" out of many. Overall, such unconstrained propaganda destroys what could be an interesting and educational movie about WWII.