Operation Odessa (2018)

Operation Odessa (2018)

You will be watching this crazily entertaining documentary with your mouth open in disbelief.

The Very Best

8.9

Movie

N/A, United States of America
English, Russian, Spanish
Documentary
2018
TILLER RUSSELL
Juan Almeida, Kristy Galeota, Ludwig Fainberg
92 min

What it's about

The stranger-than-fiction true story of a Russian mobster, a Miami playboy, and a Cuban spy who teamed up in the early '90s to sell a Soviet submarine to the Cali Cartel.

The take

The movie opens with a guy called Tarzan, saying in a Russian accent: “I called my friend Michel, and I said can I buy a submarine, a used one?” Apparently, two days later he called him back asking: “With, or without missiles?” This should give you a decent idea of how the protagonists of this Tiller-Russell-directed documentary roll. Operation Odessa is the crazy true story of how the FBI, Pablo Escobar, and the Russian Mafia were played by three criminal outsiders in a $35 million submarine deal. Strictly speaking, it belongs in the true crime documentary genre, but it can also be treated as a real-life black comedy. The protagonists are so audacious, it is hard to believe that most of this story is true. The submarine deal story is only the tip of the iceberg here. Crazy, funny, and just really well done!

Comments

Add a comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Falling in Love Like in Movies (2023)

A contemplative Indonesian romance film that rewrites and re-examines the genre’s conventions

8.4

The Guilty (2018)

A minimalist, razor-sharp thriller that will have you gasping for air.

9.0

Late Night with the Devil (2024)

Demons, and AI, are unleashed in this creepy pseudo-documentary of strange late night incident

7.5

Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal (2024)

WWE’s best effort to pay tribute to Windham “Bray Wyatt” Rotunda

8.5

The Peasants (2023)

DK Welchman returns to her roots in this oil-painted adaptation of the haunting Young Poland folk saga

7.6

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Shyamalan meets Black Mirror in this hugely entertaining, visually inventive apocalyptic thriller with a killer ending

8.2

Scoop (2024)

A gripping and illuminating dramatization of a landmark interview from the creator of The Crown

7.4

Hail Satan? (2019)

Forget everything you think you know about the Satanic Temple

8.0

Mister Organ (2022)

A filmmaker chases — and then struggles to escape — a shady figure in this fascinating and disturbing documentary

8.1

Wind River (2017)

Sicario's screenwriter directs this story of murder in an Indigenous reserve

9.4

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.