IMDb meta-data is six episodes of 50 minutes each, rated 7.2 by 2459 cinematizens.
Genre: krimi.
Verdict: Leaden.
Bucharest in Romania 1983 that most communist of the satellite states, where Red is best. A typical cop show with an imagination-deprived screenplay saturated by tropes seen scores of times before. Our unkempt and odiferous hero is a man’s man and has the snarl to prove it. He and his partner set out against orders to make a big bust, spouting Communist slogans as they go. They will be worker-heroes, again. Parody, I know, but — news flash! — that does not make it funny.
Yes, the Fraternity Brothers anticipated it.
This time Macho and macho are the fall guys and his partner — aka as ‘Little Macho’ — is murdered before his very eyes, though strangely both the CIA drugs imported to sap the Red Will of the people and the American dollar payoff Monopoly money are left behind. Even stranger the villain wears a Ronald Reagan mask and ascended from two stories out of a window by means unknown, but not before he leaves a hand written message which must have been prepared in advance for his hirsute hipster pursuer. Sure.
Aside, in effecting escape this Reagan neatly and gratuitously shot dead an old babuška in an apartment he ran through but no one gives this victim a second thought. It is all about the partner.
Needless to say Snarly feels guilty about the partner, not the babuška, and takes it out on his new partner with whom first has a macho fistfight and then he promptly engages in an unsanctioned investigation into the murder of dead Old What’s Name. Psst, Little Macho was his name.
Time to reveal the obvious. It was made in 2017 as though it were a cop show made in 1983. Hence the rich array of clichés, like the unity of the fist. Fists were much used in Romanian law enforcement it would seem. Few things change.
In 1983 Romania was the front line of the Cold War! Not even the Soviets can be trusted with the Red Grail. There is no crime and corruption in Bucharest except that fomented by AMERICAN agents who, there among the dust bunnies, are to be seen under every bed. The film makers add their own prejudice by making the US Ambassador a drawling and drooling southerner who seems to have the run of the city for no other reason than to annoy our Heroes. Yet they do not notice the diplomatic-plated limousine when parked a few meters from a crime scene in a direct line of camera sight. Macho get an eye test from the Red health service!
The parody is supposed to be intriguing and funny I guess but the hand is so heavy even the fraternity brothers pined for the finesse of Rambo. To cite one of many examples. Our Heroes investigate the murder of their colleague by going to the American Embassy often where they yell anti-capitalist slogans. Take that! A police procedural it is not. On each visit in the lobby of the Embassy are two obese men (one wearing a baseball hat) wolfing down an enormous pile of hamburgers. See what I mean about subtle? See what I mean about writer’s own prejudices?
There are non sequitur David Lynch touches as when first meeting the Ambassador they see an elderly woman drinking tea, who does not thereafter figure in the actions. What is it with these babuškas?
It was filmed on location with Romanian actors in some of the roles, and it does offer some travelogue of Bucharest. The slogans on the crumbling walls celebrate the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime — amid the grime, ruin, disappearances, and poverty — for saving the people from clean water, sanitation, and other fiendish Western plots. Why do I think of Comrade Numero Uno in Cuba?
Somewhere I saw discussion questions for parents with children. I guess they could discuss why ‘f***’ is pretty much every fourth word.
Romania’s current efforts to look to the west are many, and this film is probably one example. It pokes fun at Romania’s Red Past, while today earning Euros.
We saw a Rick Steves travelogue about Bucharest the other night that made it seem nice. But the EU doubts the commitment to the rule of law, rather than fists, by the quasi-fascist regime. That did not deter the film makers.