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2:00 AM PDT my time. Just finished watching outsider Russian movie called "Attraction". It is about 2 hours long and in my opinion very good. It is worth your time. It came out before the Ukraine/Putin war. It makes me realize that there are things that are more important than gender.
The English dubbing is flawless, though a bit stilted.
Comments
An interesting movie even more relevant today
Thanks for the recommendation -- I'm always up for a good movie but I hesitated when I saw it was Russian-made. With everything that's going on in Ukraine, I find it hard to look at Russia see anything but Putin but I watched it anyway (It is streaming on Peacock if anyone is interested)
The opening shots reminded me of Red Dawn, as the hair styles and clothing looked like something you'd pull out of the 1980s United States. The first half hour is as good as any popcorn movie made in the late 20th century. It leans heavily on Independence Day with flashes of ET, Predator, and a couple of other movies I won't say as it would be a spoiler.
The problems begin in the second act as character motivations flip back and forth without any setup. It seemed to me the director/writer had a lot of ideas they wanted to put on screen, put only two hours to do it. The jarring nature of some of these flips pulled me out of the story a couple of times. I think this is one of those projects which would have worked better as a 90 minutes action romp or a 9 hour miniseries. This movie ended up somewhere in between.
Even with this problem, I'd give it a solid 3 out of 5. The voice acting was near perfect, the CGI amazing, and the director's vision vast.
One the points in the movie is if you take the time to listen, you might realize the truth about those different than yourself. As the credits rolled I found this message totally at odds with the news coming out of Russia today. If you watch their news media, you'll hear nothing but hatred and vile threats and it made me looked deeper. The lead actress was quite compelling and so I looked up her credits. Her name is Irina Starshenbaum and she's been in many Russian shows. The thing that caught my eye was an Instagram post she made two days after the start of the war.
Since then, she has not posted about the war since which is understandable considering speaking out is against the law. Even so, I feel closer to a Russian woman I've never met through a film she made 7 years ago.
I'm sure there are millions of others like her in Russia. It's too bad we can't hear their voices.
Empty Western News
CNN and BBC online are readily available to me, as is a local Internet station KOIN. Being a snot, I rebelliously look for dissenting views and they are hard to find. In Russia, those who disagree with Putin wind up dead or in prison. I think that there are many who disagree with his actions but it is too dangerous to say so. Sad, so sad. I'm ashamed that I wish Putin would be killed.
> I'm ashamed that I wish
> I'm ashamed that I wish Putin would be killed.
As much as I do not want to pull politics here - he is not the only one. There are others who inspired this war. Even if you kill the leader - do you expect that there would be no others trying to take over and continue?
PS. I am Russian. I left Russia after this war started (thanks to my employer, who evacuated anyone willing to go) and recently it was second anniversary of the day when I left.
It's not about gender...
It's not about gender... except when it is. From July 2023:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/russia-transgender-law...
Russia’s draconian new law is forcing trans people to flee the country
Love, Andrea Lena
This 'let's find a new "enemy
This 'let's find a new "enemy of people" ' (and the whole conservative movement) was going on there since 2011-2012. :-(
It just accelerated multiple times over those 12 years.
I look back and feel like "this land is cursed" and "there will be no return".
The problem with war
It only takes one to start it. Then the victims only have two choices, roll over and play dead or fight back. The Ukraine didn't seek a war with Russia, and back in 1947 Israel didn't seek to war with the Arab states. The Six Day in 1967 was started by Egypt, not Israel. But they had to fight for their existence. Everything going on now is a result of that, whatever you may feel about things in the Middle East.
And let us not forget about Gaddafi, he made war on another Arab state, solely for oil. Then he worked so hard to convince the world he was the Big Baddy in the region, with a big mean military, chemical weapons, and a nuclear bomb program. He sold it so well the US and it's allies went in and kicked his ass. Turned out he was a paper tiger, but how were people to know? You threaten people often enough, somebody bigger will decide to smack you down. And there is always somebody bigger, or tougher, or more resourceful. Look at Vietnam or Afghanistan. Having the ability to bomb people back to the stone age isn't much of an asset if that isn't an acceptable goal. Especially if they are already at the stone age level to begin with.
As long as there are warmongers, we will have war. It's as inevitable as the sun rising in the east. That's life.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Biblical Rights
Israel was given what is essentially the Levant when God gave it to Abraham. Agree or not, it will be interesting to see how all this plays out. Just the opinion of a failed Preacher.