Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Pavel Limarenko When I first saw this movie back in 2010 I thought it is nothing more than a failed attempt to make "our version of Apocalypse Now". Although I caught the spirit of "The Citadel", the sequel, this one really made me mad! I hated Mikhalkov for this film, I wrote negative reviews, I really despised the guy. Although the journey through the roads of war reminded me of captain Willard's journey up the river, the plot seemed to be a mess of unrelated short B-movies piled together. The acting seemed extremely bad, political messages - too anti-Russian, the portrayal of Russians seemed to be so contrasting with heroic US soldiers of Saving Ryan. It turned out however this was the first movie I was not prepared for... And this is the only movie that grew in my eyes from absolute nonsense to masterpiece. I don't know what has to happen for the viewers to really tune to the author's language, so that it turns from torn pieces into a poem. That's what happened with me. But yet another requirement seems for the viewer to be neither pro- Russian, nor pro- Western, neither a patriot, nor a liberal, for it focuses on values different from all of these. It's not a "war is hell" movie, not a heroic movie, not a history-rewriting movie. It focuses on human beings and their plays, so to speak. But putting that aside, Mikhalkov himself is the owner of such rare human qualities, but he also possesses the true Russian character, and seems to be the only director capable to capture the scent of the past, the spirit. I certainly didn't think so back in 2010... Mikhalkov's film has a message to deliver, and that it just passes by the traditional elements of a war movie, it ignores things that usually make sense, and focuses on what has true meaning for the director. In other words, Mikhalkov wanted to share some very personal, intimate view, and the viewer is either prepared for the talk, or not. If not, the author simply does not find it necessary to explain things.

Costin Stucan I have to admit I'm a big fan of Mikhalkov's movies as I've seen over 90% of those. A few months ago while reading the previous reviews and especially those 1-star ratings I just couldn't understand. I wasn't able to buy the sequel but I was so intrigued...Such a sensitive, fantastic director can really turn into a trash-maker overnight? I found the answer a month ago after buying the DVD. No, Mikhalkov is not a worse director now! I won't discuss the political context of his recent life, I'm interested only in his movies. Burnt by the Sun 2 is a powerful one, full of Mikhalkov's(read Russian) joy, melancholy and wonderful hyperbola. I agree this is a more commercial movie than the previous Burnt by the Sun but it still has a great soul. And those "historical inadvertences" claimed by some readers can be solved very easy. I'm a WWII scholar with hundreds of books under my belt. Yes, the shtraf batallions didn't exist back in 1941 but during the same summer the Germans entering USSR were encountering what they referred to as Black Divisions. Who were they? They were convicts released from Gulag or from other prisons together with convicted captains, colonels or generals as part of the Second Strategic Echelon of the Red Army. Anyway, watch Burnt by the Sun 2... you'll discover at least one epic scene, a landmark of war genre movies! The watch is ticking :)

rodhagen A difficult movie to assess. Many people seeing it probably expected more of the very clever, but somewhat romantic, view of Russia on the verge of succumbing to Stalinism contained in the original "Burnt by the Sun".Inevitably they will be disappointed. This movie deals with a period when the romantics of earlier days had been crushed, when the Russian world was unremittingly harsh, capricious and chaotic for all, and its people confronted great menace from both inside and out.Its structure is, as others have noted, somewhat chaotic, with frequent , but clearly delineated, changes in time, both backwards and forwards. We see contrasts drawn between the earlier era of the first film, together with the the time of the great retreats in 1941 and the recovery of Russian lands, and re-assertion of what passed for Stalinist "order", in the advances of 1943. At times this is disconcerting, but for me it captured the essence of the era.The film never lurches into the excesses of "heroism" that one often sees in Hollywood movies dealing with war (and in Soviet era "war" movies , too, for that matter). If it owes its approach to anything it is to Remarque's "All quiet on the Western Front" and other similar works. Vignettes of personal strength, suffering and weakness. Recognition that contingency, accident and decisions made from afar, rather than personal attributes, largely determine who lives and who dies in war -an absence of heavy moralizing (though there are some Christian allusions that it may be interesting to see resolved in part 2 when it arrives), but the recognition of moral dimensions even amidst chaos.It is truly brutal at times, but paradoxically the violence is almost understated when one thinks of the staggering 20 million people who died during the period portrayed.People have very different reactions to this film. Three of our party were seriously disappointed while two of us thought it seriously good, and wanting to see how the next in the series resolves the many unanswered questions which this film leaves you with.

gess1001 It's amazing, it's astounding, it's unbelievable - it's trash beyond any usual definition of trash! Some compare it with the "Inglorious basterds" and indeed it's just as insane and irreverent to historical truth but the madcap feats of daring and a plethora of lively and memorable characters that made IG such an affable flick are not there, replaced by a (s)crappy sequence of sketches performed by a coven of morons, traitors, cowards and assholes. "Sun-burned 2" is a live adaptation of "Happy Tree Friends" with the plot of every episode following the same pattern: enters Michalkov(a), enters everybody else, everybody else dies horribly, Michalkov(a) leaves, viewer doesn't give a damn.