Aka
"Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov"
Starring
Aleksandr Bukharov
Oksana Akinshina
Gennadiy Makoev
Igor Petrenko
And way too many other Russians to list here.
What's it about?
A young boy sees his village and his entire clan destroyed by raiders riding under a distinctive banner.
Years later, the scarred Wolfhound is hunting down those responsible. After dealing with the first on his hitlist, he is hired to bodyguard a young princess as she goes to meet her future husband.
However, somebody doesn't want that young lady getting there and the fate of the world may just depend upon it.
Well the first part of this story sounds awfully familiar. Where have I seen that before?
And more recently
You can't help noticing that Wolfhound wears a hell of a lot more clothing. He's also a lot more taciturn - if you get more than a sentence out of him at a time you're doing well and while Conan has a robust sense of humour, his Russian counterpart isn't big on laughs. I think I saw him smile once in the entire movie.
Then there's the mud. Lots of it. This is one of those films where, to paraphrase Monty Python, you can spot the nobility because they haven't got shite all over their faces.
At this point you'd probably expect me to be winding up to give this film a solid boot in the ribs but the thing is...
It's actually not bad.
The fight scenes are more than decent and there's some effort into making them a little different. One scene manages to make mist look menacing and what you think is the climactic punchup is only the curtain-raiser for something even more spectacular. I'm guessing they kept the fx small and unobtrusive for the bulk of the film and then spunked everything that was left on the finish.
Stars Aleksandr Bukharov and Oksana Akinshina can get a lot done without even opening their mouths, silently playing off each other in a way that never comes across as stagey. Admittedly there's one supporting character that managed to get right on my nerves inside 2 minutes of her introduction but she redeems herself later, and another character is introduced in a big way but doesn't really seem to serve much useful purpose. Oh well. Quibbling.
And the whole aesthetic look is rather interesting - this is a Russian film so the architecture leans heavily towards rustic-looking wooden buildings, the armour is Dark Ages but with a distinctive Eastern European twist- you get the idea. It's all a bit different from the usual Roman/Viking/Knight looks we're used to.
Sticking with the theme of "Different" Wolfhound has a pet Fruit-bat. A cute thing it is too.
How much did I pay for this? £1 from CEX
Was it worth it: I can't see myself ever watching "Wolfhound" again unless it pops up on Film4 but yes, I did enjoy this. Worth seeing.
Trailer here if you are interested:
That's all folks.
It's actually not bad.
The fight scenes are more than decent and there's some effort into making them a little different. One scene manages to make mist look menacing and what you think is the climactic punchup is only the curtain-raiser for something even more spectacular. I'm guessing they kept the fx small and unobtrusive for the bulk of the film and then spunked everything that was left on the finish.
Stars Aleksandr Bukharov and Oksana Akinshina can get a lot done without even opening their mouths, silently playing off each other in a way that never comes across as stagey. Admittedly there's one supporting character that managed to get right on my nerves inside 2 minutes of her introduction but she redeems herself later, and another character is introduced in a big way but doesn't really seem to serve much useful purpose. Oh well. Quibbling.
And the whole aesthetic look is rather interesting - this is a Russian film so the architecture leans heavily towards rustic-looking wooden buildings, the armour is Dark Ages but with a distinctive Eastern European twist- you get the idea. It's all a bit different from the usual Roman/Viking/Knight looks we're used to.
Sticking with the theme of "Different" Wolfhound has a pet Fruit-bat. A cute thing it is too.
How much did I pay for this? £1 from CEX
Was it worth it: I can't see myself ever watching "Wolfhound" again unless it pops up on Film4 but yes, I did enjoy this. Worth seeing.
Trailer here if you are interested:
That's all folks.
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