Director: Alexey Sidirov
Year: 2018
Country: Russia
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Action (War)
Plot:
In the middle of World War II, a young Russian soldier is taken hostage by a German brigade and sent off to a concentration camp with several other members of the squad. After several years in captivity, they are asked by an ambitious Nazi commander to prepare a captured Russian tank to lead beleaguered troops in a series of war-games to train the tank troops heading into battle which he reluctantly accepts in order to escape death. Realizing they have a shot at freedom with the war-game, the group decides to employ a daring surprise tactic to try to get to freedom which requires all their resources and luck to try to accomplish successfully.
Review:
Overall, there’s quite a lot to like with this one. This one absolutely lives or dies based on the quality of its action setpieces, and in that regard, the film is a standout success. The opening of the film, featuring the tank crews maneuvering through the abandoned town engaging in some outstanding move-sets with the tanks deploying inventive moves and creative action to successfully utilize a great plan. With the gunplay as well to get even more action into the scene, this is a fantastic starting point to the film and works nicely to get the big escape attempt going. The execution of the plan, from the smoke-screen to start it off and then the surprise attack that flusters the entire Nazi regime and triggers their quest for freedom which is a nice and highly enjoyable setpiece that brings the tank action into fine form. As the finale is essentially a series of chases through the countryside, this provides a strong series of action scenes that are featured here and give the film a triumphant, upbeat finish to everything.
On top of that, there’s a lot to like with the group in the camp repairing the tank to execute their plan. With the majority of the focus here involving the recruiting of the special crew and the resulting scramble to fix, repair and reinforce the machine, this section has plenty to like in this one. The fact that it allows for the group to plan their escape and coordinate with the translator to escape the compound in secret is a great part of the film, keeping this one interesting during the lull in action while also managing to showcase the groups’ creative and resourcefulness to pull the plan off. That this touches rather nicely on the camaraderie that develops between them that manages to get replayed even more once they’re out in the forest on the way to safety offers this one more than just a fine series of action scenes. This one does run on a little too long for it’s own good and is need of eliminating some minor subplots to ease the running time down, but beyond that there’s not much wrong to be said about this one.
Rating: ****/5
With strong action actions, a nice heartwarming subplot and not too many detrimental flaws, the film offers up a lot of positive elements without too many flaws which is what really counts here. Give this a shot if you’re a fan of these heroic war-themed action movies or curious about the film in general, while those not looking for this particular style should heed caution.
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