Red Sparrow

My sum up is something like: How can you steal from Fleming and end up with something so appalling and disappointing?
I am sorry to say that my expectations of a bad FRWL remake were met.
That Klebb-lady is quite convincing and it is nice to hear a direct quote "The state has nourished your body etc.". Dominika's cooing during the torturing of Nash is also very close to Klebb.
Still, Fleming knew when to spare details. This is just gross (and even boring in a way).
They seem to have decided to bring everything on screen which Fleming has skipped.

The first change between FRWL and RS, namely that she was not too tall for the Bolshoi ballet, like Tatjana Romanova, but deliberately maimed, is already the first step into ruin. I mean, if you're maimed and cannot dance anymore, you are, logically, prime material for a military branch of the Russian secret service.

But I have some questions for those of you who have been as daring as me and have actually watched it (because I know that some Bond-fans have decided against watching it - can't really blame them...).

-How did it all come about? Nash (who is not Nash in the meaning that "nash" means "ours" in Russian despite being a normal English name...that was a nice red herring at least) suggests that they only let her dance to break her, so that they would have a hold on her later on. But how did they bring that conspiracy between her dancing partner and Sonia about?

-Why does the uncle give her the compromising material of that conspiracy? I mean, it proves that he did want her to be maimed because obviously he didn't stop them. But why does he prove that to her? And why does she get away with beating up two people?

-Why do they drag the sparrows to a shooting range when they never fire a single bullet? Why does she always operate without a weapon and obviously she's not skilled in close combat either. Wouldn't even a sparrow need some basic teaching in self-defence?

Has anyone of you read the book? Does it give any further insight?

I'd watch it if it didn't have that libtard douchebag Jennifer Lawrence in it.

With a 17m opening weekend, it's a flop.

v

And you see them in the film.

The j-tits leaked from cloud a couple years ago, so her fans aren't spending money to see them anymore.

A quick check showed they're still on imagefap.

How is Matthias Schoenaerts in it? I was surprised to see him on this cast, he tends to take more risks in his choice of roles.

Salomé wrote:

How is Matthias Schoenaerts in it? I was surprised to see him on this cast, he tends to take more risks in his choice of roles.

He's the uncle who has forced her into the programme and even done worse. It might be a risky choice nevertheless because his character is meant to be despised. And he's convincing with that.

Bootleg fell into my lap...decent enough copy since most of them nowadays are from HD prints with asian subtitles...might give it a go after all.

v

I hate the kind of review that reveals more about the reviewer's world view than about the movie itself.

On that note, my favorite Flemish reviewer was recently accused of racism because he only gave "Black Panther" two stars out of four and called parts of it dull and self-indulgent.

I was reminded of how QT was attacked for calling "Selma" the best TV movie of the year. But that is something I would have agreed with. It's a movie worth seeing, but not for its technical accomplishments.

Yet to see this but it's on the list. Apparently it's a dud though. 

I'm a fan of Charlotte Rampling, but man her accent is wonky (going by the trailer).

Erica Ambler wrote:

The Grauniad says, 'Neither [Jennifer's Lawrence's] intelligence nor her general badassery are able to free her from the film’s deeply sexist paradigm... she is degraded in every way possible.'

I may have to see this film after all.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/mar/04/red-sparrow-jennifer-lawrence-russian-spy-review

But don't be disappointed, the sparrow class is 50:50 male and female.
We just don't see the male sparrows at work.
She has probably missed that...I mean, it just happens that you overlook half of the cast.

FieldsMan wrote:

I'm a fan of Charlotte Rampling, but man her accent is wonky (going by the trailer).

She's a really "nice" Rosa Klebb-version. I find it weird that they all speak with a Russian accent. Yes, they're Russians; but why do they talk to each other in English with a Russian accent? Wouldn't you assume that we are supposed to believe that they are speaking Russian anyway and you could allow them to speak proper English then?
That's no match for Atomic Blonde which includes relatively long passages in German and Russian. The inclusion of the foreign languages gives AB an air of authenticity you can only wish for in RS. There's probably two words in Russian and you only find German inscriptions on the door of the bank in Vienna.

You can never really please everyone on the accent front; some people were peeved at Enemy at the Gates for having everyone speak with English rather than Russian/German accents.

I find the use of "accents" dumb. If the movie isn't in the native language of the characters anyway, just have them speak English.

v

So, Atomic Blonde wins.
The characters just switch around English, German and / or Russian as they need it. They turn around and change to another language because they are talking to someone else. Some have an accent in one of those languages; but that makes totally sense.
By-passers speak German (in West-Berlin or the GDR) while the MI 6 and CIA personnel speaks English. It's a perfect imitation of how it would be in real-life.

This looks to be a dull and tasteless umpteenth remake of La Femme Nikita. Am I wrong in that assumption?

I'm not sure since it's based upon a novel. As far as I have gathered from others who have read the namesake novel the film seems to diverge a lot from the novel. So there might be more to the original than we know of...At least it is not just a filmic remake of something else.
And the novel, I was told, is, most surprisingly, very close to FRWL ; although the author fails to mention that. He says that his heroine falls in love with the CIA agent and he claims that this is all based on his experiences as a secret agent for the CIA. I think, he means, Fleming's experiences in the MI 6 probably? This is really ridiculous, to try to fool an audience of spy fiction with Fleming's probably most famous novel.

v

I liked it. Gripped till the end. I wish 3/4 of the Craig era felt like the film that this is, and with a score as classical as this. Beautiful cinematography too. 

Rampling is so right for the role she plays; I just wish she tried a little harder with her accent.

Or did I miss she was supposed to be a British defector? 

Kath wrote:

-Why do they drag the sparrows to a shooting range when they never fire a single bullet? Why does she always operate without a weapon and obviously she's not skilled in close combat either. Wouldn't even a sparrow need some basic teaching in self-defence?

This popped into mind about halfway through, admittedly.

Erica Ambler wrote:

Kath wrote:

I think, he means, Fleming's experiences in the MI 6 probably?

Fleming had no role in MI6. He worked for the Naval Intelligence Division (Royal Navy).

Oh, you're right. But Wikipedia has this:

Wikipedia wrote:

Godfrey was known as an abrasive character who made enemies within government circles. He frequently used Fleming as a liaison with other sections of the government's wartime administration, such as the Secret Intelligence Service, the Political Warfare Executive, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Prime Minister's staff.

FieldsMan wrote:

I wish 3/4 of the Craig era felt like the film that this is,

Forgive me, but isn't this film the very opposite of glamorous Bond? This is even far beyond gritty realism, what you normally criticize the Craig cycle for. This is an excessive depiction of (sexual) violence: rape; that bath tube filled with blood; the skinning of several people; the beating of Dominika...
I did like the twist at the ending when she finally gets her revenge, but still...I would not welcome that kind of violence in a Bond film. It's against their agenda, isn't it?
This is a different kind of spy fiction, IMO. Fleming and his offspring always take the position of utopic spy fiction in which everything is a glamorous adventure featuring fast cars, nice food, pretty girls and exotic locations - that is pretty much the exact opposite of other spy films, like Bridge of Spies or even novels, such as those of John le Carré. We were just discussing the disillusioned Alec Leamas who wants to die some weeks ago (at some other place).


I still don't get how it all got started with that accident of hers...any clue how it was arranged? It looks like bad luck that her dancing partner fell in love with another; but then it is claimed that it was all planned by her evil uncle. How could he have planned for that?

Leaked HD copy with Korean subs floating around...might watch it but she's still a libtard

Started to watch it, seems like they know the audience is about to fall asleep so they have JLa show some tits and ass or some other sexual innuendo ever so often...but I got bored and turned it off just after halfway point. And I hate that stupid wig she wears.

I was more amused that they dye her hair without gloves. That would yield interesting results to your hands in real-life...That was a very stupid mistake.

bitchcraft wrote:

Started to watch it, seems like they know the audience is about to fall asleep so they have JLa show some tits and ass or some other sexual innuendo ever so often...but I got bored and turned it off just after halfway point. And I hate that stupid wig she wears.

Call me shallow, but you may just have sold it to me .