DevilsFan

I will not lie, the beginning of the movie was very intriguing and it hooked me into watching the rest of it, but to be honest with you...I kind of regret it.

The opening scene is very interesting and it's duration of about 5 minutes is the best part of the whole movie and the rest of the film badly fails to live up to its beginning.

Maybe some North American viewers thought this was a great picture because they saw shocking things in Iran such as how a 15 year old boy is already in the army - well that's no news to me, I was born in a country where you get taken to the army at 18 for 2 years whether you want it or not. Another "shock", as I read in a previous comment to this movie, was how there are luxurious jewelry stores in Iran....umm yeah... There are always rich people in big cities such as Teheran and that's what they do - they buy jewelry.

Most scenes in this movie were waaaay too long and some were completely useless and meaningless... What am I talking about? OK...how about when Hussein gives out pizza slices to the people he doesn't know (don't wanna give away too much) what was the point of that?...they spent like a minute of the movie on the main character walking from car to car giving people pizza slices. Or another scene I completely don't get is when Hussein sees that his co-worker suffered a bad crash on his bike while delivering pizza...A friend of mine tried to tell me that the point of this scene is for Hussein to realize how meaningless his life is and that being rich is better... How does it show that? If a rich guy crashed on a bike same thing would happen...he'd go to a hospital and the homeless guy would steal his helmet (you'll understand what I'm talking about if you watched the movie). The point is - that there is no point in that scene.

Twice I looked at my watch during the movie, both times towards the end because I knew it was supposed to be ending soon and didn't understand where it was going.

All in all, a disappointment. Great beginning, but everything else was bad. Too long, pointless. It would make a great short film though...shorten each scene by 10 minutes (yes they are very long) and you'll have the same movie without any loss in its message.

Brat 2 (Brother 2) is a sequel to the 1997 film Brat (Brother). I am a fan of Bodrov and enjoyed all the movies he made and has acted in during his unfortunately short career. Without a doubt he was a revolutionary director and actor for Russia's film-making and this film presents him in one of his best roles. To me, this movie is special because I very much love its genre and the way it was presented. It is less realistic than Brat, but contains more action and more memorable moments. Anyone who is willing to look at a life of a simple guy who thinks his life is less important than that of his friends and loved ones will not be disappointed by the presentation of the film. Danila's character is very different and memorable; for me, he is truly an idol and every time I watch the movie I can only wish I had his big heart and bravery. Because I love this film so much I am giving it a perfect score, but disregarding my connection to former USSR I still recommend it highly. Brat 2 10/10.

I haven't seen a crime movie with action more realistic than that in Brat. This movie emphasizes that when you get shot you can't run as fast as a cheetah unlike the Hollywood films even today. It was a breakthrough picture for Russia's film-making and, in my opinion, a picture that could take on most of American movies of the same or similar genre. You wanna see the way things were done in Russia five years ago? You wanna see cruel reality? You want to see the real criminal side of Russia? See Brat. It isn't only an amazing movie because it is so realistic, the acting is awesome and you won't get bored for sure. Brat 10/10