I was quite sceptical when I planned to watch it. There were too many advertising and promotion in Russia, so I suspected it to be trash, highly advertised trash. I also read numerous reviews saying that this movie is rather a parody on a normal action then an action itself. But anyway I decided to watch it, primarily to understand what Russian action is nowadays and tried to be as objective as I can. From the first 10 minutes of the movie I become interested in the story and started to get enjoyment of the time. It's not a brilliant, because its budget of USD 16 mln (and half of it was spent for advertising, wasn't it? :-)) doesn't allow to create a second Borne's story or anything similar to Hollywood/European/HK actions, but its quite balanced showing good amount of action, races, shoots etc. for its budget and it doesn't pretend for anything more. The script is not genius, but really not stupid, terrorism, nuclear weapon, secret services - inside the mainstream ideas. And of cause this movie support patriotic feeling inside each Russian - a Russian agent is striking with terrorism evil and almost saving the world - why not, it's not only American duty to save the world daily! :-)
Conclusion: good Russian action, not a star, but worth watching it.
Conclusion: good Russian action, not a star, but worth watching it.