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Fresh and Exciting

Expected more

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

I am not here to judge or criticize, nobody paying me for that. I am here just to say that this movie is about a real life. This movie captures in itself more than I could ever expect from a Russian movie. Its about war, its about care, its about love. Nothing is perfect in this world including this movie. The script could be better, the cast could be better, the story could be better, the actor performance could be better, BUT. One...... big...... BUT! The inner fight in a heart of the soldier between responsibilities, duties and care for girl he doesn't know ; the sacrifice of one girl facing the demon of war in name of life ; the love in the eyes of the soldier; This cannon be any better! Please watch it!

. . . to appreciate the difference between a central European modern-day war movie that is balanced and NOT designed to Demonize one side compared to AUGUST EIGHTH, where every incident EXCEPT one token gesture at the end appears coldly calculated to make one half of a conflict non-human (think the Orcs in the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, or the aliens in the ALIEN series of sci-fi flicks). AUGUST EIGHTH concerns the trouble with Ossetia, which used to be in the U.S.S.R. After reading the 28-page, single-spaced Wikipedia article on this 2008 "war," it's clear the roots can be traced back to Adam and Eve. The scenery where some of this conflict occurred is beautiful, and the CGI is more realistic and amazing then what you would get from a FAST & FURIOUS or DIE HARD feature. The endangered son Tyoma's obsession with robots, which he conflates with his dad, also comes to the screen without Hollywood overkill, but with lots of pizazz. Tyoma's heroic super mom Kseniya (played by Svetlana Ivanova, along the lines of a much younger and more athletic Julia Roberts) is one of the most memorable characters of the year, as is her main savior among the Russian troops, "reconaissance" man Lyokha. However, there's plenty enough heroes here for the Russian side without frequent cuts to a Putin-like "President" character risking America's wrath in the Kremlin war room by deciding to go "all in" and attack an area vacated by 1,000 U.S. military war game allies hours earlier. Nor is it necessary to put EVERY ONE of hundreds of anti-Russian fighters in black face masks to lessen their equal standing as human beings. As Tyoma's "Cosmoboy" would say to his robot protectors, "Aza Nisi Mazamaravati Chandrika!"

Frankly: current state of Russian cinema seems fairly low, you have to be real "patriot" to find any jokes in todays' Russian comedies or any fun in action movies (IMHO).The bigger was surprise from "August 8th" - it got my 8/10 just for being able to watch it till closing credits and don't die from boredom. Bravo! I would even suppose that this movie would be suitable for international auditory, at least it's much more entertaining than any direct-to-video Seagal/VanDamme/Lundgren "product".OK, Russian actors and script-writers still need to strive to reach any level of realism in dialogs which are are too long and non-convincing here and there, scene of "orgasm in elevator" bravely stolen from Harry & Sally (well, actually it's tribute, heroine has it on DVD), but mechanical, F/X and battle parts of the movie are almost perfect.Frankly, I cannot even recall any recent movie where realism of the field battle was close enough to August 8th. "Battle Los Angeles" is probably being closest. Director is definitely big fan of hardware, almost 50 consecutive seconds of the movie we can see how a bus is being torn in pieces, including demonstration of all it's mechanical "intestines", really rare episode of this kind. For soldiers CRAWLING (not running) in houses, less than heroic (i.e. real world) deaths on both conflicting sides - for all this my big thanks to director and his military consultants.Last but not least is that you can mark battle scenes as "based on real events" - unfortunately this sign today is often attached to movies with almost no ties to reality. Here, on the contrary, almost all battle episodes of the movie are based on actual events, including "big ambush" on one of convoys, "live shield" by tank without ammo and many others.Watching those episodes is highly recommended even if you get a copy of this movie without dubbing, consider it "Black Hawk Down" in miniature.

Of course this movie is a propaganda, but a very good one. That's how propaganda movies should be made! The movie is not about the message that is shouted in your face, but rather about how it makes you feel - at the right time, for the right reason, with the right character. I liked pretty much everything about this movie - the script, the dialogs, character development, action scenes. I've read some concerns about main girl character who's acting did not seem to be convincing early in the movie, but I think it was done on purpose, as a contrast, to show that behind urban glamour still hides Russian Woman that was praised in the world art and literature. Thus dedication of the movie to the mothers. Bottom line is: at last we see some nice action drama coming from Russia that we would not be ashamed of. Highly recommend.