Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

exelenc I never truly enjoyed adaptation of Sergey Bondarchuk. Actually, I didn't even finish it because of very annoying Natasha, with her constant overreacting and inappropriate emotions. Overacting was the issue of almost all Bondarchuk's cast, in my opinion.This version has much better cast. Though I doubted that Clemense Poesy could be a good Natasha, she definitely is. The charming, sincere, unexperienced but honest young woman. I found myself really engaged into her emotions. I understood why she did this or that things, visiting Elen before the duel, going to run away with Kuragin... Beautiful, seductive Elen is another gem of this film. She is so insidious and charismatic at the same time, that I'm sure that actress could easily play Cersei Lannister if she had to. Men are good, too. Alessio Boni is handsome and noble, and his Andrey Bolkonsky is attractive and tragic figure. Pierre is cute, that kind of man you don't notice at first and even at second glance, but eventually you fall in love with. The only problem with this W&P adaption (except of several historical mismatches) is that it is a bit superficial. However, it's a problem for all Tolstoy's movie adaptations - the directors haven't found the proper cinema language for that titan writer yet. On the good side, it looks like his books do not get old fashioned at all, so finally we'll see the perfect W&P and AK movies :)

GaelicLass I have to say that I watched this movie because of my love for Russian history and for Tolstoy. I was entertained yet, disappointed as well.This series is based on the classic epic novel by Tolstoy and is a massive undertaking for any film company and this is a pretty good adaption. It tells the love story of several young aristocrats set against Napoleon's invasion of Russia in approximately 1812. There are a few war scenes, not many, but enough to know what is going on. While filmed in St Petersburg we don't get to see much of it due to it's limited budget I imagine. The focus is on the main protagonists and their relationships.My main problem was with the casting of some of the leads. This was truly a multi European cast of actors coming from all over Europe, including Italy, Germany, Russia, Poland, with some Brits thrown in as well.First of all, Clemence Poesy as Natasha wasn't believable to me. A young lady from an aristocratic family raised in the French style would carry herself much differently. Here she seems childish, bratty, and not especially beautiful, which she isn't in the book, but still she must show something that would attract as much passion as we are suppose to believe she does here. She certainly doesn't come close to the elegance and beauty of a young Audrey Hepburn in the 50's version.The characters of Andrej and Pierre (Alessio Boni and Alexander Beyer) seem very unemotional and stiff, especially Boni who doesn't seem at all passionate. This may be due to the fact that while they spoke English in it-you could tell from reading their lips-their voices were dubbed by British people more than likely due to their heavy Italian and German accents, Bonni being Italian and Beyer German. I have seen Boni before and he is a fine actor when allowed to speak for himself.The rest of the cast is good, with some fine older character actors included; Malcolm McDowell and Brenda Blethyn are marvelous. All of the actors are well known in their respective countries and some have made American or British movies before so they are recognizable to me. I loved the Russian general, Kutuzov, played so well by Dmitri Isayev, a fine character actor.The screen play seems written with the thought that the film will be dubbed and subtitles shown in many countries (I watched the Spanish subtitled version). The sentences are kept short to allow time for the viewers to read the captions; I find this very annoying. Not all the actors are dubbed; some actor's voices were used, accents and all. I love the story of War and Peace, so I watched the entire thing anyway and suggest you do the same if it is a favorite of yours. So far, I haven't seen a version I really love so I will have to make do with what we have so far. I prefer this version to the badly cast American version of the 1950's. Only Hepburn did a fairly good job in that film, possibly because she was born into a European aristrocaratic family and knew how a young woman would act. It did have a better screen play, in my opinion.To dub or notto dub? I prefer subtitles, added after the fact. Amricans, in general, do not like dubbing which is probably the reason it was never released here in the States, but many European countries use it a lot, although I hear that is changing.

dina-salimova I didn't like this film at all! First of all,I don't know why, but everyone here says, that Clémence Poésy's play is excellent, which in my opinion is absolutely wrong! She is not like Natasha: another appearance, another character... What's worse, she is a very unexperienced actress and that's why she wasn't able to play this role! She disfigured the heroine completely! That was really disgusting to watch her play! To my mind, that would be much better to give this role to a Russian actress, because that would be much easier for her to understand the Russian soul for a Russian person. Unfortunately, Kutuzov looked like a drunk man, who hasn't shaved 2 weeks and defeated a battle in which he lost his eye...( Thank's God, in this film there're some actors, whose play was awesome! I suppose, that Alessio Boni coped with his task very well! I was pleasantly amazed! He is one of the few people who's read the book, which is very important for the play. In addition, I liked plays of our Russian actors, that was really wonderful to watch them)) The only thing I liked in this work was very beautiful views and amazing dresses! My advice is to read the book and to understand a real sense, the aim, with which Leo Tolstoy wrote this masterpiece, and maybe realize the whole idea of the book... 1 from 10

lusto777 I think that this movie is a very good.In a movie i love Clemence Poesy she is a very beautiful and clever and sensitive.She's a best actress in this great film.Her image was genius and lovely.I love this cinema.And for me it film was excellent and great.I don't understand bad words about this movie.Dornhelm made a great film.I think that film of Bondarchuk was bad because it has politic and ideology. Communists were bad directors and actors and actresses.Communists were vile very strong and they liked deathpeople they killed Russian emperor and i think that they were bad. Communists don't like this movie because they can't fallen in love they dreams are about death and evil.They are bad and not brave.