A Disappointing Continuation

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I walked into this movie knowing almost nothing about Max Manus and only knew somewhat about what he did. I think that might be the key into whether you're going to really enjoy this movie or not. I did like it but it does have problems.In case you don't know Max Manus was one of the best Norwegian Resistance fighters in the second World War. This movie seems to be Chronicling all of that while he must confront his alcoholism and nerve damage. Would this make way for a good movie? In my opinion Hell yes. It would probably make way for one of the best of it's kind but this does have problems.The biggest gripe for me is that the people who made this movie are shoe-horning in a lot of things for a near 2 hour movie. It kind of skips quite a bit. An example is when Max's best friend Gregers dies. That could show some great drama for what he would be going through... In the next scene it's a few months later. Sometimes when this happens it even skips almost a year. I know almost nothing about this guy is there really nothing they could have shown that would have been just as interesting as what we've already seen. I mean they cut from Max escaping Nazi control by crossing to the Swedish border to him getting trained in Scotland almost a year later. You know what I wouldn't have minded it if the time length was extended to three hours or so.I did like how some of the drama was handled though. While this movie does skip over some things I did like how the post-war scene was handled when Tikken and Max are talking when Max says he has no education, no job and no money and therefore has nothing to live for. There are some scenes like that when I did like the way it was handled.I also liked the acting and the cinematography of this movie. All of the cast do a pretty good job at acting the parts and some of the shots are actually quite impressive to look at. In terms of cinematography I guess I enjoyed the flashbacks to Max fighting on the Front Line in Finland the most.So I guess if you want to watch this movie - I think you should do a little homework on this guy before you watch it, he does actually sound like an interesting guy to look up. Some of the scenes are handled pretty well and others aren't. This is a decent movie to watch but I don't think it's as good as people are saying it is.EDIT: Now that I have done some research on the real guy... Why didn't they include some of these events in this film?

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

I'm not much for reviewing films but since most of the reviews are from Norwegians, I just wanted to add an American's perspective that I thought this film was really excellent in all respects. I fully agree with most of the favorable comments made by the Norwegian reviewers. This was a great heroic true war story, with plenty of action, tension, suspense, romance, great acting, production values, screenplay, cinematography . . . everything just great. The film convincingly made me feel as if I really was transported back to that time and place and the tensions of the circumstances of being in the resistance and living under Nazi occupation.Although I don't think it messed up the story at all, I did wonder whether it was historically accurate to depict the saboteurs using those light colored oars on one of their outings to plant limpet mines and also not having their faces camouflaged because it really made them stand out in the lights at night. I suppose they had to be able to easily blend back into the local civilian scene immediately upon getting back to shore so that may account for the faces, but those light colored oars really looked amateurish. But if it was historically accurate, then fine. I'm just curious about that. Anyway, this is a very minor point that in no way detracts from what was a great movie and very enjoyable and gripping film from start to finish. It's not just for Norwegians. I highly recommend it to any non Norwegian speaker who doesn't mind subtitles.

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.