Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus (2010)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A Masterpiece!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The reason Mikhalkov's film became Russia's worst box office flop is obvious. It is a very bad movie. It has a stupid script, useless scenes of violence, gore and defecation. It has bad acting, discontinuity and retcon. All of the characters that were presumed dead since the first film are there, alive, and surprisingly changed their age.The acting is terrible, all actors except Menshikov are copying Mikhalkov's manner of raving, mumbling and gabbling. They are hysterical all the way, they never seem to calm down. They scream and shout when they need not to.Another reason for the film to fail is that it offended the feelings of Russians. It shows their army as a pack of hysterical idiots who shoot and blast each other. In the same time, it portrays invading Wehrmacht as kind and cheery boys. Germans don't seem to be there to fight and conquer, they only return fire when attacked by those crazy russkies. Any violence from Nazi troops is always provoked by Russians.It is surprising that some in the West consider this movie a Russian patriotic propaganda. In Russia itself it is clearly viewed as anti-patriotic. The movie dishonors Russian army, it exaggerates the role of penal battalions packed with former political prisoners, and downplays the role of the ordinary Red Army units. It shows Russian generals as drunkards, their Supreme Commander as a psycho, and the Red Army as a gang without any discipline or subordination.In this film, Russians seem not to fight Germans, but trying to die by any means. In the second part of the film, Stalin even directly orders to LOSE MORE SOLDIERS in action. Oh, these Stalin, he's sooo eeeevil, and hates his own army more than Nazi do. Overall, the movie doesn't work even as anti-Stalin propaganda, because no viewer can believe such stupidity.Still, after all, one may find the film amusing, because it has so many stupid and ridiculous scenes that make it worth watching. See a Nazi air fighter defecating on a Russian ship; see Stalin having his face dipped into cake; a German tank crew giving chocolates to Russian soldiers; a scout leader pissing his pants; a nurse stripping before dying soldier who have never seen woman's breast; see Christ Magic as an Orthodox priest brings down German attack plane with his prayer... The film is so bad that it's good. Mikhalkov could make a hilarious parody of war films - unfortunately, his movie pretends to be a serious drama.

I have to admit I'm a big fan of Mikhalkov's movies as I've seen over 90% of those. A few months ago while reading the previous reviews and especially those 1-star ratings I just couldn't understand. I wasn't able to buy the sequel but I was so intrigued...Such a sensitive, fantastic director can really turn into a trash-maker overnight? I found the answer a month ago after buying the DVD. No, Mikhalkov is not a worse director now! I won't discuss the political context of his recent life, I'm interested only in his movies. Burnt by the Sun 2 is a powerful one, full of Mikhalkov's(read Russian) joy, melancholy and wonderful hyperbola. I agree this is a more commercial movie than the previous Burnt by the Sun but it still has a great soul. And those "historical inadvertences" claimed by some readers can be solved very easy. I'm a WWII scholar with hundreds of books under my belt. Yes, the shtraf batallions didn't exist back in 1941 but during the same summer the Germans entering USSR were encountering what they referred to as Black Divisions. Who were they? They were convicts released from Gulag or from other prisons together with convicted captains, colonels or generals as part of the Second Strategic Echelon of the Red Army. Anyway, watch Burnt by the Sun 2... you'll discover at least one epic scene, a landmark of war genre movies! The watch is ticking :)

Utomlyonnye solntsem 2: Predstoyanye (Burnt by the Sun: Anticipation) is the sequel to Nikita Mikhalkov's exceptional 1994 period drama about Stalin's political repressions in the 1930s. However, a lot of water has passed under the bridge in 15 years and the poignancy of the original is certainly lost here.This film follows the struggles of the repressed Kotov family and the man who is responsible for their plight through the Soviet theater of WW2. The plot is neither simple enough to be called a drama nor expansive enough to be an epic. Instead its a picaresque flow of vignettes reminiscent of a play - the majority of scenes have retained the original film's intimacy, with few actors on screen at the same time.In terms of direction I was impressed in places, though mostly by technical skill rather than revelatory plot devices or subtle acting. The restrained use of sound effects and music that worked so well in the first film is definitely one of this sequel's redeeming features.On a less positive note, I was exasperated by the treatment of suffering Mikhalkov offers his audience - many characters spend their entire screen time whimpering, crying or cowering in the rubble - not exactly the Tears and Glory that many have come to expect from the genre. We can only hope the Glory will come in the third film (we are, after all, in Anticipation).As an actor Nikita Mikhalkov is accomplished and energetic as always, but the show is easily stolen by Sergei Makovetsky, gingerly portraying a sympathetic SMERSH officer stuck in a catch 22, as well as Mikhalkov's promising daughter Nadya as a tormented young Pioneer lost in the landscape of war. I should note that Makovetsky recently starred in the considerably more engaging WW2 saga "The Priest" and is on something of a roll lately.Despite the overall quality of the cast the direction takes an unusual approach to a number of performers - Dmitriy Dyuzhev of Brigada fame, for example, spends the entire film whimpering unconvincingly - something he was obviously never designed for. Oleg Menshikov, a fine period actor many will know for playing Yerast Fandorin in 'Statski Sovetnik", is no more or less wooden than grandma's kitchen ladle - it seems Mikhalkov was simply uninterested in engaging this actor.Considering how much money was spent, production values are quite low in places - props often seem lonely on battlefields and costumes lack imagination. Perhaps most of it went to the actors that managed to cozy up to this lucrative gig... In any case, a number of scenes feel cheap and give the entire production an air of inconsistency.Last but not least, it would be a shame not to mention Mikhalkov's own fate. Most foreigners will be unaware of the fact that in the 15 years since the release of the original movie, Mikhalkov has become a close friend and associate of a leader himself accused of political repression - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. I would have no qualms with this ordinarily, assuming that all the funds his efforts raised were spent making great movies. Unfortunately, Mikhalkov's tenure as figurehead of Russia's film industry did not produce many quality films. Certainly, none by Mikhalkov himself.The bottom line: a sequel unworthy of its predecessor in almost every way, but good enough to own on DVD or watch with the family.

It is difficult to imagine, but! If anyone of the Cannes-2010 Jury read this, please, do not give any prize to this trash with "great movie" label. Do not defame my country.So, the "masterpiece"... Every film starts with its slogan nowadays. This time it was "The Great movie about the Great war". Let's even forget Mikhalkov is not overly modest. But, if you dare to touch such important subject before the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory and declare your product "Great", it must be great.And what we see? All the movie is full of stupidity, Mikhalkov's fantasy and himself. Several separate novels (bad plots). About what? Who knows! There are good Nazi military men and bad soviet civil men and women. Stupid soviet people force Nazis to bomb Russian Red Cross ship, or, for variety's sake, burn 100 or 500 peasants. Nazies even cry when they are forced to do so! And only Mikhalkov's Kotov does the right things. He is everywhere. He - but not any sense. There is no need for the voluminous review to summarize, Utomlyonnye solntsem 2 are: nazi ass, trying to defecate down from 400 km/h plan, and "show me your tits". Great...BTW, "burnt" may sound better for English-speakers, but the right translation is "Tired by the sun" - not "Burnt...". And you are really tired after watching this movie...