Likewise, I think the depiction of Eastern Promises as a mood piece is good. Like a portrait of a vase.

I like Eastern Promises, but agree it works more as a mood piece than simply a story.

Also, I have it on word from my Russian fiance that Mortenson managed very good Russian as did the French actor (playing the mob boss’s son).

Thank you. For me, it wasn’t just flat, it was utterly generic.

Compared to City of God or even Transsiberian (which we also watched this weekend), Eastern Promises is disappointing as a film because the characters are all “flat”– they do not develop as the film progresses. Still, Naomi’s acting is top-notch.

City of God is a better portrait of contemporary organized urban crime, and Transsiberian is slightly deeper and at least has a plot. I was ready to love Eastern Promises, but I came away thinking it was overrated.

We also watched Stand by Me and Kids Return this weekend. Stand by Me is of course a classic — Kids Return is better when you know that it was made shortly after the director’s suicide attempt left him partially paralyzed.

Tomorrow we watch Slumdog Millionaire.

Naomi Watts looked pretty.

The trailer looked pretty.

Thank you for the informative comment.

The “market value” line is rather facetious, in my opinion, as those who push it conveniently forget the market value of gas transhipment through Ukraine.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Certainly, Putin’s habit has been to be tactically capable and strategically inept — this may well be another example. Making a few more dollars out of Ukraine while spooking Europe by behaving more aggressively wrt natural gas than the Soviets ever did trades long-term success for short-term gain.

You seem to be up on the issue — when does the natural gas price paid for by Ukraine and Europe collapse in keeping with the general decline of commodities?

1. impartial pipeline monitors to insure the Ukrainians can no longer divert/siphon off (denied by the Ukrainians) gas purchased by other Europeans from Russia

2. that Ukrainians will pay a price for Russian gas that reflects market value – current ask is the equivalent of $250

3. partial Russian ownership of Ukrainian pipeline companies – to prevent them from being used as the diplomatic tools – similar to the arrangement on the pipeline through Poland, which has never stopped moving gas to Europe

Good point. Seemingly, the problem would be Germany, which has a history of breaking European unity in order to secure Russian natural gas delivery.

Former Chancellor Schroder, for instance, is on the board of a Gazprom-owned entity designed to circumvent the countries of eastern Europe. [1]

sonofsamphm1c ,

If your intention is not to troll, please leave more than one-sentence-long comments.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Stream_AG