MovieChat Forums > 12 (2007) Discussion > 2 1/2 Hours of Torture

2 1/2 Hours of Torture


This movie was garbage from beginning to end. I knew from the pathos-ridden intro with the bike wheel going around and the jurors' voices, the slow-mo war flashbacks and the overwrought titling, that this would be a bloated piece of craptastic junk. Yet, I sat through it .... and it only got worse .... and worse. It's a amazing that someone can string together so many cliches, poor writing/adaptation, trite & unbelievable characterization and get away with something that people call high art. Throw in some swooping camera work, cgi effects and trick editing and you get a wannabe hollywood showpiece.

This was so bad it wasn't even funny. I mean seriously, every time a juror started with another divergent story I wanted to cry. Cry with pity for all the people that forked out money to see this thing. Do yourself a favor if you haven't seen it, but really feel like you have to. Pirate it.

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Pretty much true.

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'I didn't get it' => 'this movie was garbage'. It's a loser's mentality. You shouldn't visit classic music concerts if you like hard rock. The same is with the movies. You should watch cliche-free great writing and believable characterization masterpieces like 'You Don't Mess with the Zohan' or 'The Love Guru', if foreign-language high art is not your cup of tea.

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Just a troll. No one with any sense would say things like that unless on purpose.

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Absolutely true!

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This film is in RUSSIAN and is very much RUSSIAN in the way that it works. Please don't criticise a culture that you obviously don't understand. The characters were stereotypes maybe but they say a lot about RUSSIAN culture and RUSSIAN attitudes.

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I must admit there were moments where I couldn't exactly believe in the goodness of Mikhalkov's characters, but the ending, was just cynical enough to work. You should also know that Mikhalkov is a modern day slavophile - he loves Russia and the Russian soul with a passion. However, I also believe that an American or a person of any nationality that has not been through war in their lifetime, will always have a difficult time not laughing at this sort of passion/torture = extreme characterization. What particularly struck a note with me in 12, was that there are always people who laugh at horror (in this case, lifelike horror). I actually saw this happen when a refugee from the former USSR gave a speech upon arriving in America - the audience laughed at the most inappropriate, heart braking places of his speech because they thought he was kidding.

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I totally agree with you. I started to watch this film with great expectations, you know, reviews, Mikhalkov, and Oscar nomination. But it was a total failure. Irrelevant and unnecessary (also long) story of boy's childhood and wartime. Director tried to make special flashbacks and effects, but they were very subtle and useless. The beginning (before they started to discuss the matter)of the movie was way too long.
Also most of the jurors told their stupid stories, they were again excess, and diverted the focus of the movie. Honestly I got very bored, there were just too many stories...
The sparrow, poorly designed, and also useless. It was like a child movie where director wants to give a message, each time zooming on it, Mikhalkov come on, it was poor trial of symbolism.
I know Russian culture and Russian directors very well. I got many messages Mikhalkov wanted to give, but they were poorly transmitted. And they (social messages) were overemphasized.
Comparing to 12 Angry Men, it is just failed remake. I can give this movie max 6 or 7/10.
I didn't expect such a weak movie from Mikhalkov. Zvyagintsev is much better as a director.

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If your native language is not Russian and you haven't lived in Russian culture to at least late teenage years, this movie will do nothing for you. It might very well be a garbage to you. This movie is for people who are truly Russian inside (like someone already said the director of the movie is a slavophile) with complete understanding of Russian humor and culture and lannguage.

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That's not true. One could also have an interest in, or fondness for, the "Slavic soul", as I do.

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That's not true. One could also have an interest in, or fondness for, the "Slavic soul", as I do.

truth! Each story that was told by one of the jurors was an insight to Russian social issues. Too boil down such issues of one of the largest nations on the planet into only a few characters will make naturally make the movie over the top in some cases.
It was more like reading a book than watching a movie but I still loved it.

"Day man! Ah-ah-ahhhhh! Fighter of the Night Man! Ah-ah-ahhhhh!"

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One of the jurors said something about Russians and law not mixing and Russians needing the personal touch. I'm American so I don't quite know what that means. It's interesting since Russia has been a dictatorship for much of its history, if it isn't still. At least that's the American P.O.V., but now it's become clear to me that the U.S. isn't much of a democracy as it thinks it is. We must look like psychos to the rest of the world.

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I'm not Russian, nor do I know anything more than anyone else about Russian humour, culture, or language, but I found this to be an excellent film.

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