Russia's answer to Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, 9th Company re-creates the grimy and dirty reality of the Afghan war in impressive fashion, and even if its not terribly original its execution is laudable.

The Platoon/Full Metal Jacket comparison isn't just a throw-away comment, it really feels like they took what made those movies great, mashed them together, swapped in Russian's instead of Americans and cooked at a low heat for 30 minutes and voila! 9th Company.

But like I said it does it well so I'm not to bothered, and this has the benefit of some truly stunning scenes set in the rocky desolation of the Afghan wilds. The characters all manage to stamp their own unique print on the film, when one of them dies you will notice and this film doesn't scrimp on the body count.

Pretty much all the major characters are dead by the end, and the final battle is brutally raw and cruel. That said if you loath shaky cam (I'm looking at your Snrub!) then alot of the action sequences will piss you off because there is plenty of shaky to be found. The final battle is steady as a rock though.

The effects tend to be a tad uneven (a scene involving a plane crash looks very shoddy) but they do well overall with the sub $10M budget.

As honest a film as you'll find, its nice to see other countries can pull off their own Vietnam movie with style.

A-

B+


Well, I have seen it a while ago, in Russian original (being trilingual comes quite handy at times). I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't say it comes close to its counterparts like Platoon. It is however, on a similar level as Full Metal Jacket and is very comparable to it too, especially the first half of the film or so. Now it is very servicable as a gritty war flick, but it's certainly no history lesson as the facts about that one battle at the end of the film were greatly bloated and messed with in the film. In fact, only a few Soviet soldiers died then and it wasn't such a rampage either. But I admit, it did look good on the screen. I thought many parts of the movie were quite shallow, but I just took it for what it is. The acting is good, but I didn't find any character to be particulary memorable or sticking out of the rest. What I did like was the film's look that can certainly take on American blockbusters.

I would recommend it to all fans of war flicks, just don't expect too much depth.

Did that Plane crash look shoddy to you Lecter? Almost detracted from the meaning of the scene for me.

I read up on the battle after, ur right Doc it wasn't as bloody but I think this movie was a good metaphor for the waste of the Afghan war.

Yeah, looked fairly crappy.

I think the film serves its purpose well, but I think the characters were a missed opportunity...