Tycoon (2002)

How sad is this?

A Masterpiece!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Tycoon: A New Russian" is a powerful saga that doesn't spare anybody. Oligarchs, Russian politicians, mafia - it is hard to tell them apart sometimes. The end of communism unfortunately didn't bring the peace and prosperity that people expected. The new economic rules were not followed with appropriate laws, hence the disaster happened. Some people with the brains , but without scruples, breaking all the rules of decency, became unbelievably wealthy. Platon Makovsky, the protagonist of this movie, loosely based on the life of Boris Berezovsky,was worth 5 billion dollars. It is mind boggling that in the disarray and tragedy after the fall of the Soviet Union, somebody can make that much money. This movie explains how it all happened, and it is clear to the viewer why the next leader of Russia became someone like Vladimir Putin. Like it or not it was inevitable.

SPOILERS"If we can't buy Kreml we must become ourselves Kreml!"After seeing the disk in the neighborhood video-shop and every time passing it over I finally came to the point where nothing worthy of my attention was left to rent. So I grabbed this, out of desperation and rented it expecting something quite bad. Boy I couldn't be more wrong. Since the beginning I knew the stakes were high - a red writing in the middle of the screen announcing "the day of Platon's death" (the main character Platon Makovsky). Then a retrospection showing his rise to power. Constantly back and forth, then and now. An investigator has been arrived all the way from Ural to investigate Platon Makovski because obviously the whole issue is too delicate to be left to someone from the Moscow DA. Some very high government employees are involved, even the FSB (the former KGB) and Shmakov (the investigator from Ural) has the unpleasant job of interrogating the friend circle. But this is where all comes to light... "The rise to power" segments show how Makovski and his friends, young economics experts start to make money after the fall of the communist regime with the assistance of a georgian (that's Gruzia) who appears to be connected to some of the crime structures. This jolly group of university friends quickly learns how to use their brains in order to cheat the system to steal and basically get their hands on everything they possibly can and how to wash the money, with their first achievement of controlling the automobile factory in Tbillisi - Georgia. After this they go straight to the top. In personal aspect Platon gains a powerful and bitter enemy in the face of the party functionary Koretsky. As time passes they become real oligarkhs and billionaires and of course their enemies (who basically don't have anything personal against them but want a piece of the pie) become more and stronger until the bitter end. The movie has very strong cinematography, powerful editing, very beautiful music score and a great soundtrack. Wonderful dialogs, especially for Russian speaking people, I suppose in English some of the essence might be lost. Platon's 44th birthday is a godfather-esquire event - very large in scale, reminding me of the parties from "The great Gatsby". Great acting, especially from the supporting cast - Andrei Krasko as Shmakov and Levan Uchaneishvili as Larry are brilliant. Alexandr Baluyev as Koretsky, Maria Mironova as Masha and Vladimir Mashkov as Platon are also very good. The same things that can be said about the beginning are valid about the end - very powerful. Through the film goes on and on the question "who done it" but that's not particularly hard to guess... One downbeat moment towards the end - the little kids Platon and Musa - the kid-actors can't act at all and the scene itself was if not pointless really not needed. The movie is loosely based on Boris Abramovich Berezovski, who financed the rise of the Russian president Vladimir Putin (known to be a former colonel from the KGB). However after Putin became president he made clear that while Berezovski's money is welcome, he is not. The whole affair is known as "the godfather vs. Kreml" and Berezovski is living now in London in exile.-"Nedless to say, one of you has killed him" -"Has or hasn't... everybody wanted it..."

Oligarkh, is an average movie about a group of friends taking advantage of the opportunities "new Russia" offered after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The movie has certain value in giving a rough sketch of how the vacuum left by the collapsed communist system was filled by various criminal elements. However, it fails to do that comprehensively, possibly because, as it targets the Russian audience, it assumes too much information. The transformation of the 'naive, jolly group of friends" into a vicious, ruthless, hierarchical criminal organization is not well demonstrated, phases of changes in characters' world views and emotions largely left to the imagination of the audience. Since the story is told going back and forth in time, some of the criticism can be overlooked, but one cannot help but notice some plot holes. Moreover, it ends in a quite cheesy way, reminding a cheap Hollywood B-movie, something I do not hope to see in a supposedly-sophisticated Russian movie.The acting is generally good, but not outstanding. I thought supporting characters were more impressive than the hero, and I especially liked the commissar and his style. Direction is not bad, and actually it made me think that it was directed by a talented, but inexperienced director. It seems Lungin has a longer career than I expected.

It gives You whole process of becoming an oligarch in Russia during the Gorbatchov time. The movie highlights one of the major problems of modern Russia: segregation between really reach and powerful people, oligarchs, and the others, the majority which is really poor.Moreover it gives you the chance to understand where and how such people became reach. The majority of ordinary people in Russia considers them as just thieves who swindled with privatisation etc. Indeed the movie describes all the talent of really genial enterpreneur.It's a really well-crafted movie with excellent actor play, great plot and producer work. It's not so predictable as it seems from the beginning so you will have pleasure to watch it. I watched it for several times and wouldn't mind to watch it again. Actually after this movie i started to look at modern politics in Russia from the different angle, and better understand Why someone is acting this or that way. Only this should be enough to watch it...