Sputnik (2020) Watching this Russian imitation of a typical big-budget Alien-On-The-Rampage movie reminded us of a scene from Billy Wilder's "One Two Three".....
Coca Cola executive (James Cagney) accuses Russian trade negotiators of trying to make their own cheap Coke knock-off...
"Last year, you put out a cockamamie imitation, Kremlin Kola! You tried it out in the satellite countries.....but even the Albanians wouldn't drink it! They used it for sheep dip!"
No, we're not that cruel about 'Sputnik'. It's way better than sheep dip.
It's professionally well made and acted just like countless other sci-fi/horror movies you can watch on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or wherever.
The spindly, creepy crawly CGI alien creature scampers and scuttles around with just as much digital dexterity as the last 20 or 30 CGI monsters you watched in American movies........
What you will get here that's significantly different is that oppressive fatalism that's unique to Russia, even after it threw off the yoke of communism.
And by that, we don't mean the usual sense of dread that permeates all these "Alien" carbon copies. We talking about the human characters here who've been carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders long before the Thing From Outer Space wreaked more havoc on their lives.
When you combine that with the standard tropes sci--fi horror movies, it makes for one dark, dingy depressing experience.......not the feel good movie of the year, for sure.
But we know sci-fi/horror completists will want to satisfy their curiosity about this one, so have at it, by all means. We'll not discourage you.
We didn't mind sitting through it......2 stars (**). Nobody should have to use it for sheep dip.
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