Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

As someone born and raised in USSR, I state this is the stupidest movie about criminal I ever seen. It has nothing to do with reality. The guy who comes from prison with long hair? You may stop watching right there. Why USSR, not Wisconsin? Stupid, stupid, stupid... period.

This film - a lie from the first to the last frame. This book - a lie from the first page to the last. Bender - a city in Ukraine. A citizen of Ukraine can not fight in Chechnya. This film - a lie from the first to the last frame. This book - a lie from the first page to the last. Bender - a city in Ukraine. A citizen of Ukraine can not fight in Chechnya. This film - a lie from the first to the last frame. This book - a lie from the first page to the last. Bender - a city in Ukraine. A citizen of Ukraine can not fight in Chechnya. This film - a lie from the first to the last frame. This book - a lie from the first page to the last. Bender - a city in Ukraine. A citizen of Ukraine can not fight in Chechnya.

I thought it was average, with acting ranging from bad to good and similar fluctuations of the script. I did not read the book, nor did I know it was biographical. It was recommended to me, I watched it and I liked it. My wife loved it, though.Somewhere in a punishment town in Transnistria the law has little power and the clans are dividing territory, each with their own tradition and rules. The protagonist is part of the Siberian clan, which in almost all intent and purposes is a version of the old Cosa Nostra. After all, it was an Italian movie, right? :)But let's not be bad. The thing that hurt the film most had to be the title. The main title is in Italian, even if the people are speaking English. I actually got it first in Italian, only to see that people were speaking something else underneath.The story itself seems a bit too complex for a film and so it becomes clear that it is based on a book. Being a biographical book I can hardly blame the story and having not read the original material I can similarly not fault the script. The acting is reasonable, especially considering most of the actors did not play in many other films. The direction is good.I don't know if one gets to learn anything from this other than what certain criminal clans think like. The film does speak of character, but when that character makes you live in a dump town, spend some time in jail, lose your love, get to join the Russian army, then kill a friend, it is hard to see the value in it. Bottom line: watchable, but not memorable.

I've been a member here for years. And i never wrote a review. But after watching this movie, even though there are bad reviews, I've just had to do a short review.This movie surprised me extremely. Its not perfect. But there's so much love to detail, its just art. Im not a big fan of movies about Russia nor do i like john malkowich very much. I've always thought of him as a pretty weird actor. In this movie: he was just perfect!Lower your expectations, watch this movie and i hope you will be positively surprised like i was. Somehow i hope there will be a sequel to this movie :) I got tired of the Italian mafia movies, Chinese marshal arts movies or American movies with big special effects... This was a welcome refreshment!P.S Im sorry for my weird English, it has been years since I've talked to anyone or written in English. I just watch movies with English audio a lot. :)