Starye klyachi

Whoever said that laughter is the best medicine was right. This movie was a real treat what with all the current trends in fast action, blood and gore type films which people flock to see in the cinemas nowdays. I was very fortunate in being able to view it from the comfort of my armchair at home when it was shown on our Australian multi-lingual TV channel. I voted 9/10 for it, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good over the top comedy. The ladies, "Old Hags" of the English title, are all a scream and the situations and scrapes they get into are all of their own making on their way to reclaiming the central Moscow apartment which has been taken over by an out of town 'gangster' whilst they are living in a leased house in the middle of a cemetery. In my opinion this is a - must see, feel good movie - which deserves a wider audience.

My god. I can't imagine a movie with a basically cute plot (an aging woman is driven - cheated, actually - out of her apartment and her friends try to help her out - that's in a nutshell) being driven to the point of absolute... garbage.

Not a single funny joke (except a few good gags by the Jewish mother of Kartzev's character, the theatre director), lousy music and basically boring movie that has too much not-needed footage. Could be made into a forty minute short movie and look much better.

Anyway, don't waste your time on this. Watch another movie by Razanov, "Watch the Car" or another great movie, "Day of Victory" (with Vyacheslav Tichonov and Michail Efremov). DOn't waste your time on this one.

This is a fun little movie that also reveals the emotional toll of the last 10 years on the Russian people.

The movie starts out in 1990 - the four girls (the "Old Hags") are a quartet that travel around the Soviet Union singing patriotic songs about things like pipelines. The film really succeeds at making fun of the Soviet ideology, while remembering it sweetly as the better times. The Old Hags are famous and live the lives of privileged citizens. (One of them is a dead ringer for Sheri Oteri from Saturday Night Live, and is just as funny)

Next, the movie fast forwards ten years. The group's sex kitten is now peddling fruit and newspapers on the street, working for an Azerbaijani boss. One of the girls gets scammed out of her apartment overlooking Red Square by a Mafioso. The rest of the movie is the girls' efforts to get it back.

While being a lot of fun, the movie also makes a big statement about what's happened and what could be. American viewers might find it a little over the top, but it really helps to understand how Russians feel about the country. The last five minutes of the film is where the message is really hammered home. In a cameo, director Eldar Ryzaonv plays a judge. As he waves goodbye the the girls, he stares directly into the camera; and it's clear that the final song is his message to the audience. My Russian is a little rusty, but I believe the lyrics to the song were something like, "I challenge you to a dare - let's see what will happen - I'm looking for you, you're looking for me".

It's definitely worth a look if you can find it!