The Irony of Fate 2 - Honestly Better Than The First

Before watching this movie, I was excited because I would get to see all my favorite characters from the first Irony of Fate back in action.

Laughed, almost cried, and enjoyed this movie.

The Irony of Fate 2 tells the story of Kostya, played by Konstantin Khabensy, the son of Zhenya, played by Andrey Myagokov, who gets drunk in a bathhouse because of his father's friends, almost replicating the same situation that happens with Zhenya. From there, a similar story-line from the first one takes place in a new way, seeing old characters as well as new ones.

Of course, the one good thing about this movie is the fast-paced sort of plot that takes place. With the original The Irony of Fate, I felt like it took forever to get from one place to another, and The Irony of Fate 2 made it even faster than ever.

The next thing I liked about The Irony of Fate 2 was the character dynamic. I mean, in the first Irony of Fate, one sees that the characters do not seem to change at all. Whereas here, the characters all sort of establish a character dynamic that fits well.

We get excited when we see Zhenya and Ippolit, played by Yuri Yakovlev, because we know that something will go down. We have seen the first Irony of Fate and there lies some unfinished business between the two; the intensity is felt.

I liked the wisdom that Zhenya provided towards the end of the film. I did not like the angle they took the sequel, as if everything that happened in the first Irony of Fate didn't matter. And by the angle, I mean that Zhenya and Nadya, played by Barbara Brylska, are not together!!! However, the way the plot figures itself out from there makes the movie a bit more tolerable to watch.

Wow. Never did I think that I would get riled up with watching this movie's sequel. I need to download that song, "Eсли у вас нету тёти".

I give this movie a 5/5.

The Irony of Fate Part 2 - New Year, New Love

To finish up last night's post, I'd like to add a couple of things that I noticed in Part 2 that made me think over the movie as a whole.

First off, I do enjoy the whole juxtaposition between the songs that the actors sing and at what point the characters are in the plot. It fits right in and I can't get enough of that sort of juxtaposition.

Alternatively, the plot does drag on when it can be cut off at certain parts. Entire scenes were not necessary, but I do feel that given the age of the movie I can make some sort of an exception.

To talk about the plot in its entirety, The Irony of Fate is realistic in some sense realistic. It is a romantic comedy that I enjoyed. I would probably enjoy it just as much as an Adam Sandler romantic comedy.

I didn't get a lot from what Zhenya and Nadya were saying to each other about their complicated relationship, but then again, aren't all relationships somewhat complicated.

I give this movie a 4/5.

The Irony of Fate Part 1 - The Hangover 4: Moscow to Leningrad

This originally was just something that I thought would improve my understanding of the Russian language since I am an intermediate Russian speaker. I didn't know what to think of the plot of this movie, but overall I enjoyed it.

The Irony of Fate (the shortened English title of the movie) tells the story of Zhenya, played by Andrey Myagkov, a man in his 30's thinking about proposing to his girlfriend Galya, played by Olga Naumenko, on New Year's Eve. After a drunken evening at a bathhouse in Moscow, his friends accidentally fly Zhenya over to Leningrad. The story takes off from there.

This is one of the first times that I've had to read subtitles for a movie in a foreign language, but I would have to say that I did enjoy this film regardless of the quality nor the fact that I had to read subtitles.

It is a bit slow. I can tell that some parts of the movie could have been chopped off without deviating from the original plot of the movie. However, I do understand that this film is a bit old (1976), so I'll try not to be to critical of these things.

Furthermore, I did like the cliff hanger that the movie leaves for Part 2 at the end of Part 1. I think I will watch Part 2 now that I've seen what the movie is starting to become.

I can see why the title of this film is The Irony of Fate, given the situation that both Zhenya and Nadya, played by Barbara Brylska, are in at the end of Part 1. For a comedy, this Soviet film is not too bad. I wonder what Part 2 has in store for me.

Update: If confused, there are two parts on YouTube, a Part 1 and Part 2. Physically, The Irony of Fate is a 3 hour movie, not chunked into two like YouTube has it. I will post a The Irony of Fate Part 2 to refine the ideas on this review.

I give this movie a 4/5.