SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

hrkepler Renny Harlin used to be the sort of director who managed to turn sub-bar screenplays into entertaining and quite thrilling films. '5 Days of War' is not one of them. I don't care much about how much propaganda one movie contains (Sergei Eisenstein? Anyone?) as the real truth usally lies beneath somewhere. My biggest probleem with that movie was that it lacked any sort of direction. The scenes were badly bound together, the story was all over the place. THe characters lacked any depth, and the actors mostly just walked through the scenes (especially Val Kilmer who is usually very capable actor). Saw that film first time when it was released, second time was couple of weeks ago, and I couldn't even finish it. So, my question is - did they even try? I mean this conflict surely deserves much better depiction on the screen than it got from '5 Days of War'.

Robert J. Maxwell Georgia claimed independence in 1991. Not the Georgia with Atlanta but the one in which Josef Stalin was born, the one that declared its independence from the remnants of the USSR, the one that has since yielded about one quarter of its territory to Russia. We don't hear much about it because it's so far away and has no oil. We hear about Kim Kardashian's booty. However Georgia really WAS invaded by Russia. The Georgian Army was outgunned and outmanned, and none of us knew exactly how to handle it.This movie was shot in current day Georgia and follows several newsmen through their initial exploration, their capture, their final yielding to overwhelming force, and their release by a philosophical mercenary leader, Rade Serbedzija, who gives one of the best performances in the film. Richard Coyle is also credible, a sidekick and photographer who accompanies the central figure, Rupert Friend, through all sorts of dangerous trials. Their chief adversary is a tall, sullen, murderous mercenary, tattooed all over with skulls and such, who could have been plucked from the streets of L.A.The plot is a little confusing and so is the editing, so at times it's a little difficult to figure out which side the people are on, the people we see being blown into the air by explosions or flung backwards while spurting blood from center mass. Too many deaths are in slow motion, a hoary cliché by now. Still, it's an important story, never really covered in Western media. And I hate to say this -- I rarely do -- but with some exceptions the performances are sub par. Even the hero, Rupert Friend, is not entirely convincing, and his girl friend should find other work. The US representative who tells the Georgian President, played by Andy Garcia, that the US is uninterested, should be in TV commercials.The combination of confused plot and poor acting can't quite overcome the exciting and well-executed visual f/x. Too bad, really.

Mykhailo Sazhniev So why did I like the movie? Because in 2008 I, as most of the world, was more concerned with my little deeds, than understanding war at neighbour country. Russian Federation is very skillful at lie, and it can distract not only from the truth, but from the tragedy in general. But later I studied what happened and was shocked. And then they attacked Ukraine with same methods. They ruined lives of millions of people and pretend they are not involved. Very similar to Georgian war. And only now I watch the '5 Days of War'. Movie '5 Days of War' is a must-see. It's not just carefully picking sceneries of country and horrors of war. It shows in a brief way real documentary facts everyone should know. Movie made me shiver from despair, fear, sadness, horrific tragedy. And it's not just movie, reality is around us - just read some comments. And guess who left them. But before watch the movie and read some books about what happened (Marcel H. Van Herpen's would be good to start with).Truth is the worst Russian's enemy. And always was. Movie is a great asset for those who want to know history a bit better but lacks of time and effort to reveal the truth. In that perspective '5 Days of War' is almost documentary. Not fictional as all Russian propaganda's movies are('Avgust. Vosmogo' for example). The main thing - Mikko Alanne and Renny Harlin briefly describes for viewers those 5 terrible weeks - ordinary Georgian had to live through. All who studied thoroughly history of Russian-Georgian war would find movie to be not just good, but absolutely needed as even now Russian Federation continues to do everything possible to hide what they did to Georgia in 2008. And world still does not studied events good to oppose Russian aggression. People still doesn't know enough to understand such movie is a MUST for everyone who ever learn something about Russians and their methods.Russian federations breed honor and does it not by mistake, but deliberately. They create criminals on purpose – to do the dirty things with other's hands. As always they use all methods, including (and especially) terrorism, to reach their goals. Also I have seen some commentaries here. You know - they hate, people who wrote them, they hate everything that brings light on the events, everything that tells what Russian did exactly. Only one "true-story" is allowed - Russian lies. I am not exaggerating. The have never opened KGD archives, they continues to terrorize, kill and lie. They are very good at lies. Don't be distracted with low evaluation - movie worth it, to understand what was happened and what is going on now. Movie is tough. It's only one little piece of horror that was brought from the north to the Georgia. Good camera work, realistic big-scale effects and just very beautiful sceneries, people and culture of Georgia! It is worth seeing and such lessons must be learned so not to let repeat it in greater scale.

vintagevalor-2 Having read some of the previous reviews blasting this picture as "Un-Authentic" and therefore a terrible picture, I have to say that the naysayers are wrong from my point of view. I know of NO WAR FILM that is factual in every detail. Some label this as propaganda....so what? Most of the War Films coming out of the US during WWII were propaganda. ALL Germans were Nazis and ALL Japanese were bloodthirsty little savages. I found this picture to be a rather good action film, very authentic from the "War" point of view. Having spent 10 years in the TV News Biz as a field cameraman, I was in agreement with all their actions as reporters. I thought the plot was very plausible, though some what predictable, but again, so what? I was entertained and unlike some of the reviewers I was moved in places by the actions of the characters. And to lambaste actors for "Overacting" in a war film is like saying down hill skiers go to fast. I was a good picture and overall I liked it!