Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This movie shows, with a gentle and objective lens, how patetic Americans can be in ordinary matters. Rasist, cowardly, interested only in money, shallow, arrogant. Yet, this movie is subtle enough so that Amuricans, while insulted, would not exactly get the point as they are typically challenged. That is both emotionally and intellectually. A brilliant portrayal of contemporary Amurica shows how, in any moral universe with any grain of objectivity, Amuricans, for the most part, are beneath Russian "mobsters" aka ordinary Russian people. Yet, this gentle movie shows that some Amuricans, like sincere truck drivers or even some career obsessed minorities have some trace of humanity deeply buried beneath the shallow and dis figuring facade. Almost prohibited in Amurica for its sincere portrayal of parallels of Russia at its most impoverished and America at its peek (which has since long passed), shows the superb advantage of moral over shiny emptiness, truth over money, as brilliantly demonstrated in a scene with a petrified american businessman (attempting to play chess, a russian national sport, and drink vodka, a cruel joke as, muricans are more apt at checkers and are too much of snowy cornflakes for vodka) aka low covardly life of average corporate Joe, who is allowed to live by cute Russian avenger but shows much less digg nitty than his Russian, also spared, counterpart. This true face of Amurica is revealed as much nastier deep down than in any slumm worldwide, even more now than at its peek when this movie was made. The movie consists from two parts, one set in Russia, and other in America, with parallel business practices, celebrity cultures, even taxi drivers. Despite the sympathy shown by the brilliant director, Amurica does come much worse off than Russia, but better than it deserves. Amurican snowy cornflakes are shedding water from their eyes to this very day when seeing this masterpiece, trying to mum even objective reviews but they are not nearly deb nunked enough in their delusions, and that is the only, ever so slightly, fault of this movie.

Apparently Brat 2 was one of the most popular Russian movies of all time. Unfortunately that little statistic tells more about contemporary Russians than the film itself. While many American action flicks suffer from an overload of clichés, Brat 2 is an action film (if it can be called that) with an overload of mean spirited clichés. It basically caters to the very large segment of Russian population that believes that having racist ideas and expressing them is OK. It shows a great number of very simplistic clichés and stereotypes about the United States, Blacks, Russia, Jews, etc. It glorifies the Russian stereotypical traits of rudeness, self righteousness, selfishness, vulgarity, etc. The positive traits (caring for one's own people) are presented in a very unconvincing manner. When the hero meets a Russian woman, he shows care for her but due to bad acting and bad storytelling, this event lacks any kind of emotional impact. Aside from racism, nationalism, populism etc., the film is also guilty of exceptionally bad film making. The pacing is very bad, making action sequences seem bland and boring compared to American action film (which are often boring and repetitive in their own right). The reasons why the characters behave in a certain way are told - not shown. Relationships pack absolutely no emotional punch - When a character refers to someone as a brother we are supposed to understand he cares about them, but nothing else is shown to make the relationship plausible. The plot structure itself is incoherent and quite idiotic, with people behaving in completely unbelievable ways throughout the film. Overall, the movie is a work of a racist, a poor film maker, a poor writer (same person) with poor camera people, poor editors and poor actors. It is fake through out, substituting cheap clichés for meaning. 20 years from now people in Russia will watch this movie, having a hard time to believe these types of movies were popular in Russia. If Russia wants its own "Birth of a Nation," it should at least make its racist epic a better movie.In case it is relevant: I'm Russian, studied film, and live in America. I'm not offended by negative portrayals of Russians or Americans, I'm offended by idiocy, bad film making, and substituting clichés for substance.

This movie was a real milestone, it marked the end of Yeltsin's era. Like the part one is a snap-shot of 90s, this one is the reflection of, on the one hand, started changes of RF internal and external policy. Of course, partly they were (as usual) just proclaimed changes, but it doesn't matter in this case because, on the other hand, Brat-2 showed nation's feelings and hopes of those days. As far as I remember Balabanov himself said something like "The movie was just the answer to the state of public opinion". Also keep in mind it was time just after aggression of US against Yugoslavia and time of victories of federal forces in the second Chechen war - everyone still remembered the humiliation of the first war as well as all previous decade . Now you can imagine the eye we watched Brother-2 with. And you can understand what we felt… The main message of the movie is Danila's words: "So I think that the truth is the power: the one who has truth he is stronger". This phrase has become a byword. In fact, all the movie is about that: neither ascendancy and criminal (personified as "New Russians" and Ukrainian bandits), nor money and hypocrisy (American smooth operators) can defeat the truth. The idea is shown with use of violence. This point was subject of much criticism, but it's certainly not the main thing in the film, at most the decoration for its message. If you saw Brat-2 you would understand me. Another idea is that you can find good and sincere people in any country, any nation and any order. It doesn't matter what all damned governments and bigwigs do: good hearts will always find each other in this cruel world. In addition, Brat-2 is full of sentences, including humorous, which became famous: the above-mentioned "truth", "Russians never desert their own in the war", "You bitches will answer to me for Sevastopol!" and many others.So. Despite some rude episodes I disliked, despite (I think) excessive violence shown, I give it 10 of 10. Brother-2 deserves.

This is the sequel to Balabonov's Russian blockbuster Brat, or Brother for our English speaking fans. It is a different movie, a little bigger in scope, but the formula stays the same.Danila returns this time to take on Moscow. After his friend is killed needlessly, events take him to America to make things right. I really liked this film too. The thing that differentiates Brat and Brat II from a typical film is that it is real, you can feel it. Balabanov shows a talent here for screenplay that has no false pretenses, the same as he did in the first film.Is America all about money and Russia all about Truth? In the best sense, yes. Seeing America through Balabonov's eyes is an nice reminder of where popular American values stand. Danila asks, "What is in English 'How are you?' Answer: "How are you?" "What, is everyone interested in how I am?" "No." "Then why do they ask?" "Just like that. In America everything is just like that, except for money." Isn't this ze truth?There is something intangible that makes Brat and Brat II magical. It very well maybe that you have to be Russian to understand it. The Russian and intelligent viewers will understand, also, that Danila comes back from a war. I don't know why it is written that he saw no action, but as usual, when a soldier comes back from war, they have seen men killed as a matter of course and have likely killed people themselves. This fact, along with the economic situation in Russia at the time would seem to mitigate somewhat Danila's propensity for killing. The fact that he is such a calm soul while murdering people left and right, ironically, also ads to his charisma. I am reminded when Margarita in Bulgakov's classic says, "I like it when someone does things well." All in all, it is uncanny how a story of a killer taps into the best of our emotions. Maybe it's the elliptical style, maybe it is the heartfelt motive, but more than not, I think, it's Sergei Bodrov.