IT COMES AT NIGHT // A FILM REVIEW OF "SPUTNIK"
Taking its cue from Alien, SPUTNIK is a wild and suspenseful new Sci-Fi "alien on the run" film, hailing from Russia. It's been a massive hit back home and now it's coming to America. But while director Egor Abramenko does borrow heavily from the famed franchise, he also spins his own twists and turns into the mix and comes out with an exciting new feature film. Set in 1983, Sputnik starts with two Russian Astronauts deep in space, and deep in trouble. What exactly happens there in Space remains a mystery but only one pilot, Konstantin Veshnyakov (played by Pyotr Fyodorov) returns to Earth alive and he doesn't remember a thing. The military have kept him in a facility, monitoring him closely.
What the facility wants is a person who can "think outside the box," since none of their methods have succeeded in helping Konstantin remember anything. So they bring in a controversial psychiatrist, Tanya Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) to work with him and help him regain his memory. But as Tanya continues to work with the very skeptical and anxious to leave Astronaut, she makes a startling discover: Konstantin didn't come back to earth alone. In fact, inside his very body is an Alien symbiote, who makes it known at night how much he wants to come out and play.
With impressive special effects, a slow-burn beginning and a fast moving climax, Abramenko succeeds what many other post-Aliens films have not: he makes it both interesting and fun. He also makes sure to add his own brand of originality throughout. The script from Oleg Malovichko & Andrei Zolotarev keeps the action running fluidly and the two main stars, Oksana Akinshina and Pyotr Fyodorov get to both play it straight and have fun with their characters. With a summer that seems void mostly of blockbuster films, Sputnik happily fills that void.
GRADE: B+
WRITTEN BY Oleg Malovichko, Andrei Zolotarev DIRECTED BY Egor Abramenko STARRING Oksana Akinshina, Pyotr Fyodorov, Fedor Bondarchuk, Anton Vasilev. Now playing in Digital Cinemas.