Khottabych

While US & Europe enjoyed Snakes on a Plane, I've got a perfect birthday present - a release of a good movie. What makes good movie for me? Reality, some humor, some drama - and something that makes to think.

Khottabych is a name of genie from old Soviet fantasy book. The hero of this film meets a genie as well: a nerdy geek who gets kicked by every girl he goes out with finally seems to have some good luck. Corrupt officers, gangsters, even Microsoft - Russia is crazy - only serve to add more hilarity. Main idea? Screw the laws, and enjoy the world. The world built by geeks. In our age of huge industrial giants, which value money over everything, emotionless is the disease. Khottabych shows that there is still some hope left. Hope that dreams of everyone will be fulfilled.

Unfortunately, most of people probably won't get all the humor. Don't be afraid, you'll still understand everything from a point of emotions. Yes, one of the best things about this movie is that screenplay authors and actors found the way to retrieve those emotions of casual nerd perfectly. Few have done this before. Maybe the life in graffiti-painted den with just a PC and bottle of beer ain't THAT bad?

By now my family and I watched this film 3 times with different groups of people each time. These people were of various ages (5 to 55), backgrounds, residences, and interests. And they all simply loved the film! My family and I have been living abroad for many years. But we are constantly looking for good Russian movies to watch together. There are only a few among the new ones that are worth watching. And Khottabych is one of them. Watching it the third time was almost as much fun as the first. And we so enjoy the reaction of our friends who are introduced to the movie for the first time! I recommend this film to anyone. I have no idea how most non-Russians would take this film. The German wife of a friend enjoyed it very much, but her Russian is very good.

I didn't already know the short story and straightforward adaptation that already existed for this story, but it seems like you can get all you need to know from being familiar with the basics of the genie-in-a- lamp trope. It's a comedy based on juxtaposing that old myth with the world of hackers and the internet - which is presented with just enough of knowledge and a wink that we get the sense that the filmmakers are really familiar with it, but not so much from an insider view that anyone not very good with computers themselves would be alienated.

In the main, the plot doesn't matter beyond the fact that it's there enough for the movie not to suffer from being totally plot less. It's a frame for a series of good gags, mostly framed around the ancient genie Khottabych being exposed to the internet and the modern world. It's an old device but it's done well here and with a particular combination that's no, so success is achieved. There's a lot of good material in the genie's antiquated suggestions for wooing women, his misadventures with his own online romance, etc.

The animated shadow that the devil/villain character gets is quite original and amusing as well. But a big plus is the humorous performance of Vladimir Tolokonnikov as Khottabych. I'd seen him before as another semi-human person is "Heart of a Dog," and this is another very different but also excellent acting job, with maybe more depth that one would have thought the role required. But he puts some humanity into the lonely old genie.

Marius Jampolskis is also pretty good as the main character; he mainly has to make this shut-in whose life revolves around being a shut-in hacker into a semi-believable hero, which he manages. Liva Kruminya seems to be appearing here in her only role, and its fine but not memorable. I can't help but suspect she isn't usually an actor and was chosen for her ability to sound American, then be magically given the ability to speak Russian.

It's pretty much a live-action cartoon, but good gags with a lively soundtrack, pace, and script keep it consistently entertaining.

Sam L. Jackson had it that the Star Wars movie was "for everyone who has a kid inside them". Khottabych is fairy tale that caters to the new generation of kids – the internet generation which was born in the last decade or so. It is light-hearted, funny and connects to the dreamer inside of us. A classic tale of genie in the bottle has been updated to encompass the evil corporations, Russian mafia and the brand new online culture. If you've ever spent hours in chat rooms or chasing each other around in online shooters, this movie is for you! Of course, I've no idea how it might work for a non-Russian audience. It is, after all, a very Russian movie and a very well done one, too.

To convey in this review all the love for this film, I probably can not, but believe me, with all the mass, filmed in modern Russia, to remove not only the term-technical, but also from an artistic point of view, a cool film... I recommend it!