tomteboda This movie was one of the most hilarious satires of human foibles I've seen. Munchausen is an incredulous character, performing great feats and claiming to perform even greater ones. Time and again, something absurd rolls of his tongue and everyone (in the movie and audience alike) want to laugh at him.. yet somehow he pulls it off; until nobody believes in him. There is an excellent point made that miracles require faith, and faith is dead.Despite the great philosophical value, this movie is just downright entertaining. Witty, gregarious, and full of joie-de-vivre, the movie cannot help but uplift your spirits and leave you with a smile.

mchesn Remembering that this movie was made in Soviet Union during the times, when you could still get to prison because of a joke, you naturally start wondering if the freedom of speech actually brought us something or robbed us of a real "finesse" of expression and metaphore. This is a powerful and corageous tale of a peculiar man in hypocritical society, that will not leave anyone unmoved. Even though the acting might appear static sometimes, Jankovsky is at his best in the main role and will save a hurried Western spectator the pain of sitting through the example of typical union of theatre and cinema in Russian style, and make it watchable not only for "european and rare" movie fricks. It also has a merit of being sort of a cult movie, and a good introduction to the culture that it presents indirectly, reflecting at the same time the ever-lasting russian struggle of saying things, so as to stay balancing on the edge, that will permit you to be understood by intelligent people, and still ignored by a watchful big brother(liable to tear you apart) and the fascination and identification with European history and culture - forbidden fruit at those times still.

Yulia (yulenko) What are true values? Can you be true to your principles under any circumstances? Are there romantics in this world yet? A bit crazy and totally free people? Few of those questions you'll ask yourself, on having watched it. Or without any questions just enjoy this masterpiece of Zakharov "the Great" :)

baikal What can I say? This is one of the greatest movies of all times and a real jewel of the Russian cinema. It is such a great pity that this film has never really made it to the West and is totally unknown outside Russia.The cast is superb and the acting is absolutely fantastic. You can feel a very strong influence of the Russian theatrical tradition here. Yankovsky as Munghausen gives the best performance of his career.This movie is incredibly warm, romantic, optimistic and, of course, very very funny. Its humour is hilarious and yet very elegant and tasteful. If you don't know any Russian, just ask somebody to translate some of the jokes to you. My favorite funny scene is Mughausen's speech at the divorce hearing. "Some couples are created for love but we were created for divorce..""Tot samyi Munghausen" is an absolutely wonderful and fairy-tale romantic comedy, extremely enjoyable, something like a mix of "The Princess Bride" and "Four weddings and a funeral" only much better.And yet, the film has a serious and a profound message underneath. It will make you think about intellectual honesty, being true to yourself, the real meaning of love, friendship and laughter in our lives. Watch this movie and you are guaranteed to fall in love with it.