How bad Russians are returning to American cinema

However, after the cooling of relations between Russia and America in the mid-10s, a lot of films about Russian gangsters with crosses on their chests broke out on the big screen - not outstanding, but not unambiguously bad either. Let's remember together the bad (and not so) Russians who stepped onto the cinema and television screens only in the last six months.

1. President of Russia

The fact that a hero similar to Vladimir Putin would appear in the new season of House of Cards was talked about even after the first trailer - the fair-haired man who refused to shake hands with Frank Underwood for the needs of photographers was very similar to the Russian leader. In fact, it turned out that Viktor Petrov is not just an allusion to the Russian president with the same initials, but an unmerciful satire. At a reception at the White House, Petrov teaches Americans to drink vodka and sniff their sleeves, followed by a dashing sip of "Oh, the box is full" and without hesitation kisses Claire Underwood in the manner of Brezhnev's fusion with Honecker. At the same time, girls from Pussy Riot are sitting at the same table with Petrov - needless to say, how funny this scene looks for the Russian audience. "Is this your first visit to the White House, Mr. President?" Underwood asks Petrov. “Yes,” he replies innocently. “But you are my third president.”

By way of comparison: the funny Vladimir Putin, still Russia's prime minister, in a 2009 episode of Family Guy called "Spies Like Us" in 2009.

2. Mafiosi, former commando

In The Great Equalizer, the protagonist, played by Denzel Washington, fights against Russian scoundrels who are the roof of a nebulous company called Pleasures Russian Style. It is headed by a pimp of Russian origin Slavi, in whose office icons are hung and the singer Seryoga is flooded. However, the main villain will not be Slavy, but Teddy, a Russian terminator called to a coastal town to prevent the hero of Washington from administering justice and liquidating Russian brothels. Teddy has a tattoo "Don't touch me if you want to live!" and a chef named Pushkin, who was prudently renamed Pushkevich in the Russian dubbing.

3. Mafiosi

One of the main characters of the action movie with Keanu Reeves, which rumbled in cinemas this New Year, is a hybrid of Mikhail Shufutinsky and Tywin Lannister in a crimson shirt - the leader of the Russian mafia Viggo Tarasov. His idiotic son Josef Tarasov steals a car from a talented hitman John Wick and kills a dog - the only memory of his dead wife. Viggo loves to sing the lullaby "Bai-bayushki-by" and melancholy sip bourbon by the fireplace - thanks for not vodka "Capital", the era of which for some screenwriters still has not sunk into oblivion.

4. Russian presidential candidate

In "November Man" with Pierce Brosnan, a former CIA special agent comes to Moscow to pull his mistress Natalya out of the dangerous environment of the Russian politician Arkady Fedorov - the main candidate for the presidency of Russia, with whom the country is about to enter NATO, which everyone is incredibly happy about. Fedorov, according to the plot, is not a bastard: according to the scriptwriters, he unleashed a military conflict in Chechnya over oil (details are not disclosed), and now he is covering his tracks, removing everyone who helped him in this. In addition, the Moscow street Tverskaya featured in the film was filmed somewhere in Yugoslavia, which makes it look a little greener than it really is.

5. Mafiosi

Another Russian mobster with the appearance of Vladimir Mashkov appears in the latest episode of "Hostage" with Liam Neeson. His last name is no longer Petrov or Tarasov, but the cameraman is again in a hurry to show the viewer Orthodox tattoos in all their glory. It is not clear why the creators of the franchise decided to involve the Russian mafia only in the third film, but we again have a brutal veteran of the war in Afghanistan and a gang of his ill-mannered thugs. As always, the Russians will get in the way of the protagonist and his gun, but nothing will come of them.

6. The crew of the submarine

Finally, not bandits, but sailors. Kevin McDonald's new film discouraging the domestic audience about the search for a submarine sunken in the Black Sea with Jude Law and Konstantin Khabensky on the same set.

7. "The Black Sea" is an outstanding example on this list, since it is the only picture with Russian heroes released in the last six months where they do not show tattoos and crosses, are not rude, do not drink like camels and in general, it seems, are the same people, as everybody.

8. The reason for this is the best possible move - Russians are played by Russian (and excellent) actors, therefore, when the hero of Konstantin Khabensky switches from English to Russian semi-camp, it seems as if the geographer Viktor Sluzhkin from the film two years ago was reborn in a new role.

Recently, they tried to throw out a similar trick in the French film Mobius - there one Russian was played by Vladimir Menshov, but another, the main character Grigory Grigorievich Lyubov, was for some reason the Frenchman Jean Dujardin from the film The Artist. As a result, when he and Mashkov are biting grapes on the yacht and discussing their espionage affairs, Dujardin lets out some kind of Slavic lowing, and Menchov pretends to understand everything. By the way, Maxim Vitorgan also played an agent named Sobchak there - but the picture still came out pretty boring.