Lifer Movies

Title: Planeta Bur Translated Title: Planet of Storms Rating: 4/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure Starring: Vladimir Yemelyanov, Georgi Zhzhyonov, Gennadi Vernov Director: Pavel Klushantsev Language: Russian Release Date: 1962 One of those films that has been on my list to watch for far too long – in fact this one can even be timed to the date I first reviewed “The Star Dreamer” and discovered Klushantsev's genius – and my interest is all down to how the film is constructed. It wasn't only the Americans that were dreaming of space during the cold war, and this man's work became widely known and hugely successful in the USSR, but knowledge of him outside his home country often seemed limited to only a select few. Called inspirational by the special effects wizards that would make both 'Alien' and 'Predator;' techniques developed here would be used again to great effect by Kubrick's '2001;' entire scenes stolen by B-Movies to come; this film is ...

Title: Stalker Rating: 4.5/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Mystery, Drama Starring: Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Anatoli Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko Director: Andrei Tarkovsky Language: Russian Tarkovsky might be a name known to many, or it might just be the select few who have spent any deal of time exploring classic Sci-Fi films, but regardless of how well known he is, he is often praised of something of a 'Russian answer to Stanley Kubrick' with the infamous “Solaris” being his “2001.” But it's not Solaris that has drawn my initial attention but this overlooked work which I already know something about having played through the series of games that draws heavily from this piece, but if you're under the illusion that anything more than the environment is to feature here then remove that notion before you get too far. This is intelligent, philosophically thought provoking and superbly detailed in it's subtle suggestions. It's also over two and a half hours long and mostly fi...

Title: Kin-Dza-Dza (Кин-Дза-Дза - original Russian title ) Rating: 4/5 Genre: Sci-Fi, Comedy Director: Georgi Daneliya Starring: Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze Language: Russian Release Date: 1986 Now let me be the first to admit whenever I think of Russia, it is the stereotyped portrayal of them so often seen in Western cinema that comes to mind first; cold and stern faced, deadly serious and they wouldn’t think twice about shooting you if you gave them an odd look. Comedy is quite far down the list of attributes, and yet this little known gem released from Soviet (communist) Russia succeeds in creating a satirical look of culture, garnering amusement from going from to ridiculous lengths to make their point, but unlike the likes of “Airplane” or “Top Secret,” it does indeed have one beyond simple satire. Surrounded by one of the earliest examples of a cyberpunk world put to film, this is a story of extreme racism and capitalism gone awry in a civilization that I promise is nothi...