Gripping story with well-crafted characters

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

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.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Whether you consider "Brilliantovaya ruka" a Soviet version of "Get Smart" or something else, it's still a hilarious movie. Portraying a man on vacation in Istanbul getting confused for a spy, they pull just about every gag imaginable. The line "Our people don't ride in taxis" implies that only people in western countries do that (it was also a reference to the people employed as secret police in the Soviet Union). Probably the best scene is when the guy sings "A nam vsyo ravno", which in Russian means "Everything is equal to us"; that scene is comparable to the toga party in "Animal House".Anyway, a really funny movie. They must have had fun filming it. The Jesus scene would no doubt incur the wrath of the Russian Orthodox Church nowadays.

This is a comedy that stood the test of time. I've recently bought the newly released DVD of this movie and it's worth every penny. Of course I've seen this comedy a million times on TV and video, but the DVD makes this funny in a whole new way. I believe that even english speaking audiences will love this flick if they get the DVD. The translation into English is superb. Speaking Russian myself , it's actually very funny to hear this Soviet cinema classic translated into English , having seen it only in Russian before. Now , I believe that even our friends in Turku, Finland would find this film funny. Mironov , Nikulin and Papanov give superb comical performances by any standards. And the actors who's voices are used to dub this film into english are an excellent match. What can I tell you, go to your nearest Russian video store and get this DVD, you'll love it.

The last time I saw it was something like 10 years ago. Just recently I watched it again and was tempted to write about it. The physical humor here doesn't stand the test of time very well, and will bring nothing but a smirk to the faces of the young audiences, Russian and non-Russian alike. However, for the older generation, the names of Nikulin and Mironov are rather sacred, so there is no dispute about this film being considered a Soviet classic. Admittedly, the majority of the film's acclaim nowadays rests on the element of nostalgia, but not entirely. The duo of clumsy crooks played by Andrei Mironov and Anatoliy Papanov come off as quite impressive even today. Papanov's character is especially picturesque, delivering loads of caustic one-liners in his one-of-a-kind dialect that are just as hilarious as they were 30 years ago. Well, at least I think so, although I guess it's one of those "you either get it or you don't"-type things. Also, already mentioned by other reviewers Nonna Mordyukova's small role as a hawkish house manager is memorable as well. Unfortunately for foreign audiences, the whole appeal of this movie is of a rather esoteric nature. So, if you are not familiar with the realities of Soviet life or with Russian cultural folklore, you will just shrug your shoulders and ask what one of reviewers below asked: "where is the humor."

Do people really laugh at custard pie scenes and "comedians" slipping on banana peels in the 90's? I certainly didn't. Try telling us some jokes, Vanya... Or was this just too Russian for me?