Immiscible mixture of stories

Rating: 4/10 (31 March 2018)

This is a film that might appeal to fans of British humor or Soviet history. For others, though, it's like watching a few episodes of MASH or Hogan's Heroes mixed up with Monty Python's Flying Circus. The film never finds a focused voice, although it bounces back and forth between dry humor, absurdist dialogue, and dark hints of the murderous Soviet regime in the 1950's. It borrows elements from Monty Python, including a decent performance by Michael Palin. Jason Isaacs also plays a very believable and genuine Marshall Zhukov. The film has the sweetened version of a deathly tyranny as in Hogan's Heroes. But, it doesn't bring these elements together in a unified way. To this American viewer, the humor never reaches a very high level of achievement- not even as high as MASH. The references to the oppression of the Soviet Cold War era are dark but done in a muted way that don't convey the deathly pall of life in that era. The film masquerades as a comedy, but it doesn't fully develop as one. It lingers between weak humor and weak terror. Save yourself the price by watching a few episodes of Monty Python and a documentary about Stalin or his successors. You'll get the historical information and the entertainment much cheaper and more genuinely.