Let’s just get this out right at the beginning: The title is a tad misleading. Actor Michael York’s ARE MY BLINKERS SHOWING?: ADVENTURES IN FILMMAKING IN THE NEW RUSSIA has really very little to do with filmmaking. Sure, there are a handful of sequences that deal with his USSR B-movie actioner MOSCOW HEAT, starring “the Russian Arnold Schwarzenegger,” but for the most part, it’s a travelogue of New Russia and how much it’s changed since the early ’70’s.
And this is actually a very good thing.
York’s non-stop anecdotes and foibles are consistently entertaining. He’s got a surprisingly hilarious sense of humor, something that at first you wouldn’t expect from a Shakespearian-trained actor with a reputation for playing stodgy, uptight-Brit roles (AUSTIN POWERS and LOGAN’S RUN excepted, of course). But York’s humor, usually self-deprecating, really humanizes him in a way you’d never expect. He never takes himself seriously, falling into one situation after another, all with a self-effacing charm that, especially when read, in your head, in that distinct Michael York voice, makes this the funniest York project since THE OMEGA CODE.
Now if only he’d write a book about that.
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