leonblackwood Review: After the sad passing of Robin Williams, I thought that I would catch up in his older movies. I really enjoyed this film which shows a different side to his versatile acting style. This is a more serious side to his character, about a Russian who defects to New York after a trip to the big apple with the circus. There are a lot of political sides to the storyline which have a lot of similarities to everyday life in this day and age. Robin Williams put in a great performance, along with the other characters who make the movie realistic and quite funny in some parts. It's also a heart warming story which proves that determination and a little bit of guts can make you achieve your dreams. Enjoyable!Round-Up: After following Robin Williams career over the pass years, this is definitely a movie which shows that the man can really act. His Russian accent was brilliant and I liked the way that the black family took him in, regardless of his political views and his colour. The movie does look quite dated because it came out in 1984, but the storyline is timeless and I'm sure that everyone can relate to the many different situations which Williams character comes across. Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch, just to see Williams in a different light.Budget: $13million Worldwide Gross: $25millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there comedic dramas about a Russian defecting to America after travelling with the circus and visiting Bloomingdales. 5/10

gbryl Just found out about this movie and watched it as a result of the untimely death of Robbin Williams.I lived in the Soviet Union until I was 23, and I don't understand those reviewers saying that this movie accurately portrays life in the SU.First, the bus is totally un-SU, has those metal loops hanging from the horizontal metal bar handles, a typical American bus, not a Soviet bus, which is immediately obvious to the naked eye. This is minor, though.Nest, there are the toilet paper line scenes, which are totally lame. We would use napkins or newspaper as toilet paper in SU, but we didn't have the long lines do buy toilet paper as the movie claims to project.Then there's a reference to Russian women having a mustache, which is totally ridiculous. Another piece of retarded cold-war American propaganda. Anyone who's been to the SU or Russia knows that Russian women are 10, 20, no 100 times hotter than their American counterparts (over 50% of which are statistically obese to say the least). Not to mention American women's attitude that has resulted in American men being the #1 men by country to marry foreign women. Enough said.In general, each country, the SU and the US, had positives and negatives about living there. But life in the SU was superior after all (I left SU only after it broke up in 1991). People in the SU had far more of the one precious resource that Americans could only dream of having (and still do): TIME. People in the SU had a roof over their head, food, and other basic necessities of life, while at the same time having a ton of free time, including time to pursue their dreams and hobbies. That is why the arts (ballet, literature, etc.) were so developed in the SU compared to the US: people actually had time on their hands to pursue those interests and hobbies. The US was, and still is, a bunch of debt slaves that live thinking how to make enough money to pay the next set of their bills, and have no time for real life.Not to mention that American kids grew up (and do even more so now) inside, seeing nothing but virtual reality, playing computer games, etc., while we in the SU were free to play out in the street all day long without being worried about drugs, psychos, kidnappers, etc. At age 10, I could take a train to a different city to go to a market to buy parts for building a personal computer, for instance. Good luck doing that in the U.S. which doesn't even have a transportation system to this day. And I never heard about drugs until the SU broke up. Ultimately, no society is perfect, but a good part of this movie is just a bunch of cheap propaganda. Of course, some people would defect from the SU, but so did people from the States (look up Dean Reed, for instance).I liked the line "I have not had a job for 8 years. Welcome to the USA!" Sounds like things have not progressed much in the USA since 1984 when this movie was made....Anyway, travel the world, people, and draw your own conclusions before you buy the bullsh!t that your government feeds you. Goes the same for both Russia and the U.S., as well as any other country... If you think of watching this flick, opt for Goodwill Hunting instead, even if it would be a re-run for you.

ccthemovieman-1 Robin Williams became famous, I think, for his stand-up comedy, like his idol Jonathan Winters, but do you realize how many movies this guy has made over the years? He's really become quite a film star and is especially good playing against-type as a criminal or simply as a wacko (see "One Hour Photo?")Anway, this was an early Robin Williams film in which he plays a Russian musician defecting to the United States. He ("Vladamir Ivanoff") first hides out in a big store in New York City before being taken in as an immigrant by a black guy (can you say PC?) Williams does an outstanding job speaking Russian, by the way, as opposed to most English-speaking actors.There really isn't much of a plot here, just slices of life, if you will, some of it with the usual Liberal promiscuous (i.e. "I'm a liberated woman and if I stay the night, don't misinterpret that I want to get involved with you," the Italian tells the Russian. I can think of a few more accurate descriptions that the word "liberated.")All in all, despite the premise and talents of Williams, this was only so-so. It kind of runs out of steam halfway through and it's hard to maintain interest in the final 40 percent of it. Actually, I like Williams better when he plays more serious roles like this although I'm not sure if he himself was ready to play it straight this early in his career. He's just too tempted in this film to produce comedy. He's a talented and very strange guy; this film reflects that.

Lee Eisenberg I'm guessing that when "Moscow on the Hudson" first came out, it looked kind of silly and unrealistic. But now that the Cold War has long since ended, it looks better (and watching the movie, you can see why the Soviet Union was imploding). Robin Williams, in one of his more easygoing roles, plays Russian saxophonist Vladimir Ivanoff, who defects while his group is performing in New York. The rest of the movie shows him trying to adjust to life in America, with varying degrees of success. Among his new acquaintances are Lucia Lombardo (Maria Conchita Alonso), Lionel Witherspoon (Cleavant Derricks) and Orlando Ramirez (Alejandro Rey, whom you may recall as Carlos on "The Flying Nun").All in all, this isn't really anything special, but it does almost seem to be a premonition of the Eastern Bloc collapsing. Worth seeing.