Brigada

This is truly the greatest modern film about mafia! It is so realistic! Anybody who lived in Russia in the 1990s will tell you that this movie brilliantly reflects the social reality of that time period. At the same time the movie has an exciting and gripping plot that literally glues you to the television in a way few movies ever do. You are literally sitting at the edge of of your seat throughout the entire film. Personally, I think this movie is even better than the Godfather series.

All the negative comments speak about how this movie is "immoral" and give that as THE reason for giving the movie a low score. But this is simply not true! Yes, the protagonists of the movie are mafiosos. But they are no more romanticized then the protagonists of Godfather were. No one gives the Godfather series a low rating just on those grounds? I think it's just that because this movie was so popular in Russia and a lot of kids/teenagers watched it and started fantasizing about becoming mafia gangsters. And some parents got very upset about it. That is the only reason for giving a lower rating to this movie! Those parents just needed to keep the children away from the TV. This movie is not for kids anyway.

I have never watched Russian TV series before as I expected them to be stupid and boring. But 'Brigada' was so extremely popular among my friends and so much talked about in the newspapers and magazines, so I decided not to miss it. And I wasn't disappointed at all. Many people said that 'Brigada' makes youngsters like criminals and gangsters and fight against the militia. They said that in this series militia men look much more criminal than the criminals themselves! But unfortunately it is the regrettable truth of Russian life nowadays. That's why audience didn't judge the guys – Sasha, Phyl, Kosmos and Pchela – too harshly. They were the victims of the circumstances. About the movie itself. I liked the soundtrack very much. ('Brigada' ringtone was extremely popular among the people of all ages.) The actors' performance was great, sometimes brilliant. I especially liked Sergey Bezrukov and Vladimir Vdovichenkov. Dmitry Dyuzhev was excellent, but on my opinion he's doing his best job acting in 'Twelfth Night' – the play by Shakespeare staged in Pushkin's theatre. His performance is so funny and wonderful that everybody can't help laughing. Katya Guseva is the most beautiful woman on the screen. Andrey Panin is a splendid villain! His character is so disgusting that I wanted to throw something heavy at his head every time I saw him. To sum up, the movie is well-written, well-directed and well-played. I'm very surprised (and pleased) that not only in Russia people watch and like it. Hope some new great movies and TV-series will come soon. For instance, 'Zvezdochet' (Astrologer) starring the same Vdovichenkov and handsome Strahov. Looking forward to watching it! 9 out of 10 – and my applause - to 'Brigada'.

The movie is extremely realistic of what happened in Russia in 1989 - 2000 - actually it just shows the top of the iceberg, but it shows enough to imagine what is beneath. "Brigada" is a great story about 4 friends that remains friends in spite of all that happened. May be you can named it the Russian 'Godfather' movie. It is exactly so great. Actors are great performers. Sounds are great. Surroundings and details till the time span shown - 11 years - are true and absolutely realistic. I couldn't find any weak point in all movie. There is a lot of persons in the movie with their own destiny shown but not in a helter-skelter way or heaviness - rather you can feel with all your being the atmosphere in Russia in these years of changes and the Russian's feelings and spirit.

And in the end - the movie is so well done that on many occasions you just wonder - to cry or to laugh. It is for sure one of the best movies I saw in the last years.

There should be more detail on the movie in IMDB. For now, I assume it is the multipart series that we have on DVD. It is an excellent movie and my wife loves it. Unfortunately, I speak very little Russian. I think it would have an much better audience in the US if the subtitles were redone. In fact, my only dislike for the movie so far is related to subtitles.

They are very incomplete. Some of them are even in Russian. Not only that, but the names of the characters should not be translated. If someone is saying "Belov", I don't think it should be translated as "White". The same with "Bee", and the others. One subtitle even said "Michael Gorbachev". There were several instances of the word "dump" showing up instead of "dumb". A police complaint was referred to as an "application" and another similar word to application that would not be understood as "complaint". In my mind, the person who wrote the subtitles should find another job.

So, Avatar.. Fix the subtitles and you may have a hit in the English speaking world.

How much do you know, have seen or have heard about life in Russia in the 90's? I guess if you aren't Russian, don't pretend to be a smartass... you know nothing.

Brigade describes the last decade of the 20th century Moscow with incredible exactness: difficult life of the "mortals", rise of the oligarchs, power of corruption and lack of moral principles. All political events are absolutely accurate and should be revealing to any person who didn't experience "perestroika".

But apart from that it is a story about endless friendship, about four simple boys building the most powerful organizations in the world's biggest country. This movie is filled with personalities, complicated relationships and describes perfectly the indirect meaning of the word "brat" (brother) in Russia.

Great action scenes and fantastic actors! One of the greatest movies ever!