Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus (2010)

I can't wait to see the first part. I saw this one with my girlfriend on the hint from an arts professor that the movie is being shown on TV. No time to read any reviews in advance. We think it was absolutely grandious. It's like a freakin' Russian painting. REAL. I really don't give squat about historical precision. I would read 20 books, or watch 20 documentaries if I wanted historical precision right now. In this movie every moment IS natural and real. Every moment is complex and unpredictable. Like in real life a situation or discussion involving more characters can find an infinite variety of endings. Now and then a sheet of grotesque improbable circumstancial humor is layered upon ...not unlike life. I was shocked by the 4.1 general IMDb rating. Relieved, when browsing through the reviews. It seems the rating is held down by the people of the former USSR mostly. "Not historically accurate" is the argument I found. So.. if you want to see a perfect movie about some strange situations and thoughts that MOST probably might have been lived and thought on Russian soil during WW2, see this! If you want "historically accurate", watch a few documentaries(again), or find some of those nice, dusty propaganda movies from that time! It will all be lean, clean and will match your current knowledge!

Granted, Burnt By the Sun 2 is not as good as the original, but as an anti-war film it is still watchable. I think rating it one star out of ten is excessively and unjustifiably harsh on the film and director Mikhalkov.I have no way of gauging the historic accuracy of the film, so I will avoid looking at it from that angle. As a war film, expensively done - some scenes of destruction are stunning - and at 3 hours, I enjoyed watching it. The jumping back-and-forth within a period of 3-4 years was not done properly, nor was it necessary in my opinion. This makes the story a bit hard to follow for viewers like me. The blood and gore in battle scenes did not turn me off, and it did to some, and I have no issue of Mikhalkov taking an extra step in depicting the horror of war and the physical damage done to human bodies. War had never been pleasant.Keep and open mind and watch this film. Brush aside its shortcomings. One can still find a decent film in BYTS2.

Those who rated only 1 to 3 star this move, shame on you. They were probably expecting some Hollywood trash like Inglourious Bastards with lots of special effects and some video game feeling. I have seen the Russian version of the film, didn't quite understand the dialogs, but even couldn't stop viewing it. This was an amazingly good movie, excellent actors (real actors and not media hyped celebrities) probably not as good as the first one, but still much better than most highly rated Hollywood production on WWII.Russian films on WWII seem to me more credible, more human, probably because they don't feel the need to justify ans explain themselves and their leaders.

It is difficult to imagine, but! If anyone of the Cannes-2010 Jury read this, please, do not give any prize to this trash with "great movie" label. Do not defame my country.So, the "masterpiece"... Every film starts with its slogan nowadays. This time it was "The Great movie about the Great war". Let's even forget Mikhalkov is not overly modest. But, if you dare to touch such important subject before the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory and declare your product "Great", it must be great.And what we see? All the movie is full of stupidity, Mikhalkov's fantasy and himself. Several separate novels (bad plots). About what? Who knows! There are good Nazi military men and bad soviet civil men and women. Stupid soviet people force Nazis to bomb Russian Red Cross ship, or, for variety's sake, burn 100 or 500 peasants. Nazies even cry when they are forced to do so! And only Mikhalkov's Kotov does the right things. He is everywhere. He - but not any sense. There is no need for the voluminous review to summarize, Utomlyonnye solntsem 2 are: nazi ass, trying to defecate down from 400 km/h plan, and "show me your tits". Great...BTW, "burnt" may sound better for English-speakers, but the right translation is "Tired by the sun" - not "Burnt...". And you are really tired after watching this movie...