Title: Day of Love

Also known as:
Den Lyubvi

Year: 1991

Genre: Crime / Action / Rape-Revenge

Language: Russian

Runtime: 84 min

Director: Aleksandr Polynnikov

Writer: Yuri Manusov, Igor Poberezhsky, Grigori Yelizavetsky

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099402

A local crime boss wants to steal fifteen work trucks from a company in order to sell them and to help keep the authorities off of his back, he hires a local gang known as the Motalka. Their plan: the Motalka members go out and rape the various women of the city. Things go awry when both the gang leader and the boss want to have their way with a young woman named Kristina, the local beauty queen. Her stepfather Nikolai becomes enraged and plans to punish all of those involved -- no matter who they are.

Our Thoughts:
When, God? When will I stop being a sucker?! When will I stop listening to people's opinions about movies?!

Actually, this is the case of just the opposite. When I came across "Day of Love" I honed in on the words 'rape' and 'revenge' and didn't bother to do any further reading. (I can't win no matter what I do.) For that, I was appropriately punished by having to sit through a very tedious crime/action movie that had as much to do with the rape-revenge sub-genre as "Anal Birth of Bert" has to do with family entertainment.

Yes, part of the story does involve a gang called Motalka raping Kristina, a recently crowned beauty queen, and her stepfather going after said gang to dish out some sweet sweet justice. It's actually minor plot-point that's apart of a much larger and much more convoluted story of corrupt officials, crime bosses, and work trucks. So you can imagine how crushed I was when my dreams were promptly dashed away when I realized I was not going to be getting the Russian equivalent of "Death Wish". The last time I had a dream of mine destroyed so quickly was when I was informed that I actually was not going to become an astronaut, and I also couldn't be whatever it is I wanted to be when I grew up. Boy I tell ya, twenty-three was a rough age for me but I'm sure that's the same for anybody.

It's hard to tell if the rape-revenge storyline was supposed to be a minor plot-point or not as there are two main storylines: the crime boss with the trucks and the stepfather's revenge. They're tied together because the guys behind the truck scheme hire the Motalka gang to go around and rape women, young and old, during a day to keep the police occupied. This 'plan' is referred to as, you guessed it, The Day of Love. The significance of these storylines change very often in the movie but in a very sloppy manner. There are several smaller sub-plots and character storylines that are interjected at random into the movie as well. I can't quite tell but I think there was suppose to be some sort of social commentary on Russia's political system and crime but everything becomes so muddled and jumbled. That there isn't any sense of consistency or flow so when you watch it the movie feels like it's jumping all over the place instead of unity with one main idea along with smaller side stories.

That's what made it hard for me to watch because I spent most of the time trying to remember who was who and what they had to do with the certain parts of the story. For an example; Kristina's father shows up in the beginning but disappears for the middle portion of the movie only to pop up again in the later half to help Nikolai, the stepfather, carry out his plans for revenge. It doesn't ever really make sense that it's Nikolai who goes after the Motalka but not Kristina's father. Well, it sort of does since one of the side stories is about the emotional connection between Kristina and Nikolai since she hates him in the beginning and by the end is suppose to love him like a father because Nikolai redeemed himself. Even though he never did anything wrong other than being "weird" -- that's honestly what Kristina's excuse is for disliking him or rather, not respecting him.

There are other reasons why the movie is so bad, like the acting, but in particular the lack of good action in this action-less movie. This might be the one thing that saves the movie or makes it entertaining for those who go into it looking for a bad movie, but the action is unbelievably awkward and awful that it could be laughable. After forty-five minutes of being bored and annoyed, nothing could be construed as funny to me anymore. Because of that I wouldn't say you should avoid this movie but be aware of what you're going to get out of it, which is nothing but a whole lot of awfulness.

Positive things:
- They say the name of the movie in the movie.
- The ending is way out in left field to the point that it is almost surreal.
Negative things:
- Too many sub-plots and side stories for what is a simple concept.
- Felt very choppy and erratic.
- Awkward action scenes.
- I think this movie secretly wanted to be like "Cobra".

Gore: 0/5
Nudity: 1/5
Story: 2/5
Effects: 1/5
Comedy: 1/5

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