Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Sameeha Pugh It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

dylan_fruh I did enjoy this films and can easily see all of the great shots, but I found the directing of actors to be jarring and distracting. Always moving in front of and looking at the camera, personally I found it distracting and it really retracted from the film for me.

toxicpilgrim I think I get it... I think... Hard to Be a God is like a nightmare of living in a world of idiots. It has a feeling like drowning in mud. Of having a permanent hangover, or a sore back. Where thoughts come into your head but you're too irritated to try to communicate them. The feeling of being completely misunderstood when you're clear as day. It's really a beautiful movie to look at, and disgusting to listen to. Endless depth and texture and movement; like stirring through a stew pot looking for morsels, but finding mostly gristle, and sinew, and slime, but you're going to keep looking anyway because you're hungry.

darkthirty Visceral black and white condemnation of the extraordinary potential for superstition, religion and rule by force to enact the most brutal treatment of others, from Russian brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, brought to the screen by Aleksei German. Will we ever reach that place so powerfully imagined by these people, where such a state as Arkankar is unthinkable? Still loved in Russia, during the Soviet period the dream of progress that caused the Strugatsky's to create the Noon Universe, of which the story for this film is one piece, must have been an achingly tangible and at the same time impossible fantasy. In any case, German has taken the idea and without flinching shown the worst of us, while imagining the best of us. Great cinematography, close quarters conversations a la Robert Altman, and images you won't forget.

hou-3 ...and precious little to enjoy in this movie. Well, it's black and white, subtitled and almost three hours long, there is minimal plot and a good deal of fooling around in the mud. I thought maybe the best way to approach it would be as Monty Python on the Don, but that's only good for ten minutes or so. Likewise the central conceit which is interesting but undeveloped. Ponderous, tedious, pointless, this is the sort of film which gives art-house cinema a bad name. This is currently not long enough to be accepted so it is worth adding that the central dichotomy between a backward Middle Ages and a breakthrough Renaissance does not stand up to scrutiny, in that the Renaissance made minimal impact on most people's lives. That should do it. Meanwhile on the screen it's still raining, both water and tedium.