Runtime: An overlong 119
minutes
Directed by: Luc Besson
Starring: Sasha Luss,
Helen Mirren, Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy, Lera Abova
From: It was made by
several European entities but Summit dumped it here in the United
States
Anna... more like “Annachronistic”.
As it was brought up on Twitter by some people, I feel like I should mention this off the bat: yes I do know of the serious accusations made by 9 different women against Luc Besson, and I do know that in the 90's when he was 31 he started dating the lady that would later become his second wife (Maiwenn Le Besco) who was FIFTEEN years old at the time... unfortunately, there are many bad people in the movie industry-actually, the entertainment industry as a whole-and if I start boycotting all the films involving individuals who apparently aren't good human beings... talk about limited options. The way his studio has been floundering and if these charges do hold up, Besson may not be making too many films in the future anyhow. Even though I am grossed out by his actions and alleged actions, I still went and saw this, in part because the scores on Letterboxd were all over the place, as if it was a DC movie.
This does seem like a retread of things that Luc has done multiple times before, and the fact that it came off from the trailers as Atomic Blonde 3-of course, Red Sparrow was Atomic Blonde 2-did not help its cause. But it was due to Besson's real life problems that this was dumped in United States cinemas this past weekend with little fanfare. The setting is the mid 80's to 1990 and the titular Anna is a poor Russian girl who improbably is discovered and becomes a super assassin for the KGB. Things become complicated when she makes it clear she does not want to be in this role forever, then the CIA is introduced...
Anna is a nonsense movie. I mean, I made the anachronistic comment because several near-modern or modern things are in plain sight; if it was vehicles in the background that'd be one thing but it is cars that characters get out of, laptops, cell phones that are not “giant brick” in appearance, and... flash drives! Yes, there are flash drives and laptops that can accept them! You can't even use the excuse of “government agencies have technology years ahead of the general public” here... what a stupid, careless movie this is. Yet I was able to laugh with and at Anna the film, and the fact that Anna the character is usually likable does help too. For her first big role, Sasha Luss was more than just a pretty face-naturally, Helen Mirren steals this movie as a stereotypical old cranky Russian lady called Olga, because of course Olga would be her name.
To keep her cover as a model in Paris, Anna gets into a lesbian relationship and how that and the lesbian in question (Maud) is treated can certainly be questioned and that may something about Besson's opinion on such matters... yet I'll perhaps be a bit kind and say this was fine overall. This is told in a nonlinear fashion and that is to tart things up & make this more interesting and it does happen often... for the most part I wasn't too bothered by it; Anna being an expert at chess was not just a random plot point... the movie and her thinks a few steps ahead to try and get out of pretty bad situations. This is more about general spy things than about action scenes, which there are only a few... that is what I suspected going in so I was OK with that. The highlight was the big restaurant brawl that was spotlighted in the trailers.
This is overlong for a B movie at 2 hours and there is a lot that can be torn apart if you really want to eviscerate it. People wanting to avoid this-whether it is due to this being a retread or the director being in hot water now-is a valid opinion to have. For me, unless you are enrolled in something like AMC A-List (which I have been for almost a year now and have had zero issues with it, unlike the dumpster fire that everyone has complained about, MoviePass), it may be best to wait until you can watch this at home.
As it was brought up on Twitter by some people, I feel like I should mention this off the bat: yes I do know of the serious accusations made by 9 different women against Luc Besson, and I do know that in the 90's when he was 31 he started dating the lady that would later become his second wife (Maiwenn Le Besco) who was FIFTEEN years old at the time... unfortunately, there are many bad people in the movie industry-actually, the entertainment industry as a whole-and if I start boycotting all the films involving individuals who apparently aren't good human beings... talk about limited options. The way his studio has been floundering and if these charges do hold up, Besson may not be making too many films in the future anyhow. Even though I am grossed out by his actions and alleged actions, I still went and saw this, in part because the scores on Letterboxd were all over the place, as if it was a DC movie.
This does seem like a retread of things that Luc has done multiple times before, and the fact that it came off from the trailers as Atomic Blonde 3-of course, Red Sparrow was Atomic Blonde 2-did not help its cause. But it was due to Besson's real life problems that this was dumped in United States cinemas this past weekend with little fanfare. The setting is the mid 80's to 1990 and the titular Anna is a poor Russian girl who improbably is discovered and becomes a super assassin for the KGB. Things become complicated when she makes it clear she does not want to be in this role forever, then the CIA is introduced...
Anna is a nonsense movie. I mean, I made the anachronistic comment because several near-modern or modern things are in plain sight; if it was vehicles in the background that'd be one thing but it is cars that characters get out of, laptops, cell phones that are not “giant brick” in appearance, and... flash drives! Yes, there are flash drives and laptops that can accept them! You can't even use the excuse of “government agencies have technology years ahead of the general public” here... what a stupid, careless movie this is. Yet I was able to laugh with and at Anna the film, and the fact that Anna the character is usually likable does help too. For her first big role, Sasha Luss was more than just a pretty face-naturally, Helen Mirren steals this movie as a stereotypical old cranky Russian lady called Olga, because of course Olga would be her name.
To keep her cover as a model in Paris, Anna gets into a lesbian relationship and how that and the lesbian in question (Maud) is treated can certainly be questioned and that may something about Besson's opinion on such matters... yet I'll perhaps be a bit kind and say this was fine overall. This is told in a nonlinear fashion and that is to tart things up & make this more interesting and it does happen often... for the most part I wasn't too bothered by it; Anna being an expert at chess was not just a random plot point... the movie and her thinks a few steps ahead to try and get out of pretty bad situations. This is more about general spy things than about action scenes, which there are only a few... that is what I suspected going in so I was OK with that. The highlight was the big restaurant brawl that was spotlighted in the trailers.
This is overlong for a B movie at 2 hours and there is a lot that can be torn apart if you really want to eviscerate it. People wanting to avoid this-whether it is due to this being a retread or the director being in hot water now-is a valid opinion to have. For me, unless you are enrolled in something like AMC A-List (which I have been for almost a year now and have had zero issues with it, unlike the dumpster fire that everyone has complained about, MoviePass), it may be best to wait until you can watch this at home.
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