Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

thejcowboy22 Being eight years old and nothing to do on a gray Sunday afternoon, My Sister dragged me to the movies to watch this compounded misunderstanding of Detente. The Post World War two era had the Soviet Union and The U.S.A. at odds with each also known as the Cold War.A simple case of Communism against Democracy in it's purest form.This also carried over to the Olympic games which made it more entertaining as The U.S. would battle the Soviets for athletic supremacy. Getting to our picture and review. A Soviet submarine is floating off the coast of New England. Through their periscope they see Gloucester Island. The Submarine Captain (Theodore Bikel) wants to have a closer look so the Sub drifts into a sandbar. Embarrassed but prideful, the Captain orders his second in command Lieutenant Yuri Rosanov (Alan Arkin)who speaks a fractured English but comprehend-able to the language. Takes his landing party of eight to shore and try to steal a boat secretly to free the sub without an international incident and embarrassment. Meanwhile an Obnoxious nine year old Pete Whittaker(Sheldon Collins) notices the strangers in black outside his summer home. He tells his Dad Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner)that there's Russians outside their home with machine guns. Rosanov enters the house and tells Whittaker that they are Norweigen fisherman but his story falls apart as Rosanov admits he's Russian and draws his pistol at the Whittaker's demanding their station wagon. Meanwhile the Whittakers attractive babysitter Allison Palmer (Andrea Dromm) shows up to tend to the Whittakers three year old daughter Annie. Mrs. Whittaker (Eva Marie Saint joins in on the encounter offering the car keys to displaced Russians. One Russian stays behind to guard the family named Kolchin (John Phillip Law). Meanwhile the other eight Russian sailors drive toward the town but the Station wagon runs out of gas. The Russian steal another car,an old sedan owned by Muriel Everett (Doro Merande)a letter carrier who quickly phones the homely gossipy telephone operator of the island Alice (Tessie O'Shea). Muriel tells Alice that her car was stolen from Russian paratroopers who plan to invade and take over the Island. The bumbling Deputy Norman(Jonathan Winters) gets wind of this information and sets up a Militia led by over zealous Fendall Hawkins (Paul Ford) complete with a sword at his side ready to attack. A domino effect takes over the locals as there ready to fight to save their country. One problem though except for a few people no one has seen the Russians. The Police chief,the relaxed Brian Keith feels there only rumors and everyone should go home. One mishap after another makes this film memorable and a laugh out loud comedy for all to enjoy . A running gag throughout the film is when the town drunk Luther (Ben Blue) is trying to saddle his horse to re-create the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Another one of my favorite scenes is when Whittaker is recaptured by the Russians then tied together back to back with Alice the operator. Their mouths gagged trying to untie each other. The film reminds me of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World with so many recognizable character actors spattered all around. Break out performance for Alan Arkin fresh off the Second City ensemble in Chicago One last question? Does Norman Jewison ever direct a bad Film? Off camera Brian Keith meets Johnny Whittaker for the first time. Johnny plays the boy who is hanging from the steeple in the film. Johnny will reunites with Keith on the TV show Family Affair a year later playing the orphaned nephew Jody.

Rabby Tat This is a warm and funny movie from an earlier time. Clever and fun. Character driven without the silly special effects so common in modern movies. It relies upon good writing, quality acting and genuine physical comedy to do the job. I see that some reviewers did not like the ending, but this is integral to achieving the positive message that the movie wanted to convey. During the Cold War, people were in credible fear and this was an attempt to calm the fears while also giving a message of hope. If you do not appreciate this movie, you need to look at our history and once informed, consider it in the context of the day. Otherwise, from the late Brian Keith, "I thought all the nuts went home on Labor Day." :-)

Claudio Carvalho In the Cold War, when the captain of a Russian submarine comes too close to the Gloucester Island in Massachusetts to give a look at America, the submarine gets stranded. A nine-man team commanded by Lieutenant Rozanov (Alan Arkin) goes onshore to search a motor boat to release the submarine and arrives at the summer house of the New Yorker writer Walt Whittaker (Carl Reiner) that is spending the weekend with his family in Gloucester. When he realizes that they are Russians, he believes that it is an invasion. Soon the information leaks, leading hysteria and paranoia along the inhabitants of the small village."The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming" is a hilarious parody of the America's paranoia in times of Cold War. The situations are extremely funny and despite the dated theme, it is still a great comedy from the 60's. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Os Russos Estão Chegando!" ("The Russians Are Coming!} – Not available on DVD or Blu-Ray.

eplromeo8 Russia and Communism seems to be of particular interest to the Reel 13 programmers what with this film, ONE, TWO, THREE last week and FIDDLER ON THE ROOF next week. Perhaps they'll want to replace BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK on April 19th with DOCTOR ZHIVAGO or WAR AND PEACE – just to keep the streak going.Not that I'm complaining really. This film, in particular, which I was seeing for the first time, was quite good and much more effective at political satire than ONE, TWO, THREE. It is frequently funny, led by the Oscar-nominated performance by Alan Arkin as a Russian sailor stranded with eight comrades on an island in the Cape Cod area. As a matter of fact, it's almost disturbingly funny, given that the hysteria of the townspeople in the film feels all too real and possible (though heightened here for comic effect). Even if the Russian-as-bad-guy theme is old news, it can easily be substituted with some sort of terrorist threat, which makes the film just as relevant today as it was in 1966.The film isn't without its hiccups, however. It's a little slow-paced for a comedy, though I realize it's a very different kind of comedy. There are a good number of clunky scenes to balance out the ones that hit all the right notes. The love story, for example, between the young, blonde Russian and the blonde babysitter is EXTREMELY lame and should have either been paid attention to more (the babysitter has something like four lines total) or abandoned completely. Additionally, I think Carl Reiner was miscast. He may be a comic genius, but more as a writer and sometimes a straight man on the variety show circuit. He never has been that strong of an actor and that is proved once again with his uninspired performance in THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING.Still and all, the film was really strong and you have to really give a lot of credit to director Norman Jewison, who, in spite of a very impressive track record, isn't much talked about among the elite film-making talents of the last forty years. Given that April is, to some degree, Norman Jewison month on Reel 13 (He also directed next week's FIDDLER), I got to thinking about his canon. I've decided that what's most impressive about his body of work is how eclectic it is in terms of style (he is very good at altering his style to fit the story he's crafting) and genre (he can do comedy, satire, drama, fairy tale and musicals). There is a connection in his work in terms of theme – he seems to be particularly interested in social injustice, whether it be racism, xenophobia, anti-semitism or what have you. Another consistency I noticed in the Norman Jewison oeuvre is a series of outstanding performances, too numerous to list here. So what we have here is a filmmaker that adapts his style to the story instead of vice versa with a particular focus on performance and character development. He may not be as celebrated as Hitchcock, Ford, Scorsese or Spielberg, but it seems to me if we had a few more young filmmakers emulating Jewison instead of Tarantino, we'd be a lot better off.(For more information on this or any other Reel 13 film, check out their website at www.reel13.org)