Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Lee Eisenberg Pavel Lungin's "Oligarkh" (alternately called "Tycoon" and "Tycoon: A New Russian" in English) looks at the free-for-all that dominated post-Soviet Russia. The protagonist becomes the richest man in the country through all manner of vile means. It was unfortunate that Boris Yeltsin, initially seen as a champion of democracy, sold his country off to the old functionaries who became oligarchs. Some have fallen from grace and even faced criminal prosecution, depending on which ones the government favors.I understand that Platon Makovsky is based on Boris Berezovsky. It probably could have just as easily focused on any of the magnates who rose to prominence in the 1990s. The point is, these ruthless people turned the Russian Federation into their playground.It's not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.

asseveratio Believe me, this movie is absolutely magnificent. But, I suppose it is only "pretty good" for non-Russians. I want to explain one crucial point. All that guys (except, maybe Larry) are not mobsters. All of them have university degrees and some of them are PhD. Yeah, that's true. You see, there was a paradoxical situation in Russia of 90-s. Sudden freedom (as "Sudden Death") made almost entire population poor and indefensible. There was no matter if you are PhD or not. "How far can you go?" That really matters. Actors' performance is on a higher level in the movie, except couple of insignificant supported actors. Mashkov is strong, intelligent and uncompromising. Mironova. Oh, she is the example of natural Russian Beauty. In point of fact, she has played 3 different women: glamorous girl, good-looking divorced woman with a child and then, mature 40+ lady. I was really fascinated with her play. Krasko's character brings some contrast and fun in this thriller. He is the typical representative of Russian "glubinka" (depth of the country). Andrei played very well and made fine subordinate plot. To be honest, financial and other schemes which are represented in "Oligarkh" are too simple and they are far removed from reality. I believe this is the most important drawback. All things considered, I believe that Lungin made very good movie about that weird time. Worth seeing.

azat_nugm Well, the good news is that this is definitely a very fun and entertaining piece of cinema. The bad news is that, like most movies with very few exceptions, it took a cool premise and failed short in delivering it. Storytelling needs a lot of polish, plot resolutions may seem dumb at times, and acting can range from very good to absolutely horrible from scene to scene and from actor to actor. There's very little that this "Russian Godfather" has to say that wasn't already said many times (and much better) in "Godfather", "Scarface", and "Once Upon a Time in America".None of that matters when it comes to the fun factor - unless of course you're one of those self-professed "critics" who spend more time ogling pretty ladies than following the story twists that are neither confusing nor overly complicated, or people who think that any movie that talks about a serious and controversial topic should be strictly unbiased documentary. Be neither, and don't take the movie too seriously.

pbeliakov I'm absolutely surprised that people in the West and especially in US watch this movie. Equally, I'm surprised they read War and Peace, Idiot, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons etc.This is not to say the movie is of the same magnitude as the books in the list, rather that it's equally deep and ought to be equally strange for a westerner. And, as usual, the moral of the story is ( kind of ) based on a piece of ( Galich, "One more time about the devil" ) poetry, and poetry is never easy to translate. From my point of view, the story is entertaining and educating - to me. It's a little scary - to me, meaning "thank god I was too young to be a part of it", but it certainly is not "herky-jerky", characters are definitely well-developed. I was actually quite surprised how convincing the acting and the dialogs were.Someone said the movie "asks more questions than it answers", I'd say it's what a good movie should do! Art is actually about asking questions, not answering them. If you want answers, turn to religion.I rate the movie 10 out of 10 ( though it would be about 96 out of 100, some minor technicalities ).