I've seen movies from all over the world, a lot of them was American of course, but several of them came from Europe and Asia. But I can't remember ever having seen a Russian movie before. This was the first one and I must admit that it was quite surprising, although it wasn't an undivided success in my opinion.
The movie tells the story of Douglas McCraken, a foreign businessman and inventor who wants to sell a new and experimental steam-driven timber harvester in Siberia in 1885. But not everything goes exactly as planned. To make sure that his machine is accepted by the Russian government, he'll need the help of his lovely assistant Jane Callahan. While she is on her way, she meets a young cadet and falls in love with him. But the lovely Jane has more admirers and after an incident, the love of her life is exiled to Siberia...
Not everything worked, but overall I must say that this was a quite enjoyable movie. The main problem that I had was that it sometimes didn't seem to take everything very serious. The mix of drama and slapstick didn't really work very well and even annoyed me from time to time. Nevertheless, I must admit that there was some nice humor in it as well. For instance the sequence with the American drill sergeant who proves that he doesn't know anything about classical music, but who's too proud to admit that, is excellent. But still I think it would have been much better if there was less humor and more realistic drama in it.
Overall I would say that the acting in the movie was good, although I wished to see Richard Harris in a bigger role. Now it just felt like he was in the movie because of his name, not because of his talent. I would like to end this review by saying that this is an enjoyable movie, even though it sometimes didn't feel right. I give it a 6.5/10. Perhaps even a 7/10, but certainly nothing more than that.
The movie tells the story of Douglas McCraken, a foreign businessman and inventor who wants to sell a new and experimental steam-driven timber harvester in Siberia in 1885. But not everything goes exactly as planned. To make sure that his machine is accepted by the Russian government, he'll need the help of his lovely assistant Jane Callahan. While she is on her way, she meets a young cadet and falls in love with him. But the lovely Jane has more admirers and after an incident, the love of her life is exiled to Siberia...
Not everything worked, but overall I must say that this was a quite enjoyable movie. The main problem that I had was that it sometimes didn't seem to take everything very serious. The mix of drama and slapstick didn't really work very well and even annoyed me from time to time. Nevertheless, I must admit that there was some nice humor in it as well. For instance the sequence with the American drill sergeant who proves that he doesn't know anything about classical music, but who's too proud to admit that, is excellent. But still I think it would have been much better if there was less humor and more realistic drama in it.
Overall I would say that the acting in the movie was good, although I wished to see Richard Harris in a bigger role. Now it just felt like he was in the movie because of his name, not because of his talent. I would like to end this review by saying that this is an enjoyable movie, even though it sometimes didn't feel right. I give it a 6.5/10. Perhaps even a 7/10, but certainly nothing more than that.