El fantasma Rojo

An amazing war caper from Russia! The Russians are very decent at war movies, and this is one of the best they've made in the last two years or so. It's a very unconventional take on war, but the style and the way the Russians present it really worked for me. The film focuses on a handful of Soviet soldiers running away from the Germans and trying to find their own soldiers, they are staying at a farmhouse and by an unfortunate coincidence a German unit arrives there and of course everything escalates. The Russians play into the hands of the fact that there is a heroic soldier called Red Ghost, the Germans' biggest terror, who is there hunting them down one by one and almost magically disappearing without a trace. The film has a decent atmosphere, fine visuals and an action set-piece that lasts almost 40 minutes. It's presented in a Western style and there's no shortage of decent gore, as well as some great music, and there are some comically brutal scenes, which here fit like a glove. I must also give a shout out to the character of the Red Ghost, he was a kick-ass dude. The only minus for me is the dubbing heard during the German passages, but you to survive it, there is no other version and probably won't be. Story 4/5, Action 4/5, Humour 3/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 3/5. 8/10. (11.01.2022)

The Russian filmmakers pleasantly surprised me again. This war movie was nothing like what I had expected. Sure, there were plenty of heroic moments, the SS Hauptsturmführer was appropriately demonic, and it was as freezing as it gets in Russia. However, instead of determined frontline soldiers, there was a handful of lost souls fighting for mere survival after getting out of the German cauldron in Vyazma. So, the movie wasn't a grandiose frontline spectacle but rather another great Eastern. I've seen a few of them, but this one was the best one so far. Besides the story, I would also like to highlight the music. Although I’m pretty sure I have seen something similar before, I’m far from disappointed. 4*+ (17.01.2022)