New film by Timur Bekmambetov - Wanted

This week is proving to be a goldmine of movies by Russian filmmakers. You may have noticed the endless ads for the big Hollywood production Wanted, starring James McAvoy (Atonement) and Angelina Jolie (UN Refugee Agency). However, did you know that this was directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the Kazakh director of raucous vampire action films Night Watch, Day Watch, and the possibly upcoming Twilight Watch? This Tarantino-esque director provided an extra treat to the non-Russian-speaking viewers of his film Night Watch by doing things with the subtitles that subtitles never thought they could do before, such as burn up in a wisp of smoke, or collapse like broken glass. Now here comes Wanted, which Todd McCarthy of Variety describes this way: “Like it or not, Wanted pretty much slams you to the back of your chair from the outset and scarcely lets up for the duration.” Starts June 26^th at a multiplex near you.

See Sergei Bodrov's "Mongol" at the Landmark Uptown

Catch Mongol, Sergei Bodrov’s epic tale of the formative years of Genghis Khan at the Landmark Uptown Theater starting on June 21^st for a presumably short run (although it’s getting an unusually large marketing push). Newsday describes it as a “Bold, epic battle-happy movie that humanizes the world-conqueror and gives him plenty to be aggressive about,” while Entertainment Weekly says that “Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov contrasts images of sweeping landscape and propulsive battle with potent scenes of emotional intimacy in Mongol, his quite grand, quite exotic, David Lean-style epic.” The New York Times notes that “Mongol is a big, ponderous epic, its beautifully composed landscape shots punctuated by thundering hooves and bloody, slow-motion battle sequences.” More reviews here.