The Star

Audience Reviews

View More

08/31/2008 More recognisably Saving Private Ryan-inspired through it's use of a men-on-a-mission plot than by outlandish battle sequences, as a squad of Red Army scouts go behind enemy lines to report back on German troop concentrations. It's always interesting to see war movies from outside the US or Britain but Zvezda lacks punch. A little more grit and harder-hitting action would have been welcome. See more 07/13/2008 Superb film, very engaging. See more 05/08/2008 This is a solid, if not quite spectacular war themed effort from Russia, focusing on the efforts of a young recon squad, infiltrating the German lines to send back information on troop concentrations. Unfortunately we don't get many Russian war films seeing English release, which is a shame as there is an important story to be told, one which many English speaking folk are not familiar with, and as far as we know America won the war on their own! This film obviously had a decent budget, the attack on the train station is replete with big bangs and fireworks, and the final set piece is intense. The acting is solid, the script not too bad (well, the subtitles at least, my knowledge of Russian is neglible), but it does feel quite old fashioned in places, some of the direction and cuts will raise an eyebrow (the up close, on rails, third person view of a death scene of one brave soldier is bizarre to say the least), and one shot that very swiftly goes zoom - cut - zoom - cut - zoom each to a dramatic musical note is like something out of the 50s, but hey. The film works, and the ending is suitably Russian and resolutely un-Hollywood despite Lebedev's assertations of being influenced by Saving Private Ryan. At 90 minutes, it doesn't outstay it's welcome, and if you enjoy the genre and are interested in a Russian action movie take on WWII, then you should check this out. See more Read all reviews

The Star

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW