What a waste of my time!!!

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

In Russia, the technician and family man Timofey (Paddy Considine) is exposed to 1,000 REMS (Radiation Exposure Monitoring Systems) of radiation in the nuclear facility where he works. The facility director hides the level of exposure from Timofey and tries to force him to assume the blame for the accident and puts Timofey in unpaid leave.Aware that the exposure is lethal and feeling the sickness of radiation, Timofey steals 100 mg of plutonium and heads to Moscow expecting to sell it in the black market per US$ 30,000.00 to give to his wife Marina (Radha Mitchell) and his seven year-old son Tolya (Danya Baryshnikov). Meanwhile, the smalltime criminal Shiv (Oscar Isaac) and the gangsters Vlad (Jason Flemyng) and Yegor (Jordan Long) need to pay US$ 6,000.00 to the powerful mobster Starkov (Steven Berkoff) in 72 hours. When Shiv meets Timofey trying to sell the PU-239, he sees the chance to pay his debts and make some money. But he is incompetent and gets in trouble with powerful mobsters."PU-239" is a dark and depressive story about a family man that is exposed to lethal doses of radiation. His desperation with his situation leads him to try to raise money to improve the lives of his wife and his son selling plutonium that he has stolen from the nuclear plant. But his useless associate is unable to sell the good. The result is tragic and ironic, with a questionable black humor, in a weird combination of drama and comedy. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "PU-239"

Russia in the early 1990's was a scary place, maybe even scarier than during communism. The whole system broke down completely, and the ruthless thugs ran the country without any scruples. This is a story about a decent man exposed to lethal dose of radiation, who doesn't have anybody to turn to in his predicament. So in order to provide some future for his family, he steals 100 grams of plutonium to sell on a black market. Needless to say nothing goes as planned. This is a hard and harsh portrayal of Russia under Boris Yeltcin( the sweetheart of the West). His corrupt regime enabled his cronies to still Russia blind. Excellent acting in-spite of exaggerating accents. Another winner from HBO.

I found this movie after scanning through the HBO channels one night, and I'm glad I did. This is a very touching film. Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't seen it shown again or haven't seen people talk more about it, which is a shame because I think this movie is quite exceptional.The story is that of a Russian nuclear facility worker, who through unfortunate events and circumstances, is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. The facility tries to hide the actual condition he is in, but he eventually stumbles upon the truth. Knowing his life is cut down to a matter of days, the movie follows his path of selling plutonium he has stolen from the facility in order to make money for his family.I wholeheartedly recommend this movie. If you can buy this or watch it, do so! You will not regret it.

In 2008, this just doesn't cut it. A whole movie taking place in a foreign country, in this case in Russia, in which *everybody* are supposed to be Russians, and during the whole freaking film they're talking to each other in English, and this with a "russian" accent so thick it's at times hard to make out what the lines are. No, no, no. This is an insult in every imaginable level. In most Hollywood crap they at least have the oh-so-clever excuse to include an American hero in the mix with whom everybody thus has to communicate in English. But even then, and this in most of the movies, when amongst other fellow country-men, they speak in their respective language. In Europe they have the habit of dubbing the movies for those that wish to escape the subtitles, but it's up to the spectator to choose which version to see (or hear). Not so here. I was trying to figure out why they spoke English for a good 20 minutes into the film, telling myself that there has to be some clever reason for it, only to finally realize that it was purely out of stupidity, arrogance and probably for some unclear commercial reasoning. The problem is that after that nothing matters. This is not serious. In fact i'm thinking it's a hoax. At one point i was certain that it's a parody, a big joke for those who can get past the third grade pseudo-thriller that seemed to be playing. But even then, i didn't laugh enough for it to be a good one. No, for the most time i was just shaking my head in wonder and desolation while asking myself if i was not being laughed at by the film maker. I strongly advice against, this is just stupid. Everybody in the world do not need English speak...