The Beast aka The Beast of War

Instead of going out to sing karaoke last night, I decided to stay in, drink red wine and go to bed early. Because I'm a bored housewife, clearly. Wound up watching The Beast. A surprisingly good movie (Much of what's bad is forgivable - it was filmed in the 80's, after all) about a Soviet tank lost in Afghanistan being hunted by Taliban rebels.

What makes it stand out is that the film's overwhelmingly pro-Taliban (They were the good guys, after all, once upon a time) and all the 'Soviets' are played by Americans who don't try to disguise their American accents, use American military terminology as well as American weapons and tanks.

So basically it's about today.

Anyway, it's worthwhile checking out if you're in the video store and all there is to rent is it or Sleepless in Seattle. The ending's pretty original and it was interesting how they included a proto-feminist angle to the whole Taliban thing. What else would you expect from the director of classics Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Waterworld?

Couldn't find a trailer so here's the first 10 minutes of the film. The whole thing's been uploaded to Youtube so you can save yourself a trip to the video store.