Really Surprised!

Please don't spend money on this.

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

it is realistic and for Eastern public, full of memories. because it is not only a Russian story. it is the story of a period. pictures from transition to democracy, images about solutions after Communism, fight for power, success and fall. if it is a Russian slice from victory of a new generation, in same measure it is a beautiful film. action, love, friendship and old emotion of East. politic, crime and poetry. and interesting acting, smart script - not a surprise for the director of Ostrov. it is a special film for its flavor of atmosphere. common at first sigh, it represents a form of testimony and reflection of a dark reality who makes deep difference between East and West Europe.

"Tycoon: A New Russian" is a powerful saga that doesn't spare anybody. Oligarchs, Russian politicians, mafia - it is hard to tell them apart sometimes. The end of communism unfortunately didn't bring the peace and prosperity that people expected. The new economic rules were not followed with appropriate laws, hence the disaster happened. Some people with the brains , but without scruples, breaking all the rules of decency, became unbelievably wealthy. Platon Makovsky, the protagonist of this movie, loosely based on the life of Boris Berezovsky,was worth 5 billion dollars. It is mind boggling that in the disarray and tragedy after the fall of the Soviet Union, somebody can make that much money. This movie explains how it all happened, and it is clear to the viewer why the next leader of Russia became someone like Vladimir Putin. Like it or not it was inevitable.

SPOILERS"If we can't buy Kreml we must become ourselves Kreml!"After seeing the disk in the neighborhood video-shop and every time passing it over I finally came to the point where nothing worthy of my attention was left to rent. So I grabbed this, out of desperation and rented it expecting something quite bad. Boy I couldn't be more wrong. Since the beginning I knew the stakes were high - a red writing in the middle of the screen announcing "the day of Platon's death" (the main character Platon Makovsky). Then a retrospection showing his rise to power. Constantly back and forth, then and now. An investigator has been arrived all the way from Ural to investigate Platon Makovski because obviously the whole issue is too delicate to be left to someone from the Moscow DA. Some very high government employees are involved, even the FSB (the former KGB) and Shmakov (the investigator from Ural) has the unpleasant job of interrogating the friend circle. But this is where all comes to light... "The rise to power" segments show how Makovski and his friends, young economics experts start to make money after the fall of the communist regime with the assistance of a georgian (that's Gruzia) who appears to be connected to some of the crime structures. This jolly group of university friends quickly learns how to use their brains in order to cheat the system to steal and basically get their hands on everything they possibly can and how to wash the money, with their first achievement of controlling the automobile factory in Tbillisi - Georgia. After this they go straight to the top. In personal aspect Platon gains a powerful and bitter enemy in the face of the party functionary Koretsky. As time passes they become real oligarkhs and billionaires and of course their enemies (who basically don't have anything personal against them but want a piece of the pie) become more and stronger until the bitter end. The movie has very strong cinematography, powerful editing, very beautiful music score and a great soundtrack. Wonderful dialogs, especially for Russian speaking people, I suppose in English some of the essence might be lost. Platon's 44th birthday is a godfather-esquire event - very large in scale, reminding me of the parties from "The great Gatsby". Great acting, especially from the supporting cast - Andrei Krasko as Shmakov and Levan Uchaneishvili as Larry are brilliant. Alexandr Baluyev as Koretsky, Maria Mironova as Masha and Vladimir Mashkov as Platon are also very good. The same things that can be said about the beginning are valid about the end - very powerful. Through the film goes on and on the question "who done it" but that's not particularly hard to guess... One downbeat moment towards the end - the little kids Platon and Musa - the kid-actors can't act at all and the scene itself was if not pointless really not needed. The movie is loosely based on Boris Abramovich Berezovski, who financed the rise of the Russian president Vladimir Putin (known to be a former colonel from the KGB). However after Putin became president he made clear that while Berezovski's money is welcome, he is not. The whole affair is known as "the godfather vs. Kreml" and Berezovski is living now in London in exile.-"Nedless to say, one of you has killed him" -"Has or hasn't... everybody wanted it..."

I'm absolutely surprised that people in the West and especially in US watch this movie. Equally, I'm surprised they read War and Peace, Idiot, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons etc.This is not to say the movie is of the same magnitude as the books in the list, rather that it's equally deep and ought to be equally strange for a westerner. And, as usual, the moral of the story is ( kind of ) based on a piece of ( Galich, "One more time about the devil" ) poetry, and poetry is never easy to translate. From my point of view, the story is entertaining and educating - to me. It's a little scary - to me, meaning "thank god I was too young to be a part of it", but it certainly is not "herky-jerky", characters are definitely well-developed. I was actually quite surprised how convincing the acting and the dialogs were.Someone said the movie "asks more questions than it answers", I'd say it's what a good movie should do! Art is actually about asking questions, not answering them. If you want answers, turn to religion.I rate the movie 10 out of 10 ( though it would be about 96 out of 100, some minor technicalities ).