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When watching this kind of movies it is really hard to get what is really going on unless you know the bases of the plot well. In this case one should be really deep into the queers of Russian internal affairs and politics. Some references to the existing people are of course obvious to a fault but others are by far more subtle, e.g. the idea of a Lithuanian (or perhaps Latvian) guy working for that mogul who is clearly Berezovskiy, no doubt in that. There are facts that these are actually mercenaries in Chechnya conflict together with others. So that twist is definitely a plus. The references to the hostages in the theatre in Moscow is again clear but the idea of that Chechen entering the scene and taking over the situation could have seemed faulty though not to me, in the end. The idea of Arabs actually plotting behind the Chechen people is a widely spread one these days. No proofs though, as usual. Some might regard this movie as a propaganda or something of that kind but again they would be simply unfamiliar with the situation. In Russian movie-making today there are hardly any rival to this one. And that is the most important fact. It is a plain movie-making-for-moneymaking sort of thing! People want to see that on screens - as in any action movie of US origin (I will surely include here all the US-sponsored movies of France etc.). And they pay for it with a lot of money (Russian industry standard, of course!).

If the intention was to create a parody on hostage taking movies, the authors succeeded brilliantly. I was first really annoyed at being made fun of, but in the end had a great laugh throughout. I would recommend anybody to see the film in English translation because it gets even funnier. Nothing is real - characters, motivation of their actions, acting, make-up, dialogs, stage setting, proprieties, nothing. Absolutely hilarious!

The one problem seems to be the fact that the film has too clear a political agenda and passes some very childish messages: FSB has absolute authority; tycoons are the villains (Pokrovskiy > Berezovskiy), not all Chechens are bad, only manipulated by the villains etc. Soviet-style propagandist cinema in a new era, just of really sub-standard quality.

"Countdown" - new stunning Russian blockbuster with interesting storyline, amazing stunt performance and great visual effects. It reminds me "Die Hard" with Bruce Willis, but in Russian way. The main theme is very actual for this day: an international terrorism and fight against it, hostages in the circus... and one good guy Alexey Smolin (Makarov) against this international evil. I saw this movie twice and will buy DVD with it, because it's a really good-acting blockbuster! Much better than previous Russian "blockbuster" "Night Watch" with poor scenes and dumb plot with countless holes. Now I believe that Russian filmmakers can do really good blockbuster! Hope to see "Countdown-2" soon!