Russkiy Reyd

In full disclosure I do not know much about Russian film making. For me this fun and exciting, and somewhat humorous film, is very unusually shot. There is a lot of action in this martial arts, action, revenger drama about a former soldier seeking revenge against the man who killed his father. Police corruption, organized crime, and toxic masculinity abound in this one. The many fight scenes are good, but filmed in a very "speeded up" way, which somewhat detracts from them; however, it is highly watchable. This made me wonder if this was filmed in a Russian style, or filmed specifically for release outside Russia. This complex me to want to see more Russian action films. The film is subtitled.

The movie started out rather well within a military context and having not read what it was going to be I had thought after this we were going to be pleased with another excellent Russian war film but no, it quickly merged into a budget Russian version of "The Raid".

I have to admit I do speak a bit of Russian but even I was perplexed by what was going on; I guess you have to be conversant with Russian life itself and how everything involves back handers and illegal dealings as the situation the story revolves around will just make a westerners brain go round in circles. Even so it was quite a demonstration of Russian martial arts with some really rather excellent spins, kicks , swings and general yeeeeehaaaaaa but done in a style of brutality only the Russians could achieve; the violence does actually look real unlike 90% of movies these days and to be honest some of it probably was as the Russians do love their fist fighting with health and safety an afterthought!

Having said that although the action is fun, there is literally zero story, no real acting ability just a lot of shouting, posturing "Gopniks" in the usual trackies or shell suits bopping everyone with fists of fury, boots of steel, elbows of pride as well as the odd axe, samovar and anything else that comes to hand ending in a rather impressive shootout with machine guns, pistols, grenades; even the incredibly hot leading lady gets blasting with her Kalashnikov - It was a rather fun and completely mad storyline which does put it "out there"!

Overall it is not going to win any Oscars but I did enjoy the fight sequences; no one is spared the violence and the leading guy does actually look like the spitting image of Thomas Kretschmann I kid you not...and he does save the very hot leading lady in the end, a true Russian hero, aren't they all!

It is pure unadulterated crash , bang , wallop with nothing more to recommend it but for some strange reason I did enjoy it - Maybe its a guy thing but I am giving it an above average 6/10.

Ufc/fisting/ wrestling/judo/budo/brazza shadowfight/shootins/shootouts/knifefights/swordballets, and a whole lot of crazy fun especially in the first 2/3'ds of the movie, and the story ever so simple and fragile from start to end is a heist, a revengeful and somehow justified deed done with neolittic sturdyness and neanderthalic methodics.

I enjoyed this alot, its a film without a good storyline, the madness of the participants of the heist are really making the story in a magnificent way, and may crush any american brawler action far down in the boots, there are maybe some c-quality british hudlum movies from the worst part of east-london that may be used as a referencepoint on shear fighting, and maybe some wimbledon footbal hooligans may fist like this, so remove your sidelook and take part in the game of russkiy reyd.

Its not a film for the feinsmackers, more like a bud spencer and terrence hill barfighting, therefore headsup and slainthe math and say spaziba before no spaziba. The grumpy old man recommends.

Like others here I was impressed by the action quotient of this flick. All hand-to-hand fisticuffs, edged weapons, and gunfight sequences were done better then you see in a lot of other similar type movies. Realistic and bloody.

The story however was weak. There was a revenge aspect that was never fully realized along with a somewhat humorous visually realized treatise on Russian real estate transactions. Also an ending that begs for a sequel.

If this same crew had a decent budget and a good script for some project with a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE or DIE HARD type vibe I think they could put out a real winner I would check it out for sure.

The dumb paper-thin plot and clumsy storytelling are just excuses for having lots of guys beating and shooting each other up. Nothing here really makes much sense. It's just like watching someone playing Tekken and Call of Duty at the same time. That's the only entertainment value you'll get from this.