Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Armand What is better way to present Time of Troubles ? This movie is an answer. Not the most inspiring, not the appropriate. But a sketch , very ambitious, strange and almost childish. The cause - desire to use all classical toys. Love story and heroic events, religion and magic, fight between good and evil, roots of Russian Modern history, beauty of princess and humble Prince Charming. Problem - this ingredients are very delicate. Jugglers with these are not easy. And to spread , like colors on paper, by a monkey, in a visual epic, is not the right solution. At end, crumbs of interesting images - the monk, nature, unspoken words. Guilty - picture of Saint Patriarch Hermogenes and the stupid mixture between fairy tale and one of great moments of Russians past, the hijacking of an impressive story, with huge artistic potential an transformation into a caricature of 1612 year. Unfortunately !

Michael Malak I rented "1612" from my local library. As a Pole living in the U.S. I was trilled to see a movie about any aspect of the Polish-Russian history - especially one presented from the Russian perspective. Of course - the Poles are presented as the bad guys (now I know how the Germans must feel after watching "any" Polish or Russian war movie made during the last 70 years.)The movie is almost EXCELLENT. There are little too many unicorns for my taste, and the main character of Andrei looks too soft for the role he's playing. I would have preferred if Andrei was played by someone harder, tougher. And it's not his physicality, or corrupted faulty character that make him soft, but rather his good looks. His face is just --- too pretty. He looks too much like Johny Depp in Don Juan DeMarco and he "should" look like ...I don't know - harder, tougher; like Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry :) And yes, Andrei ages about 10 years during the first 15 minutes of the movie, while the Tsarina retains her youthfulness despite passage of time.The movie is not a portrayal of historical events, but a fantasy merely set in a historical period. It entertains - it entertains like hell! and prompts one to get on-line and look up the real elements of that period.The story, the plot twists, the battle scenes - are just incredible - Hollywood could learn a lesson or two from these Russians.I'm glad I saw this movie and would recommend it to anyone willing to go for a ride on the back of a panting snorting stallion. I'm also getting on-line right now looking for more films from the director Vladimir Khotinenko.

victorboston I am a little confused by the comments blasting this movie for historical inaccuracy. For Christsakes people - the movie has a unicorn (oh and a disclaimer inserted into the last scene, stating that "no one knows all those nominated for the throne...").In any case, the movie background is more or less accurate, at least as accurate as the background for, say, Braveheart. And I don't remember too many complaints about the Mel Gibson's anachronistic kilt.That having been said, this is certainly second rate cinema, but its pretty to look at and its fairly engaging, which is an improvement for Russian entries in the "block-buster" category. So 1612 gets 3 stars for execution, 2 stars for story and 1 star for the unicorn. It also gets a firm handshake for keeping me entertained and for giving me hope of a slight upward trend in run-of-the-mill Russian film making. In the words of Arthur Hoggett, "That'll do."

kombaat The movie was terrible. There were very big holes in screenplay and direction... The most important problem was the characters. They, especially that Polish knight, were totally not consistent. You don't know what actually drives him, whether it is love, passion, greed, hate or power... the director actually didn't have any logical concept on that. The makers also didn't have a consistent idea on how to put fantasy moments into the movie. The unicorn, the oracle and others could be, without a doubt, removed causing no loss for the movie. But the stupidest moment was when the Russian defenders almost destroyed the whole Polish army with a gun made of leather during one night. That made me laugh for a few minutes. But it wasn't funny... it was pathetic. One thing I liked were parts of battle scenes. They were pretty realistic (considering the way they were filmed, not their probability). But this is not enough to make make this film worth watching.