Saturday, July 13, 2024

Kin-dza-dza! (1986)

IMDb plot summary: Two Russians push the wrong button on a strange device and end up on the telepathic planet Pluke with its strange societal norms.
Directed by Georgiy Daneliya. Starring Stanislav Lyubshin, Evgeniy Leonov, and Yuriy Yakovlev.

Kin-dza-dza! is a very silly Soviet Union comedy about two people who accidentally get transported to a foreign planet in a faraway galaxy and find themselves trapped and trying to find their way back home. They team up with some people who try to fill them in on the customs of the new area that they're living in. It's all very wacky and silly and confusing and surreal, and I never found it quite as funny as I wanted to given the absurdity of the initial premise. It always felt a little bit dreary, continuously watching them trudge across this desert and encounter new nonsensical characters with seemingly very little overarching story. It reminded me a bit of Alice in Wonderland in terms of structure. and that's just not a style of storytelling that I typically find compelling. However, it was certainly creative, and I enjoyed everything conceptually. In theory, everything was really interesting. I just found myself getting bored of the actual story several times partway through.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Kin-dza-dza! < Sarah, Plain and Tall
Kin-dza-dza! > Avengers: Endgame
Kin-dza-dza! > Wild Zero
Kin-dza-dza! > Batman Forever
Kin-dza-dza! > Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
Kin-dza-dza! > The Misfits
Kin-dza-dza! > Vampyr
Kin-dza-dza! > The Fear of ThirteenKin-dza-dza! 
Kin-dza-dza! < The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Kin-dza-dza! > The Gray Man
Kin-dza-dza! < The Blues Brothers
Kin-dza-dza! > Triangle of Sadness
Final spot: #1969, or 50%.

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