BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Ross Hall There are two films wrapped up in this one. The first could have been a powerful character study of the realities of the Soviet advance through Germany. It could have shown how the excitement of nationalism gave way to the harsh reality of war with friends lost and lives destroyed.The second, a sub-standard cold war spy thriller, could've been left as a thirty minute radio play judging from the poor voice-over narration that was going on.The acting from the segments set in the 1960s is poor at best and littered with third-rate clichés around torture, disaffected communists and secret codes. To make matters worse an interracial love story is thrown in and handled with all the style of a wet lettuce.In the 1940s segments there's some reasonable acting going which suffers from not enough time to develop the characters and rather bland lighting and filming. There isn't a sense of grittiness or realism to help build the story.Overall a wasted opportunity.

candyapplegrey Perhaps I should have been warned by the banner across the top of the box 'THE PAST IS A PLACE YOU CANNOT ESCAPE' (so profound - not) and the fact that the only praise longer than one word they have is from something called Boys Toys, who proclaim 'SEARING WARTIME SET-PIECES'. The latter at least is true.Here's an edited synopsis: 'In the last days of World War II, a teenager is forced into battle against the advancing Red Army ... he is captured by the Russians and disappears behind the Iron Curtain ... 17 years later, he is recruited ... and sent on a mission by the KGB to London'.Bought this because Tom Schilling was in it but have to agree with the other reviewers - his bits are excellent, the German back story is the only watchable part, mostly because of his natural, effortless, sympathetic performance and far more credible and moving than the 60s spy episodes. They should have expanded this to movie length and completely cut the 60s section.This film was written and directed by Reg Traviss. There's a reason this guy's not a household name and this movie could be it. First, he's cast Ed Stoppard (no relation to Tom or Miriam - oh wait, yes, he's their son; nothing like getting a part on merit, and this is nothing like it). His lines are delivered in an affectless tone, reminiscent of Keira Knightley at the wooden beginning of her career, with one of those irritating schizophrenic accents British people adopt to please Americans, often heard in US teen drama, such as Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill; for the first half of a sentence, they sound as if they're in Downton, for the second half, they sound like they're in EastEnders, i.e. posh then common. No one in England really talks like this. And whereas everything Tom Schilling does is finely nuanced; Ed Stoppard's a blunt instrument and he doesn't have the charisma to carry a weak storyline. It's not entirely his fault as he doesn't have much to work with.Then, if he started as German, then went to live in Russia, why doesn't he speak English with a foreign accent? It has to be pointed out that Tom Schilling is way more convincing in a second language than Ed is in his first. It would have made more sense (since Schilling was playing 10 years younger than his actual age), to age him a mere 7 years and allow him to play the older version too. At least there would have been a consistency as far as accents are concerned.The story and script are dire. The 60s spy plot is stultifying (consisting of Ed waiting on a succession of benches to rendezvous with other spies), though they try to spice it up by adding Michelle Gayle (not really known for her acting and this isn't going to help) as a supremely uninteresting love interest. They both like art so they fall in love. It's as bland and as undeveloped as that but no doubt Reg thought it represented a real meeting of minds.There's a very irritating cameo from Bernard Hill as a disaffected Communist who spouts tripe like: 'Are we the leaders? Or are we the led? Or are we neither?' which must pass for deep in Reg Traviss's world and Ed's too as he responds 'It's a lot to think about'. No, it ain't. Who cares? Worse than all this though is the voice-over, which is another attempt to be deep, with Ed delivering such pearls of wisdom as 'strength through experience to again become strong'. Hmm. This doesn't mean anything. Or 'the unstoppable force of nature swept through my heart'. Neither does this. But Reg is fond of 'unstoppable force'; it crops up more than once.Don't go thinking this has anything much to do with either the Joy Division of the Nazis or the band of the late 70s. If only.My final verdict is that there's just about enough Tom Schilling to warrant any fan of his watching this movie.

MrOllie I just happened to notice that this film was about to start on "Movies4Men" TV Channel, so I decided to give it a try. I am glad that I did. I really enjoyed this movie about a young German who arrives in London in 1962 as a Russian spy. The film shows in various flashbacks how this young man had ended up in the situation he is now in. The battle scenes of Russian soldiers fighting in the rubble of Berlin against the remnants of German resistance is well handled and the brutality by some of these soldiers against one young girl in particular, is realistic. As an espionage fan I also liked the spy element as well, with some good background 1960's Shadows music. It is well worth seeing should you get the chance to do so.

Claudio Carvalho In 1944, the fourteen years old teenager Thomas (Tom Schilling) is convoked to fight in the German Army. He survives, but his town is destroyed, his family dies in a bombing and his sweetheart Melanie (Bernadette Heerwagen) is raped and murdered by the Russian Army. A Commissar brings the orphan Thomas to Soviet Union, and he is sent to the military school. Years later, Thomas (Ed Stoppard) becomes an agent of KGB and in 1962, during the Cold War, he is assigned to work in London. Living with ghosts from the past in constant fear and paranoia, he meets the black Londoner Yvonne (Michelle Gayle), who gives him the strength of joy."Joy Division" is a movie with an engaging and very cruel drama of war, and a confused spy story in times of Cold War. If the story was limited to the impressive situation of the survivors of the Russian invasion, it would be excellent. But the part of espionage never works and is a complete mess. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Regras da Guerra" ("Rules of the War")