My review was written in July 1987 at a pre-release screening on Manhattan's UWS.
"Russkies" wears its heart on its sleeve, obviously intended to be a fable for youngsters to educate them to a message of universal brotherhood and tolerance. Unfortunately, this carbon copy of Norman Jewison's 1966 United Artists hit "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians are Coming" is ineptly handled and laughable, with a very weak cast in place of the original's heady lineup of farceurs. Aggressively themed throughout its running time to July 4th celebration atmosphere, pic faces tough sledding in it unwisely delayed until November release berth.
Handsome blond Whip Hubley portrays Mischa Pushkin (his name engenders one of the script's few laughs), a Soviet sailor washed ashore in Key West, Florida, when a submarine's landing party (to pick up military secrets being sold by traitor Leo Rossi) gets caught in a storm. THree gun-ho, junior Rambos (Leaf Phoenix, Peter Billingsley and Stefan DeSalle) reluctantly take him under their wing when they quickly realize a flesh-and-blood Russian soldier does not conform to their comic books' image of an evil enemy. In fact he akes an ideal playmate as hey buy him clothes and chaperone him around town.
Of course, Hubley falls in love at first sight (and the feeling is mutual) with Billingsley's olderl sister Susan Walters, but the adult world is only interested in tracking down (or shooting down) this nice-guy alien, especially when his two nasty crewmates show up, bent on stealing U. S. military secrets and kidnapping the yourng heroes for protection.
To be fair, though pic's plot outline is virtually idenitcal to that of the Jewison film Iwhich was based on Nathaniel Benchley's novel "The Off-Landers"), "Russkies" is probably not a ripoff, but rather a case of reinventing the wheel. Update unwisely emphasizes the underlying propaganda aspercts of the piece, with director Rick Rosenthal frequently drawing the action to a halt for extended monologs by Hubley or others to drive home the too-obvious plea for understanding.
Windup even has the young trio, after everything has been sorted out, reading "War and Peace" instead of their "Sgt. Slammer" comic books, a Classic Comix version of Tolstoy would have been more believable.
Precocious Billingsley easily dominates the film while his confreres Phoenix and DeSalle are, respectively, woloden and earnest. Walters is a dish tolook at, but her dreamy-eyed acting is poor. Supporting cast is quite bland, as songstress Carole King stands around blankly as Phoenix' mother, and yet another oddly named member of the Phoenix clan, cute Dummer Phoenix pops up, natch, as Phoenix' little sister.
Hubley treies hard in his bloated lead role, yet another script miscalculation since his similary styled prototype, Joh Phillip Law, had the advantage of playing straight to an hilarious group of comedians including Alan Arkin, Jonathan Winters and Paul Ford. This time, an audience has only Hubley, insufferablel kids or paper-thin adult stereotypes to choose from and it's no fun.
Tech credits are well done, though the Key West atmosphere, layed on with a trowel, is irrlevant to the theme other than location's proximity to Cuba.
