Winter has come to its logical end, and we, also logical, are opening a block of publications with analytics of the winning nominees as part of summing up the results of action films for 2022.
Sports drama 2022
Last year brought a lot of interesting projects for Russian fans of combat drama, not only from Asia and the West, but also from our native Russia. True, on our website this genre continues to enjoy little popularity, which is reflected by the meager voting in this category. Meanwhile, almost every one of the nominees is worth your time, and even more so, our winners deserve attention.
Liger (dir. Puri Jagannath) (18%, 9 votes)
For those who, together with us, sum up the results of action films, the prize-winning place of a film from Bollywood is not news. Including in the category “sports drama”: it took second place in 2017 "Dangal" with Amir Khan in the title role, and in 2019 the spectacular wrestling and boxing drama took bronze "Wrestler".
"Liger" is the story of a young man whose illness is a stutter, but whose strength is his undeniable skills in martial arts and the dream of becoming a champion in mixed martial arts, for which his strict mother negotiates with the local owner of an MMA school. But first, the champion of the opposing school stands in the way of the protagonist, then true but sad love and, finally, the American criminals with Mike Tyson at the head.
"Ligra" can be called quite a traditional film from India: it is bright and beautiful, all in gloss and night lights if the events take place in a big city and in pleasant light velvet if the heroes are in the village. Of course, the songs and dances are on point, the emotional outbursts of the characters are emphasized by sound effects, and traditional rapid-fire shooting frames the traditional Bollywood pathos.
Elements common to sports drama, such as a difficult relationship with a stern mentor, training before the main fight and overcoming oneself are presented here in embryo, since Liger does not need to learn, he is already the best. This somewhat blurs the impression, because as a sports drama, the film does not work. And you certainly forget about this genre by the end of the film, when the hero begins to rescue his beloved from captivity.
What’s good for our brother is that there are a lot of fight scenes in the film: one on one, one on the crowd. A member of the Jackie Chan Stunt Association was responsible for the local hand-to-hand action - Andy Long, so there are plenty of greetings to old Jackie in the choreography. This is especially noticeable in Liger’s fight against a whole squad of tough and dangerous girls. But for some reason the final fight against Tyson was made humorous, rather than tense and interesting. Despite his excellent physical shape, the actor Vijay Deverkond He is not at all a pro in martial arts, so he is often dubbed, but he fulfills his task as an action actor. How the film as a whole fulfills its task, which is confirmed by the “gold” in this category.
Mr. Knockout (dir. Artyom Mikhalkov) (16%, 8 votes)
The title of the film is the unofficial title of the legendary Soviet boxer Valeria Popenchenko (1937-1975), whom the newspapers called so, in fact, due to the fact that he ended most of his matches with a knockout.
The film continues the series of historical dramas about famous Soviet athletes and "Mr. Knockout" boldly stands on a par with "Legend No. 17" (2012) and "Moving up" (2017), but since Artyom Mikhalkov’s film is a boxing drama, we will analyze it in more detail.
What does the classic structure of sports drama teach us? The rebellious soul of a promising young athlete stumbles upon a freaky coach with his own vision of the world and personal drama, after which, by training in an unconventional way, overcoming his own fears and complexes, he becomes a champion, finding love along the way.
"Mr. Knockout" strictly follows this scheme, without deviating one step from the most ossified cliches. Let's add here the stereotypes about the villainous Soviet functionaries, who pose plot obstacles to the main characters, and we get a fairly typical picture. But what did the audience like about the film?
First of all, good acting. Victor Horinyak portrays the image of a young and stubborn person quite well on the screen Valeria Popenchenko, developing the character over the course of the story. Classic of Russian cinema Sergey Bezrukov embodied the character of coach Popenchenko in the film - Grigory Kusikyants, making him an extravagant, eccentric and even somewhat aggressive person, which opposes the system.
Secondly, the fight scenes look, sound and are performed at a very good level, which is important for visitors to our site. There are many fights in the film, including the main fight in Popenchenko’s career at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. It was he who became the main event in the film - Popenchenko overcomes himself and wins in a complex, lengthy and well-staged stuntman and director familiar to us Fedor Starykh fight
Yes, screenwriters "Mr. Knockout" (and for a minute there are as many as five of them!) left no trace of the real story of the legendary boxer, drowning in plot assumptions, denigration of the Soviet party system and classic, characteristically, American clichés from boxing dramas. Popenchenko finished the same fight in Tokyo in a minute with the same title knockout, but in the film everything stretched out into rounds and rounds.
But it was probably because of the boxing fight scenes that people voted for the film. In any case, he is assigned second place.
Fighter: King of the Ring (dir. Daniel Graham) (14%, 7 votes)
“Bronze” in the category “sports drama” and again a film about a real person - an English boxing champion Jem Belcher (1781-1811), who under the nicknames “King of the Ring” and “Black Diamond” inscribed his name in the history of this sport with the golden ratio, becoming a prominent representative in an era when fist fights became professional fights, changing and transforming into a strictly defined system .
Since childhood, Belcher watched the fist fights of his grandfather Jack Slack, who effortlessly defeated his opponents, but could not overcome his own demons and died as a pale shadow of himself. Young Jem also becomes a fist fighter who reaches new heights, becoming the champion of England. However, the guy fails the “copper pipes” test, losing one eye and sinking to the very bottom. But the main battle of his life still awaits the hero.
"Fighter" is interesting primarily as a biopic about a controversial historical character who lived in an interesting era for boxing. The setting of the gloomy London of the late 18th and early 19th centuries is diluted by the bright and native Bristol for Belcher, which becomes the cradle of a new life for the boxer, which will return him to the sport after a textbook fall.
Of course, the film features the noble but stern trainer Bill Warr, played by Ray Winstone, who trains young Jep in unconventional ways and replaces his beloved grandfather, whose small role was played by the Oscar-winner Russell Crowe. In principle, the film has good acting, including the main character played by Matt Hookings.
But what is obviously bad in the film are the fight scenes. They don’t show the craft of a director, they don’t have interesting camera angles and shooting angles, they don’t have enough nerve. Except that the final fight for the championship in the film evokes the necessary emotions, but again is completely uninteresting due to the weak staging of the fight itself. The actors simply beat each other in abrupt shots during a protracted duel, which is designed to reveal the drama of the main character, his stubbornness and courage.
"King of Ring" - this is a good movie that you might like, but from the point of view of combat scenes there is nothing to catch here. Although the film still gets the third prize.
Historical, fantasy or wuxia film 2022
Traditionally, this category features films from all over the world on a variety of topics: traditional and non-traditional Chinese wuxia, adventure films from South Korea, historical epics from India and Malaysia, dark stories from Europe... But it is very pleasant that the first film in the top three was the film From Russia.
The Heart of Parma (dir. Anton Megerdichev) (19%, 15 votes)
Russian-language films consistently appear in this category: second place goes to "Legends of Kolovrat" in 2017, the first "Scythian" in 2018 and again second for a historical drama from Kazakhstan "Tomiris" in 2020 year.
"The Heart of Parma" - the project is somewhat unexpected, since it is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name Alexey Ivanov, which was a kind of Slavic fantasy superimposed on the real history of Rus'.
The story in the film unfolds over several decades, showing the formation of the Russian prince Mikhail, who connected his life with a werewolf witch named Tiche - the daughter of local Perm tribes who worship pagan gods.
Despite the noticeable length, which was noted by many who watched the film, "The Heart of Parma" is an interesting love story that the main characters of the epic carried through against all odds. The heroes fight not only with human prejudices, but also with their homeland: Tiche with his, and Mikhail with his. This leads to several memorable battle scenes, the main one being the siege of the city of Michael by an army coming from Moscow.
The film is beautifully shot, which is not uncommon for a big-budget historical film from Russia - the setting of sparkling Christian Rus' is adjacent to the gloomy world of pagan gods to whom bloody sacrifices are made. All this is emphasized by location shooting and good camera work in general. The music was very appropriate too Igor Vdovin (“Nine”, “Invasion”, “Patient Zero”).
The cast of the film also does not raise questions: the deceased is now Sergei Puskepalis played the role of godfather Michael - the warrior Polyud, in his places and Evgeny Mironov и Vitaly Kishchenko. But every frame is stolen by a talented young actor Alexander Kuznetsov – his prince goes through a difficult path from protest to repentance, from doubt to confidence, from childhood love for a werewolf girl to love for a woman and the mother of his children, even if she is a person from another world and a witch.
Kuznetsov also looks great in action scenes, which are mostly crowd scenes. But the camera follows Prince Mikhail and his associates, so almost every male character will have time to wave a bladed weapon. The battle scenes themselves were filmed and executed very well - the directors and stuntmen did a quality job.
Yes, some may be confused by the length of the epic, others by the modern makeup on the face of the main character performed by a debutante Elena Erbakova, but in general "The Heart of Parma" is a well-filmed and acted fantasy saga that can be recommended for viewing without a twinge of conscience. And “gold” in our voting only confirms this.
RRR: Revolution Roars Nearby (dir. S.S. Rajamouli) (17%, 14 votes)
Various historical epics from Bollywood periodically appear in our polls, but have never won. But “Revolution is roaring nearby” There was no chance of not being included in the prize shortlist.
Director S.S. Rajamouli, being a talented visionary, gave the world an absurd, but undoubtedly bright movie, like "The unsurpassed cunning" (2007) "Great Warrior" (2009) "Flies" (2012) and duology "Baahubali" (2015, 2017). The last three films were quickly dismantled into memes and quotes; you can still find a siege scene from the second in a completely random place on the Internet "Baahubali".
The director’s new film also became a notable film event - "RRR" Almost all bloggers noted, and at home this historical action movie received multiple awards, including victory in the “Best Dance” category. And the film is very worthy of all the positive reviews it received.
The plot about the friendship of a policeman in the service of Her Majesty and a simple guy from the people who is forced to become the founder of the revolution is quite simple in the setting of India in the 20s of the last century. But due to the dramatic intensity of passions and the plot twist that reveals the second part of the picture, this simplicity is leveled out.
Almost every action scene in the film is etched into the memory and remains there for a long time. Whether it's the scene of catching a tiger, the scene of saving a boy on the river, or the moment in which a character Ray Stevenson flies out of the crashed car and fires a gun. Needless to say - the scene of the attack on the British consulate and the hero NTR Jr., throwing a panther at the English military can be a dream at night. Looking at the local action scenes, at some point you want to scream right at the screen, “How could this be invented???” And what kind of dance is this performed by the main characters - it’s absolutely impossible to tear yourself away from it.
Yes, this is still good old Bollywood with its incredible pathos, the desire to slow down every more or less beautiful frame, the exaggeration of everything and everyone, the repeating musical theme, etc. But “Revolution is roaring nearby” - this is a very cool movie, which rightfully takes second place in our voting.
The Princess (dir. Le-Van Kiet) (14%, 11 votes)
Already from the trailer "Princesses" It became clear to us that the film made for the streaming platform hulu. will be at least interesting for a fan of the hand-to-hand action genre. Yes, this is far from a pure fighting game, but a hooligan fairytale comedy, 80% of which is occupied by action scenes.
The film is about a fairy-tale state, the king and queen of which were taken hostage by the villainous monarch of a neighboring country in order to legitimize his power by marrying a local princess. But the young girl turns out not to be timid and now she has to fight an entire army to free her relatives.
The director of the film is Vietnamese Le-Van Kiet, which was noted for its excellent action thriller "Fury" (2019) with the magnificent Veronica Ngo in the leading role, which also found a role in "To the Princess" - she plays the main character's friend. In general, this film is about female action, because in addition to the princess herself, Joey King, on the screen fights and Veronica Ngo и Olga Kurilenko, playing a villain wielding a whip.
It is noteworthy that Joey King, being a heroine whom the story tirelessly follows, did many of her own stunts and often it is her face that is in the frame of action scenes. At all, "A princess" looks like a pure stunt movie, which is designed to show what the guys are capable of under the guidance of a stunt coordinator Clayton J. Barber and action director Kefi Abrikha, with whom Kieth had already worked on "Fury".
In fact, it seems to us that this is why there is practically no script in the film. The plot follows the heroine, who moves from point A to point B, simultaneously destroying dozens of extras. To a good actor Dominic Cooper, on whose shoulders the main villainy in the film is, there is simply nothing to play with. And the main fight with him is more of a plot point than interesting from a craft point of view.
As a result, "A princess" more reminiscent of "Toughie" (1988) "Under siege" (1992) or Indonesian "Raid" (2011) than a sane fantasy project. But this plays into the film’s hands, since the film is really filled to the brim with action scenes. Apparently this was enough for "A princess" I earned myself a bronze medal.
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Tags: Liger, Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher, princess, Alexander Kuznetsov, Bollywood, Veronica Ngo, Vijay Deverkonda, Victor Horinyak, Joey King, results of action cinema 2022, Kefi Abrikh, Clayton J. Barber, Le-Van Kiet, Mike Tyson, Mr. Knockout, Matt Hookings, Olga Kurilenko, S.S. Rajamouli, Sergey Bezrukov, Heart of Parma, sports drama, Fedor Starykh, Andy Long
Tags: Liger, Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher, princess, Alexander Kuznetsov, Bollywood, Veronica Ngo, Vijay Deverkonda, Victor Horinyak, Joey King, results of action cinema 2022, Kefi Abrikh, Clayton J. Barber, Le-Van Kiet, Mike Tyson, Mr. Knockout, Matt Hookings, Olga Kurilenko, S.S. Rajamouli, Sergey Bezrukov, Heart of Parma, sports drama, Fedor Starykh, Andy Long
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