The Second Front

This movie must be the culmination of every bad WWII movie ever made. It is incredibly inaccurate, unrealistic, and stupid. I practically like the stereotypical German with the monocle, the Russian spy with short, tightly pulled back hair and the American with the tiny mustache and bad haircut. Towards the end of the movie, the American character is holding a Kar 98, in the next scene it changes to a shotgun which he cocks, and then reverts back to a Kar 98. Hilarious. I think any attempt to justify the existence of this movie should be met with rancid tomatoes and other rotten produce. After viewing this movie I feel my IQ has substantially dropped. Please, please, please do not rent, buy, or borrow from a friend (although I question what sort of friend what allow you to view such garbage) this movie. It will be the greatest waste of your time since The Replacement Killers.

The first thing you must do if you want to enjoy this movie is convince yourself that the notion that Nazi Germany would go to any lengths to capture and utilize a Jew for his intelligence is not utterly preposterous. If you are able to convince yourself of that, and you haven't seen movies like Enigma which would allow you to see through the thin plot, then you might enjoy this film. What the film makers failed to understand is basic Nazi ideology and doctrine, which shaped Germany's policies from 1933 to early 1945. Nazi ideology would not permit the belief that a Jew could be more intelligent than Aryan scientists, nor that a Jew could be an asset to the purposes of the Reich. I have to say that I had high hopes for this one when I ran across it at Hollywood Video, but I was thoroughly disappointed.

Nobody involved in this rubbish should ever be allowed to work in the industry again! The plot is ridiculous from the start and so many holes appear in the telling of the story that you have to remind yourself that these people are serious and are not trying to make you laugh. The idea that some of the "actors" were paid for this is the one laughable thing about the movie. The director should be Allan Smithee, as Dmitri Fiks (if that is his real name) should be ashamed for the waste of money he is responsible for. Retire Dmitri, retire! Why oh why are talentless clowns like these people given access to finance to make unredeemable crap like this!

"The Second Front" is a Russian-made film about a 1942 attempt by the Nazis to kidnap a German scientist who had fled to England. That part of the plot is just slightly far-fetched, and could have been the fodder for a decent wartime thriller. But in this case, the scientist happens to be Jewish. Germany had many top scientists at work in the war effort, inventing new weapons, etc. And, knowing the vile hatred within the Nazi party of the Jewish people, the idea that they would want to kidnap a Jewish scientist to help them is unbelievable. To the mind of a Nazi, that would be admitting inferiority to a Jew. A more plausible plot might have been one to try to assassinate the Jewish scientist.

So, the preposterous theme of the plot aside, this still might have been a decent thriller of sorts. An interesting thing that I noticed was the unusual aircraft used as the German Red Cross plane. And, the plot of American and Soviet efforts to either kidnap or kill the scientist was a little interesting. This seems to be a post-Soviet era project by Russians to give one example of some coordination and cooperation among the Allied forces in WW II. The Soviet Union was among the Allies fighting Nazi Germany, but the war was barely over when it enclosed most of eastern Europe behind its iron curtain.

As for the acting, at best it is so-so, but there are many instances when it's either wooden or stagy. The production is also quite rudimentary with total breaks between scenes. This is an example on film when research was lacking or ignored about some simple things. For instance, the Russian commando's weapons. They never seem to run out of ammo, and we don't see them carrying any extra. Scenes show Veklich alone (Aleksey Serebryakov) firing what must be about 100 rounds from something like a Tommy gun. Then there is the huge number of German soldiers who supposedly flew on the Red Cross plane. Nowhere before the final battle scene is there any inkling of so many German soldiers. And, even though the inside of the plane looked much larger than it did from the outside, it didn't look like it could hold that many soldiers with their equipment.

This is a weak action thriller of WW II.

The year is 1942, and Nicky Raus, a German Jew of extraordinary intelligence, is subject to a complex plot to steal the plans for a weapon of immense power. An American agent teams up with British agents to protect Raus and his secret weapon from German and Russian forces. Meanwhile, the American falls in love with Raus' girlfriend, a Russian agent and movie star. What fate lies in store for the unfortunate scientist? What fate indeed? From the start, the movie is a tad bit silly, to say the least. What would Nazis want with a Jew, other than to kill him? What is his secret weapon? When will the movie end? Bad acting frequents many movies, with no exception here. However, more distracting are other features of this film: planes that seem too advanced, weapons that seem to change in appearance from frame to frame, cheesy getups, runways in the middle of no-where, people's voices that do not sound properly synched (or voiced over, depending on the case). But if you can ignore such distractions and some acting of no high quality, you may come from the movie entertained. However, don't be mislead by the cover of the DVD--"You can't judge a book by its cover..." Instead of tanks with weapons blasting, bombs exploding, and airplanes strafing, you get spies, small skirmishes, and fisticuffs. I must say I was disappointed when half of the cover art wasn't even in the movie in any way, but after reading the summary on the back, what could I have expected? Also on the negative side, there are no features besides the movie itself, a few trailers, and Spanish subtitles. Maybe some outtakes or interviews would have been appropriate, or maybe the creators and/or actors were ashamed to have partaken in such a film.

I would give it an "A" for effort, but the fallacies or errors in the movie distracted me too much to extract any great entertainment. I might suggest renting the movie for one night if you are bored, but you should NOT buy it, unless you enjoy buying pitiful films. I give it a 5 for effort and because I would feel bad if I were to give it a lower score.