Funny to read this… I’m Russian and a have Russian movies that I don’t like. I have American movies that I hate etc. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t like all movies of one country. You don’t like this comedy. Ok, no problems, it’s your opinion. But don’t say that someone gives 10 because it’s Russian or American or Turkish… This movie knows everyone in Russia, everyone quotes from this movie. We have a new site like imdb where everyone can rate books and movies from 1 to 10. For the moment 41948 persons in this site voted for “Ivan Vasilevich” and it has 8,5 (in imdb voted only 3213 persons). And many American movies have high rate too. Because we like them and not because it’s Russian or American.

wrote:MaxS said:
Russian, Turkish and Indian really do seem to love their (bad) film industries.

While I'm not a fan of either Turkish or Indian film industries I find it very odd that Russian one (that has produced directors and films of the highest caliber) is being put into the same category based on a few comedies that are popular in Russia or the former Eastern block. This particular film was huge and is still loved and enjoyed by many people. This does not mean it's great (I don't even like it), but to say the entire Russian film industry is bad is just ridiculous. There are some amazing Russian films out there. Similarly I would hardly call the whole Indian or Turkish film industries as bad even if I dislike most films from these particular countries.

I enjoyed this movie. But you have to appreciate it for what it is: a cheesy Soviet comedy from the early 70s. If you don't like cheese, don't watch.