This two-part film mixed a little bit of everything, but in short, it can be described as "a crime tragicomedy with farce elements." A former promising engineer-inventor changes his shoes into an enterprising co-operator at a vegetable warehouse somewhere in St. Petersburg. In general, he combines "white" commercial activities with large-scale scams, without particularly choosing who and how much he and his accomplices will "heat up" this time. Anyone will do, be it former major party leaders or seemingly random visitors from somewhere in the Caucasus.
In turn, the people in the enterprising gang are no match for their organizer and, apparently, were recruited not on the basis of any principles, but purely spontaneously, in the nearest gateway, which, by the looks of it, is far from stupid for the "combinator", will turn out to be bad. In this context, upon closer examination, most of the characters, ranging from the local police to the longed-for passion of the main character, and their actions are often not distinguished by special intelligence or logic, which quite regularly generally comes into dissonance.
Various elements of the era flash in the background and by chance - the resale of Western and Japanese equipment, a dissatisfied woman who was hung up at a kiosk and promises to complain to Sobchak, "Tom and Jerry" on the TV screen, etc.
At one time, the film probably could have been remarkable in its own way, but it most likely has not stood the test of time, and the narrative, running time of two hours and forty-two minutes, feels drawn out. The same previously released "Thieves in Law" (1988) feels much closer to actual realities. Yes, for the sound of the constantly beeping distance sensor, for a good few minutes of the film, minus a point.
