Reviews

Another awful b-flick about evil "russkies"... Scenes of violence and massacre are absolutely disgusting. Stupid, well-used plot and horrible filming, particularly of the action scenes. Wooden (as usual) acting of Lundgren... Needless to say that Dolph Lundgren himself looks as much Russian as Bruce Lee and the Russian "baddies" speak so bad that the one who understands the original language (like myself) needs English subtitles to interpret what they actually wanted to say in (presumably) Russian. Even the title itself makes me laugh as "Icarus" was actually a brand name of popular soviet minibuses, so it sounds pretty much like American spy named Chevrolet.

I have to admit I watched the first half of the film. I bet in the second half the world is saved by some handsome FBI agent with decent Irish name, something more appealing to the US public than Yuri or Vitaly... It doesn't really matter, I got the main point -- all firearms in the world are manufactured in the poor country of Ukraine and sold by coke-sniffing Russian mobsters. So lets just blame them! Lets forget that the United States of America is the world largest manufacturer (and the world largest consumer) of weaponry... That 200 millions of privately-owned firearms (out of total 500 millions mentioned by Nicolas Cage's character) are owned by the US citizens... That the infamous Kalashnikov assault rifles are as much Russian as MacDonalds is American, being manufactured in 20 or so countries including China, India and the United States... That (contrary to Yuri Orlov) no Soviet coin depicted Kalashnikov rifle... So go ahead and enjoy the rest of the movie.

Powerful and bizarre tale of the young medical doctor sliding into the abyss of drug addiction as the country around him slides into the horrors of civil war. Even so the revolution and the war is hardly shown in the movie (which is set in a small Siberian village), one could feel it's dark presence in every scene, every dialogue. Surprisingly well captures the spirit of autobiographical novels of Mikhail Bulgakov, Russia's greatest and most controversial author of the 20th century. Strongly recommended for everyone who enjoys Bulgakov, Dostoevsky, classical Russian literature and history. Also, it's a great tribute to the director/screenwriter Sergei Bodrov Jr. who died so tragically at the height of his career.