5 Days of War
User Score
2.0 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 20 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 20
  3. Negative: 13 out of 20

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  1. Shadeborn
    Oct 12, 2012
    0
    Only truth of all the movie is "War has happened". How was it? Lies! Lies! And lies upon lies! Russia started? Sure thing! Russia also attacked Hitler) Why not). By the way, Russia killed Kennedy, Lincoln and Lennon). And 300 Spartans were slaughtered by Russians! And McDonalds - invention of Russians! To make all americans fat...and slaughter them all after that! All of my words are completely truth! As everything, that was said in "5 Days of War"… Collapse
  2. Spetsnaz_Reaper
    Apr 21, 2012
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. "The first casualty of war is truth." Apparently so. It seems ironic that a movie with this as its opening statement would be so biased. Both Russia and Georgia committed war crimes on each other's citizens, make no mistake there. However if you, as the viewer really want to know the 'truth' please do yourself a favour and don't watch this one sided 'war' movie. It was declared by a European commission after the 2008 war that it was Georgia who started the war and there is actual REAL footage of Georgians firing on unarmed civilians using grad artillery launchers on the night of the 7th-8th of August. Apparently the producers decided that the Russian Federation is such a great Hollywood villain that Russia is portrayed as the old Cold War enemy (soviets) much like they were in the movie Charley Wilsons war. The Russians go about killing innocent civilians throughout the movie. Anyways, portraying the army of the Russian Federation as a bunch of rebels with their unsanctioned uniforms of balaclavas and Ak-47s really didn't do it for me. Never did you see the Russians in their standard issue military kit but rather looking like a bunch of rebel separatists, with the occasional officer in their full uniform of a Russian Federation officer. As I stated in the beginning there is so much wrong in this movie, almost all of the action scenes are not authentic of how the Russian Federations military doctrine works. Do a bit of research after this movie and ask yourself the question: "Why was this movie shown solely out of a Georgian perspective, and why was there no real video footage shown that the reporters supposedly caught on film about Russian atrocities?" Also the ending real life scene of the Georgian villagers (citizens) who lost loved one, is still showing the biased view of the war. The producers should also have shown the South Ossetia citizens who lost their loved ones to Georgian solders who murdered them. The true casualty of this movie is that you can't tell the world a one sided story about a war and label it as the truth. Rather tell the 'true' story from both the perspective of the Russians and the Georgians. The truth is out there people, think for yourselves and don't act like sheep. Hollywood is not reality but rather fiction, this '5 day war' movie being the latter.… Expand
  3. sirky004
    Feb 2, 2012
    1
    The most biased film ever produced. Inspired by real events? I don't think so. This movie is very misleading from the real truth. If you want facts just visit wikipedia rather than this film.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
31 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 14 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 14
  3. Negative: 7 out of 14
  1. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    Sep 8, 2011
    20
    Most unforgivable, however, is the film's coda in which real Georgian victims pose for the camera with pictures of their loved ones lost in the five days of war. Using real people to impart the emotions that the entire film was unable to evince is simply cheap exploitation.
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  2. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Ben Sachs
    Sep 1, 2011
    40
    It almost goes without saying that Harlin is the wrong man to direct a docudrama about the Russia-Georgian conflict of 2008, which displaced tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of others dead. Lacking political insight or sympathy for real people (as opposed to action-movie types), Harlin can offer little more than tasteless spectacle.
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  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Aug 31, 2011
    38
    None of the action is coherent; shots and shells are fired, people and killed or not, explosions rend the air, SUVs spin aloft (the same one more than once, I think), and there is no sense of strategy.
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