Phil’s Thursday night movie is one he’s been excited about getting hold of ever since he heard about it last year. A Russian movie about tanks! What could be better? Russian movies that we’ve seen so far are historically based, serious jobs, well acted, directed and filmed.
This one… not so much. In this movie they seem to have ‘gone Hollywood’ and it seems to have worked at least for the Russians as it smashed box office records there. The basic premise is that in 1944 a Russian tank crew defeat a whole herd of German Panzers single tankedly, but in the end get captured and taken to a POW camp where they are made to restore a captured Russian T34 in order to be used as target practice by new German tank recruits, leading the crew to devise an escape plan.
According to my expert tanky hubby, the T34’s in the movie are genuine and the Panzers are really good mock ups and so very convincing. This though is a mixed bag of a movie. Firstly, it’s dubbed by American voice over actors rather than having subtitles, and the script is laughable in places. History has been tampered with in some places, and there’s a daft love story element with the main hero and a translator from the POW camp.
So that’s the dodgy bits, what is great about it is the tank battles, and the cinematography, and it’s good enough to make you forget the dubbing and the script, it’s a feast for the eyes, and anyone who loves WW2 action will have a blast watching it.
Our Saturday night feature continues with the MCU and we got to Avengers Infinity War. A huge ensemble cast involved in this one, and somehow the directors Anthony and Joe Russo manage to keep it all together and let everyone shine. As always the CGI and special effects are fabulous, and though it’s 2hrs 40mins long it never drags. It is not a stand alone movie by any stretch, and you need to have seen the 18 MCU movies that came before it to really understand what’s going on, (which I have of course). The cast give it their all, both in the action and in the quiet bits (yes there are a few!) where pathos and depth still sneak in, and the character of Thanos, played by Josh Brolin, is not a cut and dried one dimensional bad guy, though his henchmen/women are!
It got a mixed set of reviews from critics but what do they know? 🙂 It broke every record going at the box office. I agree with Rotten Tomatoes website – “Avengers: Infinity War ably juggles a dizzying array of MCU heroes in the fight against their gravest threat yet, and the result is a thrilling, emotionally resonant blockbuster that (mostly) realizes its gargantuan ambitions.”
Fraggle's Otherverse 
What’s the title of the Russian film? It might be my eyes, but I can’t find it.
Hang on, I spotted the tags. Is it called Iron Fury?
I hate dubbed films with a vengeance though.
The Avengers? Wasn’t that Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg? I used to enjoy that on TV. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete
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Iron Fury is correct. In this one particular movie, the dubbing is eclipsed by the stunning action and cinematography, Phil hates dubbing too but really it doesn’t matter here.
I am ignoring your Avenger comment. 🙂
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🙂 🙂
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On the Amazon UK site, it says Russian language with English subtitles. If that’s the case, I might buy the DVD.
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
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Yes there seems to be two versions so go with that one, Phil picked his up in ASDA!
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And I found another version called ‘T-34’. Same film.
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Yes I’m not sure why they’ve done 3.
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I don’t think Iron Fury is for me, but I think Tom might enjoy it with the subtitles. I loved Infinity War!
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If Tom likes tank battles this a really good one to watch. BTW I’ve just finished season 4 magicians. You could have warned me!! 😳😩😭😭
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OMG! Quentin!😔😟😩😫😭
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Totally unnecessary I thought!
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It certainly was a twist to end all twists. Who kills off THE main character? And such a beloved one to boot. It’s going to be interesting to see how the 5th season does. I’ve only seen the 1st episode where everyone is trying to deal with Q’s death.
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Not out here yet 😦
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😔
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I thought it was Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt 🙂
I’m still not sure which super hero is from what comic, but we do enjoy watching them, so this one will go on the list.
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It’s great fun Eddy 🙂
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Neither film appeals to me, but I agree about dubbing.
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Yes, it’s better with subtitles.
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I am intrigued by the tank battles of Iron Fury. Too bad the bad dubbing gets in the way but it sounds like the tank battles win out in the end!
And I should probably watch Infinity War/Endgame again the next time I have 6 hours to spare!
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Cheers Sean, the tank battles are brilliantly done, and at least you get a laugh out of the script!
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I see Russian movies on AmazonPrime and always get disappointed. Seems an Anti-Russian tactic to choose bad movies xP I recall a similar plot to the tank movie but with football (one lovely thing that you are in the U.K. is that I have not to say soccer) with Pele and Stallone. They are prisoners and have to prepare a team to defeat the prison staff. I forgot the name. I will see the Marvel movie when it appears in Amazon, I saw Dr. Strange and was super fantastic : )
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Dr.Strange is one of my fave Marvel movies. Cheers Francis.
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