The movie started out rather well within a military context and having not read what it was going to be I had thought after this we were going to be pleased with another excellent Russian war film but no, it quickly merged into a budget Russian version of "The Raid".
I have to admit I do speak a bit of Russian but even I was perplexed by what was going on; I guess you have to be conversant with Russian life itself and how everything involves back handers and illegal dealings as the situation the story revolves around will just make a westerners brain go round in circles. Even so it was quite a demonstration of Russian martial arts with some really rather excellent spins, kicks , swings and general yeeeeehaaaaaa but done in a style of brutality only the Russians could achieve; the violence does actually look real unlike 90% of movies these days and to be honest some of it probably was as the Russians do love their fist fighting with health and safety an afterthought!
Having said that although the action is fun, there is literally zero story, no real acting ability just a lot of shouting, posturing "Gopniks" in the usual trackies or shell suits bopping everyone with fists of fury, boots of steel, elbows of pride as well as the odd axe, samovar and anything else that comes to hand ending in a rather impressive shootout with machine guns, pistols, grenades; even the incredibly hot leading lady gets blasting with her Kalashnikov - It was a rather fun and completely mad storyline which does put it "out there"!
Overall it is not going to win any Oscars but I did enjoy the fight sequences; no one is spared the violence and the leading guy does actually look like the spitting image of Thomas Kretschmann I kid you not...and he does save the very hot leading lady in the end, a true Russian hero, aren't they all!
It is pure unadulterated crash , bang , wallop with nothing more to recommend it but for some strange reason I did enjoy it - Maybe its a guy thing but I am giving it an above average 6/10.
