New year’s trees 2
Original title : Yolki 2
Language : Russian
Year of release : 2011
Run time : 1h40m
Genre : Comedy / Drama / Family
Cast : Pyotr Fyodorov, Vera Brejnev
The movie is the sequel to the 2011 Yolki movie, and was written by Russian director Timur Bekmambetov (who directed the Russian movies Nightwatch, Daywatch, and the American movies Wanted with Angelina Jolie, and Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter).
The movie centers around quite a few characters from different cities in Russia, on the 31st of December.
In Astana, the postal office is being renovated, and they find a lost letter which is finally sent to the woman in question. Turns out to be a letter from the man she loved 40 years ago, in which he tells her he’ll wait for her in the Red Square on the 31st of December, and he’ll wait for her every year until she shows up. This storyline was ridiculous.
At the airport, the man who sent her the letter 40 years ago, and who’s a pilot ,finally gave up on waiting for her, and is the first year he won’t show up.
An officer in charge of guarding the Red Square noticed her, knows her man’s story, and decides to help them meet, as neither of them got married in the meantime, and Iulia tells him they have a son together.
In Ekaterinburg, a young couple are being kept apart by their families, as their fathers don’t want them to be together; the girl has a very strict father, while the man’s father wants him to marry some woman he’s never met.
The girl’s father is Iulia’s son, who is waiting for the love of her life in the Red Square.
In Sankt Petersburg, Olea was asked by her French boyfriend to marry him, after only a month together, after she spent 6 years with her ex boyfriend, leading nowhere. The ex calls her on the 31st to see how is she doing. And after, he falls off his chair and is hit in the head by one of his awards. And gets amnesia.
In Samara, an estranged father visits his daughter disguised as the Russian Santa Claus, Ded Moroz.
In Perm, 2 snowboarders end up carrying a heavy bath tub to a girl’s place, after one of them who likes her, promised her they would, and she invited them to spend the New Year’s Eve party with her .
In Novosibirsk, Liza and her family just moved in, and she misses her best friend, Andrei, who lives in Viatki, where she used to live with her family. Andrei keeps on trying to call her, but his grandpa won't let him.
The movie kinda bored me (I noticed that movies like this, with many characters and stories which sometimes intertwine never grab my attention), and the fact everything looked so fake and staged didn’t help either.
It’s supposed to be a comedy, but I didn’t find anything funny.
It also has the look of the movies made with little money.
The acting was good.
I didn’t like the soundtrack, which was kinda Jazzy.
The visual effects were kinda bad (which is ironic, considering the amazing visual effects present in Timur Bekmambetov’s movies), as whenever they were supposed to be outside, you could tell it was fake, the snow, the air coming from their mouth, and whatever was around them. When they’re in the plane, they seem to be in an office inside a building as there’s a wall with buttons right in front of them where it’s supposed to be the plane window..
The movie received positive reviews, and allegedly grossed around 26 million dollars, against a budget of 5.8 million dollars.
If you are interested in watching it, you can find the full movie on Dailymotion with Romanian subtitles.
Rating : Could have been a contender !