Boris Akunin Fans, Is this worth watching?

TOTALLY!

Akunin himself was the author of the screenplay -- so you know that, although the novel was adapted for the film, the important characters and their traits, as well as developments, will be kept safely.

Moreover, i watched about 3 specials on the movie and the circumstances with which it's dealing (again, thank god for sattelite TV. channel 1 co-produced the movie, and thus came out with "teasers" for three weeks straight) -- and i was able to see enough of the making, the behind the scenes, the explanations and interviews with the actors to make me want to buy this movie.

i hope this starts a tradition for the future Akunin-based films, for the actors were found superbly.
for more info, go to www.gambitfilm.ru: snazzy website, and cool d.loads, too.

You can watch it once, not more. Although Akunin wrote the screenplay, the film still turned out shallow and dull. They tried to make an action film, concentrating more on special effects and computer graphics, rather than dialogues and acting.
On the ther other hand I can recommend you "Statskii Sovetnik" which is truly a masterpiece. I watched it today and was really impressed.

absolutely, beats all US works of 2005, so far.

***Possible Spoilers***

I wouldn't recommend anyone watching it, let alone real Akunin fans.
I've a day of work, just because I've started reading the book at night, and couldn't put it aside, so i stayed up all night reading it, and could only put it away when I was done. The movie, on the other hand, was boring.

Another note: here I am watching the movie, thinking, oh my God, they're making it so obvious, reading the book I couldn't figure out who Anvar was until the very end, the movie was making him WAY TOO OBVIOUS..... (For example, when Varvara shot the guy on the horse, the Turkish colonel was telling his people to stop shooting, or they might hit Anvar ).
Well, the real surprise came at the end of the movie - Anvar in the movie was not the same person as Anvar in the book.
And, IMHO, ********* (in the book) made much more sense as Anvar, than ********* (in the movie)

you should be sure that you won't be disapointed. it is one of the best russian movies.the actors played excellent and you can even feel the atmosphere. i saw it 3 times and i can see it for 100 times again.