Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Jakoba
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
Isbel
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
onefern
Hmm, I thought it was a pretty good submarine movie! Just a pity that after all the compelling build-up to their only chance of survival, the movie ends and is not quite resolved. And yes, it's true that the lead actress' talents were not shown at all.The relationship between the two actors were also not aptly fleshed out through the flashbacks. It also seemed like much of the crew was too cooperative, and the weak attempt to inject a black sheep only failed to add to the suspense when his attempts to disrupt the status quo were quelled by the other crew members.But overall, I was glued to my chair. A thumbs up. Just too bad for the ending.
Leo
The movie is excellent. It's quite difficult for a foreigner to understand and appreciate. What seems like a good joke to a Russian, may seem offensive or even "nationalistic" to foreigners. Examples are given by the previous (Turkish mind you) poster. "Hey Slavs" is an allusion to a very famous novel by Ilya Ilf and Evgeniy Petrov "12 chairs". Also the name of the submarine is "Slavianka" which gives the character the right to call his crew-mates "slavs". "You ain't Ukrainian, are you?" refers to the never-ending "psychological warfare" between Russians and Ukrainians meaning mostly mocking each other and telling harmless jokes.Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera... Like I said, it's absolutely impossible for a non-Russian to understand all this. Just like with Texans, you have to be born in Russia to be a Russian.The movie is great! The love story line is tense and intense. It is depicted through a series of well-made flashbacks which shows just what love of a true Russian navy officer means. And how much friendship means to him.It's a movie about love, friendship and courage. It's a movie about people who do their jobs protecting their country but don't brag about it or even feel they do something outstanding. The movie is filled with wonderful (untranslatable) jokes and fantastic sense of humor. All that played by the best Russian actors.Definitely 10/10!!
nikolb
I love this film because it doesn't try to make the regular drama -"everybody died" or"everybody happy" it shows something else. The bottom line of this film wasn't to save the crew from the submarine but to put the soul to the next level and if there is one person that you can save you have to save him.Maybe most of the people who saw the film ,saving this strange person- Makovetskiy(Chernenko) wasn't necessary for them but it was.Like Makovetskiy's character says in the film :"The world payed so little attention to me that I thought myself dead"and maybe because of this he was worth saving.By saving Chernenko they save their souls. Very good actors the best music by Ennio Morricone
Illiarian
This movie seems to be alright. And it desperately tries to feel alright. And for a large part of the population it might be alright, but it isn't.This movie may have become the greatest drama of recent Russian movie history. However, it's attempt to describe too much at once greatly undermines its quality.One one hand we have a typical disaster movie - an explosion on a submarine, with all necessary genre "features" - survivors, random acts of heroism etc.On the other hand we have a standoff between main characters, which could have (only could have) been very intense. Unfotunately, Russia seems to have lost all of its acting talents. These actors simply cannot deliver.On the third hand (oh, yeah, there's more) we have personal drama of one of the main characters, delivered through a series of flashbacks. Again, it doesn't touch on any emotional level.On the fourth hand we have a feeble attempt to describe the dire state of Russia'a fleet after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These attempts are not only feeble, but overly nationalistic as well (things like "Hey, Slavs, anybody here" followed by "You are not Ukrainian, are you").Et cetera, et cetera.This movie could have been great. It isn't. It may have been Ernst, who didn't let the movie blossom, but you can't blame Ernst for everything, can you? 5/10, not more
