Excellent, a Must See

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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

This movie is spoken in the language of Norway. It opens up with a group of young adults making jokes and fooling around. However at that same time, the Second World War has opened up and their antics become more serious as the film develops. Max Manus, through chance, becomes to be pretty good at sabotaging Nazi ships and he also becomes pretty good at escaping the confounds of jail and torture, where some of his friends are not so lucky. Manus, the lead character in this movie, is an unpretentious man who has some admirable qualities which the Norwegian government appears to be recognizing. Unlike the movie Anthropoid, this movie did not have a straight-forward plot nor climax. Instead the viewer is guessing as to what will transpire. Tom Cruise in movies like Mission Impossible, is a way better actor then the actor that plays Max Manus. I found this war movie to have little suspense and very little action. Perhaps this movie could have better been made into a documentary, with the personal testimony of Max Manus and his wife, combined with actual photographs and writing accounts.

This film is really good.A great story about a guy called Max Manus who was the leader of the Norwegian underground movement. It covers his life and the fate of his comrades throughout World War 2.No huge budgets, no big name stars, a really good story and some class acting.This is probably the best film I have seen covering the sacrifices made by the underground movements in occupied Europe.The best part is that its true.Jason

Over 30 years ago a much younger, and pre-Robocop, Paul Verhoeven made the understated and under-appreciated Soldier of Orange. In Max Manus, we see the 'Soldaat van Oranje' resurrected but with Oslo subbing for Amsterdam this time around. And it's a good flick, too. Not great like 'Soldaat', but it will do. Indeed, as an introduction to Norwegian cinema to many, it's a more than decent 'nice to meet you'.Comparison between the two pictures are, and should be, inevitable. After all, they're both about their country's WWII resistance movement, both made by and with native sons, and both try to fill a hole in the swiss-cheese minds of non-native audiences (who will mostly know what the USA, and maybe their own country, did during that time). The opening scenes of each introduce us not just to the main characters, but to their college-boy mischief, their bonhomie, and their profound loyalty - both to their country and to each other. We witness the naive optimism of some, and the courage of all. Meticulous period (and locale) details fill each shot of Max, just like its predecessor. Why, we even get to see another return of the king in the coda (actually, in Orange, it was the queen, Wilhelmina). Here, again, the returning monarch is subdued in his triumph, looking, well, regal, surrounded by his adoring, and recently freed subjects. And flags, lots of flags. You get the idea.The acting is where Max is not 'max'. Although most of the supporting cast is quite excellent, outstanding really, the same cannot be said for our hero Max. Aksel Hennie as MM seems to be able to project only two personas in playing his role: brave and defiant and brave and sensitive. Alas, it's what should have come in between that counts. His love interest, a miscast Agnes Kittelsen (as 'Tikken'), tries hard but winds up convincing only Max, not the audience. And, speaking of love interest, unlike Soldier of Orange where the attraction between the characters was alive and the audience effortlessly empathic, Max Manus, both the movie and the character, never make it clear why he fell for Tikken. Still, at least we understand what their romance had to do with the plot - allegiance to fact, and all that. Indeed, that's infinitely more insight than we get about the totally irrelevant and red-herring-like affair between the movie's arch-villain, the echt evil Nazi - Siegfried Fehmer (played without resort to too much stereotype by Ken Duken). I suspect much plot development in this regard was left on the floor of the cutting room.Before all you Norwegians start throwing rancid herrings at me, please understand my criticism is about the movie, not about your heroes or your history. Before this film, I would have been surprised to hear that most non-Norwegians could utter anything beyond "Quisling" when asked about Norway and WWII. Unfortunately, as nice as it would have been to add "Max Manus" to people's fund of Norse WWII myths and legends, that's going to have to wait a while longer. Let's hope that it's not another 65 years.

I found this war film very enjoyable. The story and acting was good as was the design. It has good moments of suspense and was like an old fashion picture of bravery and winning over the bad guys. The characters are interesting with the central protagonist Max Manus being someone we do care about. It is good to look at with some very good photography at the outside locations. I particularly enjoyed the night scenes during the sabotage sequences in the harbour.I would say a good film to watch for teenagers and adults.It is a foreign language film with subtitles.