Stalingrad [Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray] [2014] [Region Free]

Cheaper than blockbusters video hire.

This is a war movie that is full of action sequences and tells the story of a small piece of the Stalingrad battle. It is based on a small section of Russian soldiers who take a house/apartment block and hold on to it for a period of time against the Nazis. Intermingled into this is a young woman who has lived in this block during the battle and her interactions with the Russian soldiers and how they attempt to maintain their humanity with her presence. On the other side is a German officer who is tasked with re-taking the block and his affection? for a young Russian woman who reminds him of his dead wife. It is a little strange to hear the Russians speaking with American accents and the Germans speaking in their native tongue (with sub-titles) but this does not really detract what essentially is an action war movie with some excellent skirmish sequences.

This film is terrible. Whoever made the action scenes has played to much call of duty. Not realistic at all. Some parts of the film are good but overall I couldn't get into it. The original Stalingrad from 1993 is far superior and realistically portrays the horrors of war.

I recently read a review by Max Hastings of the new war film - Fury, with Brad Pitt. In his review, Hastings also referred to 'Stalingrad' as a film worth seeing, notable for its realism. Although he acknowledged that Stalingrad like Fury, suffered from a degree of exaggerated nationalism and perhaps unrealistic heroics, he made the point that none of this was any worse than some of the great British war movies of the past, within which much was also unrealistic or similarly exaggerated. Fair enough I suppose.However, unlike those great old war movies, Stalingrad falls woefully short of expectations as a piece of entertainment. The storyline could be described in a sentence (see other reviews) and the nationalism is almost whimsical as the main characters gaze mournfully into the camera as we are told their stories.Many of the horrors perpetrated by the Russians themselves (against Russians) are brushed under the carpet and some of the scenes are so unrealistic as to beggar belief - a Russian sniper casually watching German troops going about their business without firing a shot..!!The cinematography is good and the effects are very realistic. You 'feel' as if you are in a war-torn city.However, that city could be anywhere; there is no context to the story and some of the characters are pretty weak.Don't be tempted to watch the dubbed version with horrendous American accents and forget the 3D version as the effects are not special enough to warrant the inevitable headache..!!All in all a great disappointment for a film whose production values, cast and ambition should have resulted in something so much better.

This movie is awesome. I have searched for this movie for years until I found it on Amazon. Totally thrilled.

Am awaiting deiivery of the DVD.I watched the film on YouTube last night. in Russian without subtitles, and was very impressed. i only regret that I did not see it at the cinema when it came out. Why did I not go to see it at the 'pictures' ? Because I was influenced by the measly reviews at the time. It seems that a great many people are still playing the game of covering the history of the Soviets fight against the Nazis. Never at any time in that war did the Soviets contend with less than four fifths of the German Army. There is no way that you could squeeze the history of the Soviet Union and the Battle of Stalingrad into two hours. If you have a little background in the history this film will fill in some of the drama for you and do something to recognise the the astonishing human achievement and endurance of the fighters.

Good fast service but film disappointing

They could have at least tried to make it more historically accurate.It starts off with the disaster in Fukishima, Japan. I'm thinking I've got the wrong film. But the disaster there is used to go back to the fight in Stalingrad - though they're completely different types of 'disaster'. Then there's a voice over telling you about the Russians desperately trying to get a toehold on the Stalingrad side of the Volga river. And that did it for me! The Russians already had a 'toe-hold' - they never lost all of Stalingrad. The whole premise of the film is ahistorical.But, it's visually stunning. An elite group sneak across the river to uninstall German explosives in preparedness for the great Russian attack. They fail and the leading Russian elements are caught in a whirlwind of fire and explosives.But they come running out of the flames, fully on fire, and continue the attack on the Germans - all, as I say, visually stunning. But for me rather silly.