frantz21 the whole premise had huge potential1) road trip from Moscow to Archangel 2) Lost son of Stalin 3) communist party apparatchiks scheming for the return of Communism 4) ex Stalin Body guards 5) Russian libraries and archives 6) forest chase 7) gunfight with spetnatz in Archangel flaws 1) to rushed 2) more to be made of all the elements 3) assassination at 30 metres( no intervention) 4) spettnaz were out gunned Unlikely 5) the black academics role in Moscow 6) the gunfight outside archangel 7) the journalists outwitting everyone

sol ***SPOILERS*** Interesting movie about an Amercan collage professor Fluke-named because he was a late born child-Kelso-named after 1960's 5 time horse of the year-played by Daniel Craig who uncovers a secret plan to return Russia into the hell that it was when Sovet dictator Josef Stalin, Avtandia Makhardze, ruled it with an iron hand.It's when Kelso runs into Papu Rapave, Valery Chernyak, at a Moscow restaurant that he finds out that Stalin though dead for over 50 years is now about to make his big move and take over the just freed from communism Mother Russia! How Stalin is going to pull this off is in a secret plan hatched by him and his top henchman NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria, Yervant Arzumanvan, dreamed up back in the early 1950's just before Stalin passed away under very suspicious circumstances! It was a then Red Army solider Pvt. Rapava who was part of Stalin's security detail who got wind of it that it him being sent to the Soviet Gulag for over 15 years!Knowing that he hasn't got long in this world Rapava want's Prof. Kelso to let the world know the truth about Stalin's long planned second coming before he actually makes it and ends up, with WMD, not only destroying Russia but the entire world! It's when Kelso hooks up with Rapava's hooker 27 years old estranged daughter Zinaida, Ekaterina Rednikova, that things start to crystallize in her father's, who was later murdered by pro-Stalin fanatics, hidden secret papers and diary in how this sinister and yes evil plan is supposed to be carried out! In the out of the way Russian town of Archangle where it's namesake Lucifer was spawned some 50 years ago and is now ready to reveal himself to the world! With Prof. Kelso being the person designated by him to do the revealing!***SPOILERS*** A bit too long, 133 minutes, and over-plotted "Archangle" stills holds one's interest in the films very unique and somewhat over the top storyline. The films surprise ending, which last for the entire last 30 minutes of the movie, does in fact shake you up but gets a bit overdone by being stretched out for so long. There's also pretty Zinaida Rapava who after wanting to have nothing to do with prof. Kelso and his mission to expose Stalin's plans for the future ends up in fact being the person who puts an end to them by realizing ,if she didn't already, what a murderous psycho he was and what he's, if his gang of maniacal man-men take over Russia, capable of doing when he takes power!

dbborroughs Daniel Craig stars as a history professor specializing in the fall of communism in the former Soviet Union. A (not so) chance encounter on the street sets him off and running on the trail of a long buried secret concerning the death and legacy of Josef Stalin. Its a secret that many would kill for so Craig quickly finds himself in the middle of a hornets nest of well armed men.This was a multi-part TV movie based on a novel by Robert Harris which was trimmed slightly for DVD. As it stands now this is a good but still long winded telling of an okay mystery story. The problem for me was that once the secret is revealed (around the half way point) the film kind of has no where to go. Granted where it does go is logical but its neither as earth shaking nor as unexpected as one really needs with the build up it gets. Don't get me wrong as espionage thrillers go this is actually pretty good, especially in the first half, but in the end the story doesn't add up to very much.Worth a look on a rainy Sunday, but not worth searching out

livinginitaly7 While this film had an interesting plot and I always enjoy other locations it was missing something. The out door scenes, and there were lots of them, were great. However while the premise of the story was interesting, it was also too clichéd. And while Daniel Craig, looking gaunt, thin & very much the bookish professor was alright as the professor, it seemed just like an acting gig he took to go to Russia. I could be completely wrong, but it lacked...his very direct focus that he does so well. He is such a superb actor that he seemed to just be doing minimal work in this picture. As for the female lead, she was tough, depressed & there was absolutely no romance or chemistry. Yes, it was Russia and it was a hard story & the Russian characters had hard lives from the domino affect of Stalin, but there was absolutely no levity to transition from one scene to the next. Mel Gibson was supposedly going to do this film. Ithink if there had been a better budget and Mr. Craig had consumed some food that maybe the picture would have been better. The movie was alright, but not great & could have been much more I am sorry to say.