In the name of justice. - Now hold on to the air! (c)
In the so-called perestroika years, when censorship disappeared and a new generation of directors came to the cinema, the domestic audience thanks to video salons has already got acquainted with foreign cinema. Among other things, with overseas fighters about cool supermen, who alone could resist entire gangs. Watching the on-screen exploits of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal, the viewer wanted similar to them, but only his hero, Russian. What domestic film directors of the “new wave” decided to give them, thereby making a lot of money at the box office. But in those years, the visit of Soviet citizens to cinemas was greatly reduced, there were many problems in the country and citizens were somehow not up to the cinema. Therefore, it was not possible to cut the money at the box office, but before the commercial companies financing such films realized this, some time passed, and a large number of low-quality, cheap fighters appeared on the screens - one-day "our" production. Most of them, of course, was a thrash unimaginable, in the same type of plots of which there was darkness and horror: the mafia, crony, criminal elements, drug addicts, prostitutes and corrupt cops. In all this, of course, there was little attractive, besides it was filmed, God forbid: non-professional artists, inept-operators, shabby Bomzhov apartments as scenery, disgusting quality, Soviet film, etc. So, there is nothing strange in the fact that such “films” the audience was tired, and they almost completely switched from our to foreign, which by that time appeared not only on video, but also on television cinema. Today, looking back at the beginning of the “dashing” 90s, in general, there is nothing to remember, except for individual units – representatives of truly real, “high” cinema. True, among the militants, if desired, you can find worthy copies. True, today it is impossible to watch them without an ironic smile, the past time is doing its job - the past post-Soviet era, once terrible, crazy and bloody, today it is perceived from the screen as awkward and childishly naive. Speeches of some movie characters, such as the characters of this film, that a simple opera can not have a house covered with bricks, cars and all sorts of "video-smideo" sound today as if you are watching not a serious crime movie, but some TV show like "The Big Difference" (in which, in one of the episodes, similar militants were parodied). All this is true, but such a thing as nostalgia does its black thing, and when you look at these old paintings, you involuntarily recall the childhood years that every person, no matter what time he lived, is the best period of life. At that time, such militants made an indelible impression with their expression and cruelty, and their heroes were immersed in the soul, and seemed more realistic, much more human than their American counterparts. Stars of such productions, as a rule, were former masters of sports or stuntmen who could personally do dangerous tricks in the frame. The main trickster of perestroika cinema, no doubt, was Alexander Inshakov - the champion of the Soviet Union in karate. In his films, he demonstrated mastery of this martial art, scattering his opponents like puppies. “Rat Corner” filmed in 1992 by Andrey Andronnikov is his first solo project, which drew the attention of a wide audience to him. Although the director who shot the film turned out to be the creator of only one picture (in the future getting only into the scandalous chronicle of the “yellow press”), he shot it skillfully. Of course, with an eye to the time and the meager resources for the production, which he was provided by the “co-operator” studio “Irene” (now, of course, no longer existing). The film has the whole "gentleman" set of foreign action movie: hand-to-hand fights, car chases, in the best tradition ending in accidents and confrontation of one good hero to the whole criminal group. Already from our mentality came currency tangles, corrupt cops and other “black – household”. It is worth noting that the film was shot very decently: the film, although not "Kodak", but quite high-quality, and the operator was good - it turned out to be Lithuanian Kestutis Plyavokas (now regularly shooting "gangster-ment" series on "NTV"). The stuntmen staged a variety of fights so that they would be interesting to watch: hand-to-hand sparring, kicks from the foot, stabbing. Several dangerous tricks in the frame were performed by Inshakov himself, so you will not be bored during the viewing, believe me.
The plot is banal: after a five-year prison sentence, the former karate coach Sasha Klimov, nicknamed Klim, returns to his native provincial town. He wants to settle scores with the teacher, a local crime boss. He learns that the cops who fabricated a fake case against him are now in the pocket of criminals who completely control the city. His friends were badly broken by life: the girl Mila became a prostitute, helping bandits to breed intourists for money, and the musician Troitsky became a drug addict. Having run into old "buddies" Klim gets to the station, from where he is released, hinting that serious people do not want to see him in the city. Not wanting to compete with gangster arbitrariness, the hero enters into a fight with the mafia. The scenario predicted at first, closer to the final, tries to shock the viewer - finally revealing the name of who actually pulls the strings. But this is a stupid and ridiculous move, which I would rather keep silent, so as not to spoil any intrigue of this banal action movie. Of the other artists noted in the film, I will mention only Evgeny Zharikov, who played the role of the Teacher, the young (but already balding) Sergey Gazarov in the role of a “crazy” foreigner by his brothers, a sexy blonde Katya Kmit (singer - a prostitute Milk), obviously from the lack of money, who got into this company Viktor Pavlov (a good-natured neighbor of the hero - Pasha’s uncle) and a friend and associate of Inshakov in the stunt business - Yuri Slobodeniuk, who played a small, but colorful role of the but but but a mongritic but but a mongry one with a root meatman. By the way, there will even be their duel with Alexander Inshakov, so all fans of perestroika fighters can not miss this film!
Synthetic soundtrack and cult foreign songs of the late 80s, neon discotheques of the early 90s and the then "tearful" pop - today are the main treasure of the film. At first glance, it was very recent, but how long ago it was... “American Fight”, “Crusader”, “Fools Die on Fridays”, “Stamp”, “Fan”, “I declare War to You”, “Wolves” and “Thirtieth – Destroy!” – who does not remember these pictures today? They are still successfully repeated from time to time on television. Real, high-quality Russian fighters who have fallen out of their time and lost their relevance, analogues of which in our time will never be.