Memorable, crazy movie

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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!!

I don't think the film is the total failure. It's just a bit... confused. It really could've been better, and that's a pity, because some episodes really are moving, especially to a person who had to suffer all that - I mean, the collapse of the Union, the betrayal of "fellow" republics and... oh, what the hell! What I mean is the film has some really good ideas, some of which are very nicely shown (e.g. attestation in the Ukrainian port - yeah, that episode was sweet!) but in general - oh my. I had an impression that the director was a green novice who just bit more than he could swallow. If it was directed by a person who really did know what he was doing, everything could've been quite different. BTW, the script is based on the collection of short stories about Soviet Navy titled "72 Metra", by Russian naval writer and former Navy officer Aleksandr Pokrovskii. The stories are simply magnificent: some of them are as funny as hell, and the other ones are very deeply touching. The guy's a writing genius, so I deeply recommend you find and read the book. Well, I don't know whether it's translated into English but if it isn't, learn Russian, then find and read it. It's way better than the film.P.S. And yes, to those who consider parts of the film nationalistic. I deeply understand that furious tolerance and merciless political correctness are conquering the world, and in fact, I don't really care. The film is not about furious tolerance and political correctness - it's about life of military people who don't in fact care that much about all this stuff. It was explained about the crew's dislike of Ukrainians in the film, wasn't it? And as for that phrase "Hey, Slavs, anyone alive there?" - it's just not appropriately translated. "Hey, Slavs" is just a piece of lyrics of an old song and has no nationalistic connotation whatsoever. I think it just shows that people are trying to stand firm in a very bad situation, that is all. P.P.S. Yeah, and the sub was called "Slavyanka", if you didn't notice, which stands for "Slavic girl". So the Slavs in the film could've been just "Slavyanka" crew members.

Some things I heard about this film before it was released was that it was "patriotic". Well I fail to see the patriotism. All I see is a submarine crew that dies at the bottom of the sea.It also does not help recruiting for the Submarine fleet. The whole movie makes it seem like a WW2 mine can bring down the whole Russian Navy. In fact those old magnetic mines would be ineffective today because of specialized hull construction.I don't understand what purpose does the film serve? Is it supposed to be in memory of the "Kursk"? One of the reasons given for the loss of that submarine was a mine.Something Russians don't need right now are Disaster films. You will never find a similar film in the US. Most US submarine movies like "Crimson Tide" and "U-571" involve triumph over an enemy, Hollywood would never even think about making a movie about a Submarine disaster involving their own submarines. 1st Channel should have made a Russian answer to "Crimson Tide", the usual "evil Russians" movie from Hollywood, not this movie.The Music and Special Effects were good, just the movie was bad.

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