Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Purely Joyful Movie!

Charming and brutal

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

On the box Bastards (its English title) was billed as the Russian Battle Royal. Actually this is closer to the Dirty Dozen with kids. The premise of the story, which is at least based in some truth, is that during the Second World War the Soviets took the kids they arrested with Capital crimes and gave them a choice be shot or atone with blood, ie. take on suicide missions (something the Soviets really gave their criminals). They are brought to a mountain top training facility where they are trained by military men, some of whom are in equally dire circumstances. The film follows some of the boys and some of the trainers. Its an often nasty look at the cost of war, and of the soviets. Its clear that the boys are not afraid of anything, at least until faced with death because of some things they've done. The fear is used to some extent by their trainers who execute anyone who doesn't do what they are suppose to or in one case kill another boy they owe money to. The film mostly concerns the training but in the late stages we watch as several boys are sent out on a mission and their trainers, who now view the boys as sons, wait to see if they will return. This is a good little film. The film for the most part is all about the characters and thats where the film scores. The kids are the right amount of cocky and fearful.The adults are nicely tough, loving and bewildered. Its a good mix. The action when it happens is good. If there is a flaw its that the film is too breezy at 97 minutes which left me wanting to see more of many scenes at the training camp. That said the film is worth a look.

In the process of watching this "war drama" you feel like vomiting - so bad is the movie. Boring, embarrassing, dull, made by people with a total absence of talent. Moreover, the movie is totally embarrassing for our country and our people. Millions of soviet people died during the WWII, and now those, who survived and won can do absolutely nothing to a fact, that they, their battle comrades, the whole nation - all is mixed with sh*t. Why do we make such movies? Is there nothing about the war to be filmed? There are lots of stories to be told, lots of heroes to be shown. Why inventing a story, that has never happened? Damn this movie!!

Recently I have noticed that the Russians began to make very good movies – and Svolochi is for sure one of them. The action is really moving – while the viewer has a choice - to sympathize with the young criminals who seemed doomed to die or to look at them from a different perspective. Some of the boys were caught for committing crimes such as murders and they were given a chance between death and training in a military preparing them for risky missions behind the enemy lines. The movie does not do very good on the realistic scale but still seeing it is worth it as it has some quite emotional moments and the acting was pretty decent.

I was surprised by the quality of this film. Sure, the ending was hyped, but just look at American films. (Boys on bicycles flying past the moon?) Why can't foreign films use a little hype now and then. Nobody seems to claim this is a true story, and it isn't. It is a boys' fantasy. Perhaps a bit too much blood and gore to get a PG rating, but part from a few swear words (Mother who?) well I've seen worse. Quite a few kids are killed and suffer violence, Not much worse than "Goblet of Fire" really, but I think, if anything, they pulled their punches in the training scenes. Real kids commando training is very much rougher than they showed. I'd be happy for teens over the age of fifteen to watch it. The film deals with the subjects of attitudes to boys, boy bashing, and the use of child soldiers. It also has a lot of moral issues that can be discussed. On the whole, I'd like to see a film with English dubbing. it would be worth it. Well done, guys. The kids acted well, too.