Reviews

I watched this movie a few months ago, and I still think about it occasionally, so it did leave a mark for sure. It does have a lot going for it - very convincing performances by the child actors, fine cinematography, and an intriguing story line. That said, I am somewhat disappointed at how the movie treats the subject matter, perpetuating the "boys will be boys" and "girls will be girls" stereotypes. I understand that plenty of truth to the stereotypes, and it doesn't do any good to that things such as homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia and sexism do not exist, but for a movie that deals with the touchy subject of gender to be worthwhile, I feel it should view these issues with at least somewhat of a critical lens, and not merely paint the picture of "this is how things are" and leave it at that. "How things are" I see in real life and live in my own childhood. So, while not a bad movie by any stretch, it did feel sort of unresolved. And sad.

I did not particularly like this movie. During the Soviet times many Russian movies portrayed religious people as stupid and narrow-minded. In the 90's the trend reversed and this movie is an example of it. Too much emphasis on religion, and you feel that the makers of the movie are trying to push religion on you (whatever religion it might be).

The movie also attempts to be fancy-shmancy with symbolism, but the attempts seem quite forced.

The portrayal of a Russian village of the mid-90's is fairly accurate, but that's about the only redeeming feature of this flick.

> and as far as this goes, 60% of Russian population lives in villages > like the one shown

What an ignorant comment! FYI, 75% of Russians live in urban environments, and of the remaining 25% plenty live in quite prosperous villages (such as one where I spent most of the summers of my childhood in the early and mid-90's which is exactly when the movie is supposed to be taking place).

It was worth my time to watch the movie. It has that gentleness and simplicity about it that distinguishes it from the run of the mill Hollywood flicks with overly dramatic and yet entirely predictable plots. This is just a tale of a man and his dog...

Now, as a dog lover I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see more of this huge and beautiful dog. Most of the time the camera showed the face of the man, Coco (the dog owner) - and while it is certainly a nice face, the dog's face is worth showcasing just as much. This is not to say that the film is bad however, just that it doesn't concentrate on the dog as much as on the owner.

There has been a lot of excitement about this movie around (even the video store clerk asked me if I was excited to watch it), so I prepared myself for something truly amusing: and this movie just didn't deliver. It has some good lines, I'll give you that, but overall it is quite bland, despite the spicy sex references splattered throughout. My big thumbs down goes for the vomit scene... it seems no "comedy" this days is complete without some such insertion. Oh well... Even the gag collection was not funny at all, and the rest of the special features pretty much put me to sleep.

Only yesterday I watched Kusturica's delightful comedy "Black cat, white cat". There isn't much similarity between the two, but I couldn't help comparing them anyway and noticing how inferior this movie was in just about every respect. So watch it if you like, but don't be surprised if you find that it doesn't live up to the hype. But if you want a good laugh, you'll be much better off with some *good* movies. They are out there...

P.S. The dude in the movie can't ride a bike to save his life. A bicycle commuter, my pants!