Remake of "The Caucasian Captive" 2014: review and reviews

Often filmmakers try to "revitalize" an old classic. It would seem that people already have a favorite film - albeit old, but soulful, nostalgic, native. Who needs these attempts at resurrection? The answer: the youth. That, say, and the modern generation joined the culture of domestic cinematography, knew and loved cult stories. Well, this is the opinion Maxim Voronkovwho in 2014 unveiled his "movie attraction" to the world - a remake of "The Caucasian Captive.".

Noise around the second "Caucasian Captive" was a lot, but in the end, the audience put the director stake. The movie has one star, and Voronkov's own career was completely ruined. A game that was clearly not worth the candle. But who and why in general needed all this "movie attraction" - as Maxim Yurievich himself proudly calls his work. Let's get to the bottom of it...

"A movie that you want to turn off at the beginning" - review by FUZZ MUSIC

So what is the problem with "Caucasian Captive 2"? Like the original, the movie was filmed in the Crimea, and to the selection of actors approached thoughtfully, thoroughly. But the first thing that catches the eye is the absolute copying old classics: from the scenes and lines to the facial expressions of the main characters! There is no uniqueness, no originality... Even the actors were chosen to be as similar to Gaidaev's as possible (whether the team coped with this task is for everyone to decide for themselves). A logical question arises here: if the director made such an obvious "copy-paste" the main priority, why was it necessary to shoot it at all? What's the point if the public can watch the good old "Captive" by Gaidai? Some kind of bicycle invention it works out.

The jokes and humorous scenes are generally too pretentious, in the opinion of many mediocre and even "dirty". Not to go far for an example - the scene with the donkey, which Shurik ... trying to ... charge with electricity. Jokes about the Internet, gadgets and all that sort of thing (including Shurik's toast "Let's drink to the GLONASS system!") give the impression that the era of technology has only just reached us, and this kind of replicas should make people excited and excited! Alas, they don't. They do not cause anything of the sort - except a feeling of confusion, embarrassment and slight culture shock (or maybe not even slight). As if after each such "stand-up scene" there should be a sound insert with "cooing" of night crickets.....

To summarize - the remake (apologies, "movie attraction") looks like a bad copyfull of cheap humor and lack of any individuality and originality (well, except for the technological humor). As one viewer succinctly wrote:

"I thought it couldn't get any worse. Now I realize that it can't get any worse, that's for sure".

"The younger generation needs to know the classics" - inspiration that came from a very unexpected place

In one of his interviews, Voronkov said that the idea for the remake came to him at the restaurant.

"Once Ilya (Oleynikov) and I were sitting in a restaurant, and we were thinking about what to shoot. We had no ideas at all. And then we noticed a young group of 18-20 year olds at a neighboring table. We decided to ask if they had seen "The Caucasian Captive", and they told us - moms and grandmothers yes, watched it, but we did not. It's not our format. And then we decided that this was a good chance to give young people a classic in a modern reading, so to speak...".

Oleynikov personally wanted to play Comrade Saakhov, but a week before the shooting health failed the actor. The role went to his good friend Gennady Khazanovwho later commented on his involvement in the failed remake as follows:

"I'm not a fan of remakes of any kind. But I couldn't refuse - it was the request of my dying friend, who, you could say, handed me this role. At times like this you have no choice, it's already a question of humanity and respect..."

A grand failure and the end of a career

There's been a lot of buzz around the movie, with the trailer alone gaining over a million views! But in the end, "The Caucasian Captive 2" turned out to be a grandiose... failure. The picture did not even recoup its own costs - with a budget of 3.5 million dollars box office receipts amounted to a modest 180,000 greenbacks. Critics literally trashed the remake, calling it cheap, pretentious and overall just a poor copy of the cult classic.

The culmination of all this was that the director remained indebted to the cameramen, the editor and some of the actors - notably the Dmitri Sharakois (aka Shurik), who then went to London, where he worked as a waiter and part-time construction worker, as it was not so easy to find a job as an actor. Voronkov himself claimed that the small budget that was allocated for filming was to blame. But with his opinion, of course, you can argue.

As far as Maxim Voronkov is concerned. "movie attraction." and his career was over. After such a deafening fiasco, the director was banned from making movies. His previous works also lost in the ratings - although some were quite good. What is this - injustice, karma for wanting to cash in on someone else's legacy, or a well-deserved audience appreciation? Share your opinions in the comments.