Rating: 
Summary: The day the cold war almost melted. . .
Review: "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" imagines life on a small New England vacation island one unsuspecting day in 1966 when a small Soviet submarine accidentally runs aground. The captain (Alan Arkin) just wants to gather provisions, fix the sub and head back to sea. In spite of his best efforts to stay anonymous, he gets involved with a vacationing family, the writer Walt Whitaker (Carl Reiner), his wife (Eva Marie Saint) and family. Never mind the fact that the Cold War is over. For droll humor, slapstick and plain old shtick, "The Russians Are Coming" is a fun night at the movies. I can still get a chuckle out of "Emergency! Everybody to get from street!" Hope you'll like it too.
Rating:
Summary: The day the cold war almost melted. . .
Review: "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" imagines life on a small New England vacation island one unsuspecting day in 1966 when a small Soviet submarine accidentally runs aground. The captain (Alan Arkin) just wants to gather provisions, fix the sub and head back to sea. In spite of his best efforts to stay anonymous, he gets involved with a vacationing family, the writer Walt Whitaker (Carl Reiner), his wife (Eva Marie Saint) and family. Never mind the fact that the Cold War is over. For droll humor, slapstick and plain old shtick, "The Russians Are Coming" is a fun night at the movies. I can still get a chuckle out of "Emergency! Everybody to get from street!" Hope you'll like it too.
Rating: 
Summary: Human Spirit Transcends Ideological Boundaries
Review: A Cold War "comedy" delivers lots of laughs, but also much to think about. Knowing what we know now (years after the fall of Communism), the story seems to foreshadow a brighter future for humankind. Carl Reiner's Masterpiece! A small New England island town is visited by the crew of a Russian submarine. The submarine has run adrift, and is stuck. The townspeople, through a series of misunderstandings, quickly perpetuate ever-increasing rumors about a Russian paratrouper invasion. Although the town is in a complete panic, the focus on a few characters and their interactions with the "alien enemies" reveals a more human side of the global East/West conflict. The final scenes are a heartwarming testimony to the triumph of the human spirit. A wonderful "Sunday afternoon" family film!*****
Rating:
Summary: A Zany Comedy With Some Depth To It
Review: A Russian submarine bottoms out on a reef off of a New England island and the stranded crew has to: A) survive, B) get their submarine free, and C) deal with an island full of the Americans they have been taught to fear and hate. Meanwhile, the sleepy, ordinary islanders are equally terrified of Russians, and everyone panics as they encounter one another. This could have evolved into pure zany slapstick (and there is a lot of that), but it goes beyond that as everyone gradually discovers their similarities and common humanity, and then works toward avoiding disaster. Lots of big names in comedy show up here, including Jonathon Winters, Carl Reiner, Alan Arkin, and Brian Keith. This sounds like the formula for a zany slapstick, silly movie like "The Great Race" or "Those Daring Young Men and Their Flying Machines", but they manage to do more than that. Very funny but also something to think about. A good one to have on the shelf for rainy days and empty winter evenings.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Anti-War Comedy
Review: A Russian submarine runs aground on an island near New England. The Russian skipper (Theodore Bikel) sends a landing party ashore to find a boat to tow the stranded sub. The landing party is headed by Alan Arkin. The winter residents of the island have a police department of sorts which is headed by Brian Keith and his assistant is Jonathan Winters. Paul Ford heads a small band of mostly unarmed volunteers. Carl Reiner and Eva Marie Saint are taken captive by the hapless Russians. In response to the "invasion" Ford rallies his group with slogans which remind us of the battles of Concord and Lexington and also Bunker Hill. Two old ladies ride through the village on a motorcycle doing their own imitation of Paul Revere. The movie is an anti-war comedy made after the Cuban Missile Crisis and during the period of escalation in Vietnam. It is also a time when private bomb shelters are being built by Americans. THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Actor (Alan Arkin), Adapted Screenplay and Editing. The main competition for Oscars in 1966 came from A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. Norman Jewison also directed FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: Alan Arkin is just the gbeginning. A huge cast of hilarious comics in the classic style, this movie pokes fun at the cold war like no other. A must see.
Rating:
Summary: A Cold War parable about tribal conflicts
Review: Back when the Cold War was at its most frosty, along came a comedic farce that allowed us to laugh at the distrust existing between Americans and Russians ... THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, released in 1966. The captain of a Soviet submarine cruising off New England wants a close-up view of forbidden Amerika, so he heads closer and closer inshore despite the frantic warnings from his crew about a rising sea bottom, and he soon finds himself hard aground on an off-shore island. Early the next morning, he orders a landing party ashore under the command of his long-suffering First Officer, Lt. Rozanov, played by Alan Arkin in his first big screen appearance. Their mission, to find a motorboat powerful enough to drag the sub off the shoal. After stealing a car from an isolated beach house, they head off to the island's population center, such as it is, to look for their tow. Of course, the submariners' quest must be accomplished on the sly since they don't want to be captured and imprisoned as spies. Observed by an early rising old biddy, she manages to get off an agitated report to an incredulous Chief of Police before the phone line is cut. This one warning, overheard by a gossipy switchboard operator, results in a torrent of escalating rumors and frantic running-about as the hastily armed locals become convinced that their island is the beachhead of a full scale Russian invasion of America. As the hysteria mounts, the Russians scurry from one hiding place to the next in an effort to reach the island's main boat anchorage undetected. The cast is superb. Brian Keith plays the level-headed and exasperated Chief of Police, who is fully occupied keeping the local, trigger-happy citizenry under control. Jonathan Winters is his hyperexcitable deputy. Carl Reiner is the head of the family from whom the sailors initially commandeered the car. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor (Arkin) Oscars, and won two Golden Globes: Best Film (Musical/Comedy) and Best Actor (Musical/Comedy). Arkin won the latter. The final confrontation between the Soviet vessel, its foolish captain, played by Theodore Bikel, and the aroused islanders is a lesson on brinkmanship that deserves to be studied by the world at large. It's also serves as the pièce-de-résistance ending of the funniest movie I've seen ... ever.
Rating:
Summary: Russian Paratroopers have landed at the Airport!!
Review: First I want to thank MGM for making such a excellent quality DVD. They did a superb job on transferring this movie. The color, picture, and sound quality is outstanding. It was better than watching it the first time at the theater. I am glad I bought it on DVD. That said, this is a great family movie. Those that know what it was like during the Cold War during the 50s-80s may find it even more funny. But anyone that enjoys comedys like "Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", "War Games", and any of the National Lampoon movies will love it. Most the movie was filmed in beautiful Gloucester. I recall my parents couldn't wait to go there after seeing this movie. I don't recall for sure but I believe it is in Massachusetts. Anyway the locations are great. The cast is perfect with Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, and many more. The music is a mix of Russian ballads and American medleys that truly add to what is happening on screen. I won't spoil it for you by telling you to much. A Russian Sub gets stuck on a sandbar off the East coast of America while the Captain tries to get a glimpse of the United States. This is during the Cold War when America and Russia where ready to Nuke each other if someone looked cross eyed at each other. The crew goes ashore to get a boat to free the sub and what takes place is sometimes hysterically funny when the townspeople find out. The ending has a great message and was prophetic of future relations.
Rating:
Summary: An Alan Arkin / Theodore Bikel masterpiece
Review: Forget the American characters, the story here is the Russians, led by Theodore Bikel as the Russian sub captain who just wants to get a closer look at the enemy and Alan Arkin as his long-suffering first officer. (As well as John Phillip Law as a young and innocent Russian sailor.) And yes, Arkin's wonderful line "Everybody to get from strit" has long been a family favorite. As for the nostalgia for "simpler days" of the sixties, let's remember that this film was made in 1965/66, which means it was written no later than 1964. Deep, dark, scary days. It was released only three years after the murder of President Kennedy, four after the Cuban missile crisis, a year at most after the Tonkin Gulf incident that provided the US with a convenient excuse for committing troops to Vietnam, a short ten years after the Mau Mau massacres in the Congo, another short ten years after the Russians sent tanks into Hungary, and a very short twenty years after World War II. There was nothing simple or innocent about those days. The world was tired and aching. Can anyone be blamed for making films that featured a simpler context: a small town where everyone really does know everyone else, where people take care of each other despite their differences, and where a few people from opposite sides of the cold war can work together? "The Russians Are Coming. . ." belongs to a genre of peace films that reached their zenith in the fifties and sixties, climaxing, of course, with "Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb." Others in this genre include "The Day the Earth Stood Still," a long-forgotten sci-fi film called "The 37th Day," "Fail Safe," and "The President's Analyst" which, like "The Russians Are Coming. . ." seems dated now but still wears well. If it seems quaint and innocent now, bear in mind that all times but our own seem quaint and innocent, simply because we're not involved in them. We don't have to pick up the paper every day and wonder about whether we really should behead the king or put a bomb shelter in our back yard (yes, I had friends who had them). Like beauty, quaintness and innocence are often in the eye of the beholder. But above all, the film is driven by Alan Arkin's brilliant performance as a man who understands only too well the full import of the situation in which he's trapped. His growing desperation as the situation becomes at once funnier and more dangerous is set against the insane and inane kneejerk patriotism of both the Americans and the Russians and mark him as the only sane man in the asylum. For all the film's innocent silliness, its message is much darker: how does a sane man survive in a world gone mad? By doing the best he can in his little part of it.
Rating:
Summary: The Russians are coming
Review: Great movie. Prepare to laugh your head off when you watch this one. This movie does a great job of showing you the mind set of the 1960's when we all thought that the Russians were the "enemy" and could never be trusted. And of course the Russians thought the same about us. So sit back watch and get ready to laugh.
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