Let's be realistic.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This movie is not a fictitious brainwash like "Reservoir Dogs" or "Pulp Fiction" (personally got nothing against both these entertaining titles but they are made for fun) - it's more like a history lesson, more like "Tora! Tora! Tora!". It would be so funny, if it were not so tragic. It is one of a very few modern Russian films, which deserve respect and consideration. Don't let the bloody scenes distract your attention from the essential ideas. "Nightmare, bloody festival, ridiculous mess-up..."? No way. It's our reality. Get a load, if you can carry.A little boy's visit to the morgue and his father's words at the very beginning of the movie are priceless.9 out of 10 easily (minus 1 point, because it's a very "national" experience, which, foreigners will not be able to grasp and evaluate properly). Thank you for attention.

This movie really is like Snatch and Lock stock and two smoking barrels. Criminal comedy, dark comedy, but its there - the whole tongue in cheek approach to Russian mafia reality in the 90's. It is exceptionally well cast and the characters all have clear cut roles and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It does not try to be anything more then it is, and it does an awesome job of it. The ending scene is the most merry one to date. The dialogue is witty, and a certain scene involving weaponry does justice to Long stock's "Its me bren gun" scenario. The only real problem, and this is not the film's fault, is that it sounds and feels better in its original Russian, leaving those with either dubbed (oh no!) or subtitled (meh) copies with less of an experience - but this is pure bias :P Again, I wish for people to see that genius does in fact exist abroad.

I really love this film. Actually i'm Russian so i see a lot of new Russian movies - and most of them are not very good (softly to say). But this film was like a blast for me ! It's one of my favorites - and here are some reasons. At first it's really funny - but it's special kind of humor - for people who lived in Perestroyka's time. At second almost all actors play as good as it possible - Dyuzhev,Panin,Mikhalkov,Serebryakov and other - it's best Russian actors from old and new Russian acter's school ! I can speak long time about this film - my offer - better watch it - you will love it if you like good Russian films :)

This movie is basically 'who's who' in Russian movie industry today. Some of the actors appear for no reason at all and their characters could be skipped all together. Take Andrey Panin, Tatiana Dogileva or Renata Letvinova (!!!) They are all established stars, so what the hell were they doing there? But those are only bit parts. ALL of the characters (and the line-up seems to be never-ending) are played by famous Russian theater, TV, film and music stars. Even Oscar winner and "Russian Spielberg", Nikita Mikhalkov is here! I bet the rest of productions in Moscow were shut down, due to shortage of stars. So, once again, what were they doing there? The answer is simple - they all were there to have fun. While it might have been OK elsewhere, it's somewhat distracting here. The movie takes cues from Guy Ritchie's productions like Snatch and most likely Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, as the plot throws all sorts of different groups of characters in different situations and then makes them interact with each other. There are numerous similarities between the two movies, including drugs plot-line, inclusion of dimwitted criminals, several gangs, etc. But the difference is - Guy Ritchie knows what a subtlety is and it seems that Alexei Balabanov doesn't. They both play with violence, but Balabanov approaches it like a maniac hungry for blood. Maybe he should have made a gory horror movie instead? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for gore and blood, if it's appropriately set up and done. But when we get two consecutive graphic shots to the head (Russian roulette style)... it's not funny, or witty, or stylish, or anything! In fact, it achieves only one thing - destroys the mood.The ending of the film is by far it's weakest part. It was quick, absurd and completely unsatisfactory. A terribly overlong scene leads up to it, so when it is over, I bet many people scratched their heads and wandered why the film-makers bothered to set it up so meticulously.All of the shortcomings notwithstanding, it was a fairly fun movie, with a lot funny moments and lines. Heavy-handed direction by Alexei Balabanov didn't bother much, as all of the attention is given to action and characters. Most of the actors did fantastic jobs, especially the three leads – Alexei Panin, Dmitri Dyuzhev and Nikita Mikhalkov. I wish a bit more time was spend in the editing room and some 25 liters of fake blood (of reported 50) would be cut, as well as several minutes of the film. Then it could have been perfect and standing on it's own against it's American and British counterparts.