Zerkalnye voyny. Otrazhenie pervoe

Why did I watch this? That's easy: Rutger Hauer is in it. But I can safely say don't watch this rubbish for him, as Mr. Hauer has approximately 2 minutes of screen time, divided over two brief scenes. Of course it's not his fault that DVD distributors put his name in big letters on the cover, right next to Malcolm McDowell and Armand Assante. The rest of the cast is compiled out of a bunch of unknown Russian actors - at least in my country they are unknown - with dubbed voices and zero acting talent.

The plot tries to be some sort of international, political-flavored spy intrigue with weapon smugglers, environmental activists, some hotshot jet pilots and it all involves a top secret, hi-tech, newly developed stealth fighter jet (which looks just like any other jet plane, really). Along the way the plot also incorporates an attempted assault on Air Force One (including the president on board) in mid-air.

About 25 minutes into the movie I was still thinking "What the hell is going on here?". It doesn't really matter what this film is about. It doesn't matter the plot can't really focus on anything decently. It doesn't really matter this film is filled with cardboard characters. It's all a heap of nonsense. Boring nonsense at that too. And badly made. Abslolute low-point was an obligatory "let's fall in love" sequence with one of the pilots - who on top of that has underdeveloped issues with his father, inventor of the stealth jet - and a female environmental activist that turns out to be a spy too. Man, that sequence was so toe-curlingly bad you won't believe it. A walk in the woods, lots of laughing & fooling around. A boat-ride. Some kissing. And then back to the tent to have sex. All this on the tunes of dreadful music. I was under the impression the 80's were over. Apparently not in Russia. All the music in this film pretty much stinks to high heavens, for that matter. And this film features a lot of music.

Things blow up. People get shot. The jet gets saved and the bad guys get away. Or something. Like I cared. Complete rubbish. I still can't believe I watched the whole thing.

OK, this isn't the best movie I've ever seen regarding military aviation but it is worth watching once. There are some nice flying sections and a battle that is reasonable to watch. There is a plot and some sub plots going on which are somewhat entertaining.

If you sat through Fire Birds, just shut off the same part of your brain and you'll enjoy this, at least you don't have to deal with the Jones/Cage macho personality battle.

To me, the Sukhoi flying footage alone is worth watching a few times. Given the price you can get the DVD for, it is worth adding to a collection of military aircraft films. How much you like it will depend on what you are looking for in a film.

It's ridiculous how low is the quality of this movie. Just a Russian propaganda attempt to copy American movies. The script, acting and voiceover will make laugh, or cry. Avoid at all costs.

One of the most boring movies I've ever seen. Simply a low-budget movie with too much talking and less action. Most actors act poor, not convincing and with fake emotions. The movie is all about a 'high-tech stealth fighter' so I expected to see one. But no, they simply used a conventional Russian plane and didn't make a single change for the movie. In the movie itself they justify it by saying something like 'it's not the shape what matters, but the materials it's made off'. I'm sure they have a good reason to use as much as Russian actors cos after all, the story takes place in Russia. But I'm sorry to say, they're acting is bad, fake and not convincing.

i watched this because i wanted to see the SU-30.Its a very rare opportunity to see any real Russian fighter because in most well known aviator movies of the 80's like Top Gun and Iron Eagle,American producers couldn't get their hands on Russian aircraft using ridiculous substitutes ,usually as MIGS,planes like F-5's and even Phantoms. So if you want to see a real Russian plane its in this movie. The gimmick about it being a super special plane was not needed at all,they could have had the same story with terrorists wanting to hijack the real plane without having to make up a story about an imaginary plane. However i think the aerial scenes leave a lot to be desired.If only these Russian guys who made this movie could at least get that right. The rest of the movie suffers from the obvious fact the producers wanted to sell it to the American market.I mean if there is something more ridiculous than Russian pilots and generals speaking badly dubbed English,and American English at that,i don't know what that is.That was the most annoying thing for me.Actually some of the Russian actors didn't do a bad job but the dubbing made their performance sound like some guy reading a newspaper in his toilet. Also i didn't see the point of not hiring a couple of cheap European and American actors to play the respective parts.I mean,the lead female is obviously a Russian actress playing an American.I'm sure they could have hired a non-name American actress who would do a more believable job. All these things i think could have been avoided and with the same budget. Out of the 3 names Assante does an OK job,McDowell is good as the villain,Hauer appears very briefly.