Lethal Lovely!
By Shirl Hollenberg
Mother Russia is in the cross-hairs of internationally acclaimed action impresario Luc Besson in his triumphant Anna. Named after my beautiful wife no doubt this adventurous escapade from EOne Entertainment is delighting large crowds throughout beautiful British Columbia at Cineplex Cinemas and Landmark Theatres.
Recent years for some reason have seen an uptick in espionage laced tales emerging from Russia with love highlighted by strong female heroines. Anna unleashes a lethal assassin in the form of Sasha Luss in her first “official” leading role in a major motion picture. Taking off where films like Lucy and Red Sparrow left off our Anna proves to be a rather quick study when she is recruited into a select KGB program targeted for students to learn the fine not so subtle art of killing.
Academy award winning Helen Mirren (The Queen) is hardly recognizable as the evil KGB headmaster who sends Anna On her merry way. Consider her a cross between 007’s own Bernard Lee and nasty wench Rosa Klebb.
Thoroughly unbelievable but exceedingly entertaining Anna is a global jaunt that takes you to the high fashion hot spots in Paris as we fall victim to this accomplished woman’s seductive charms. Many men (and some women I believe) feel the heat as this woman cuts her way to the top in fights to the death That would put Rambo to shame.
Though we’ve seen this story before Besson pumps new life into the genre despite some rather tedious back and forth time juggling whose confusion some of us could have done without.
