It's painful to watch. It's like a comics book without a superhero. Bad production design, poor acting, childish plot, predictability, etc.

Most of the reviewers missed the point. This is a movie about young Russians gaining a vivid appreciation of their history and their grandparents that fought for their nation's sovereignty.While the main character has an academic interest in the Great Patriotic War (WWII), the war and those that fought are only as valuable to them as the money their artifacts will earn. The elderly woman appears out of nowhere, representing Mother Russia, gives them milk, and leads them to the lake that sends them back in time. Mother Russia herself teaches them to appreciate the sacrifices of those that have gone before.Unity and Nationalism are strong themes as the 4 say more than once that they have to return to the lake together and bring Sokolov's cigarette case (the past) with them in order to move forward into the future. True to non-American movies, some good people have to die. I was just surprised it wasn't one of the 4 young men.I liked it and would recommend it to others.Background: I have watched many foreign movies and speak Spanish, English and Russian. I have been to other countries and come to understand that unless you become familiar with the histories and cultures of other nations, you will see their history incorrectly through your own cultural eyes.

What is worse than a poor movie? What makes a poor movie? A poor movie with this much time, effort, money, materials, and effects completely spent for no purpose.This time travel movie is wasted efforts with predictable, dull plots, and a multitude of cliché characters so one dimensional that we could care less about them.This movie should have been good. Most writers and directors have had concepts about entering a "portal", usually a cave, which leads to the past or future. Here, the fad idea is that water is the "portal", which adds to the clichés of the movie.Four young, self righteous, arrogant men travel back to World War II. They are impossible to care about, and you'll find yourself just glancing up and listening to the predictable lines.They meet a gorgeous girl. Of course, like all modern gay movies, the gorgeous girl has to die. We know this. Yawn. As a matter of fact, we know everything that will happen an hour before it does.Director Molyukov can be forgiven for making a poor, predictable movie, but not for the waste. There is an obviously incredible amount of money spent on making war footage and explosions. All for the arrogance of spoiled rich brats. It's unfortunate that the idle rich waste their time making this garbage, while real artists languish without funds.This movie is full of explosions and effects, to no end. It's a "vanity movie" for the people who made it, and just depressing garbage to young men who watch it. It's not "art". It's not "educational". It's not "entertaining".

I had some expectations about this movie because found it quite interesting to see about modern guys happened to appear in actions of the World War II. But I found that movie is not all about that. And I wasn't disappointed. The movie is truly very original, it contains humor, sadness, love and war altogether and some important messages. Yes, special effects there are not great, but they shouldn't be, because this film isn't about that, this is about the tragedy that war is. This is about not forgetting what the war is, never forgetting. And this message is staying in your head for a long time after the end of the film. Also I think actors did their job quite well(specifically a nurse girl, I was so charmed of her), especially taking into account that for most of them it was the first relatively big movie(for Russia of course)