Archangel (2005)

British Prof. Fluke Kelso (Daniel Craig) is an expert on Stalin. His lecture in Moscow is harassed by Stalin sympathizers. He is approached by an old man who claims to be a guard for Stalin during his death in 1953. He tells a shocking story that Stalin was killed by Soviet secret police chief Beria who then stole and buried Stalin's notebook.This TV movie is just pre-Bond. Certainly, post-Bond Craig gives a different feel to this material. Putin was still relatively new after his first presidential term. Russia still has the reputation as a struggling state. The plot feels right although Stalin as a Jesus-like aspiration is still unreal. Russia wants a strong man, not a faded copy of one. It's not like there's something special about Stalin's bloodline. It's the old cliché villain playbook for Hitler's secret descendant. I was hoping for something more compelling in the notebook like Stalin was a CIA plant or maybe there is a secret stash of Kremlin gold. Despite the pulpy political thriller construct, this has enough tension and intrigue to make it work. At the very least, it's a good pre-Bond Craig.

One of the many miniseries that you watch and your secretly praying...for the end. The story is far fetched and ludicrous. The acting is sub--standard. In espionage type of movies...tension...is normally a key ingredient. Here it is almost completely missing. I got the distinct impression...the players...didn't really care much how this came out. There pay cheques were safe. Daniel Craig (now James Bond) has a limited range....and those limits are painfully on display here. A movie that will never be remembered for anything. And thats fair enough. Good movies are made by a crew that are fully committed and know how its done. Great movies..?? Well thats something else. Classics ??..They "just happen..!!!"

***SPOILERS*** Interesting movie about an Amercan collage professor Fluke-named because he was a late born child-Kelso-named after 1960's 5 time horse of the year-played by Daniel Craig who uncovers a secret plan to return Russia into the hell that it was when Sovet dictator Josef Stalin, Avtandia Makhardze, ruled it with an iron hand.It's when Kelso runs into Papu Rapave, Valery Chernyak, at a Moscow restaurant that he finds out that Stalin though dead for over 50 years is now about to make his big move and take over the just freed from communism Mother Russia! How Stalin is going to pull this off is in a secret plan hatched by him and his top henchman NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria, Yervant Arzumanvan, dreamed up back in the early 1950's just before Stalin passed away under very suspicious circumstances! It was a then Red Army solider Pvt. Rapava who was part of Stalin's security detail who got wind of it that it him being sent to the Soviet Gulag for over 15 years!Knowing that he hasn't got long in this world Rapava want's Prof. Kelso to let the world know the truth about Stalin's long planned second coming before he actually makes it and ends up, with WMD, not only destroying Russia but the entire world! It's when Kelso hooks up with Rapava's hooker 27 years old estranged daughter Zinaida, Ekaterina Rednikova, that things start to crystallize in her father's, who was later murdered by pro-Stalin fanatics, hidden secret papers and diary in how this sinister and yes evil plan is supposed to be carried out! In the out of the way Russian town of Archangle where it's namesake Lucifer was spawned some 50 years ago and is now ready to reveal himself to the world! With Prof. Kelso being the person designated by him to do the revealing!***SPOILERS*** A bit too long, 133 minutes, and over-plotted "Archangle" stills holds one's interest in the films very unique and somewhat over the top storyline. The films surprise ending, which last for the entire last 30 minutes of the movie, does in fact shake you up but gets a bit overdone by being stretched out for so long. There's also pretty Zinaida Rapava who after wanting to have nothing to do with prof. Kelso and his mission to expose Stalin's plans for the future ends up in fact being the person who puts an end to them by realizing ,if she didn't already, what a murderous psycho he was and what he's, if his gang of maniacal man-men take over Russia, capable of doing when he takes power!

Blundered into this on Hulu and wish I had not. The plot is bloated and yet simplistic with few real surprises. Daniel Craig does well enough with his brand of "clenched intensity" style of acting. I can handle slow moving plots and moody "tone poem" film making styles, but this is just pointless wind. There is no real build in the intensity of the story... no real climax. And the action sequence at the end of the film is ridiculous.Joe Stalin Jr. uses a bolt-action Moisin-Nagant to single-handedly wipe out a Russian Spetznaz(Special Forces) unit of about a dozen men... only to die by a single pistol shot to the chest. Booo!