First of all, I'm a Cuban, my father is a Cuban, so was my Grandfather.
And I despise Castro's regime.
One thing is to hate Castro's regime and another different thing is to say this movie is good.
I believe that people who gave more than one star to this poor turkey is speaking and writing out of political passion, not from a cinematic point of view.
I'm not going to criticize the poor and incomplete portrayal of the politics and reality of this movie,s vision of Cuba (I never saw a poor black guy or a Cane plantation worker in this movie, like Cuba was Disneyworld) This movie, AS A MOVIE, sucks donkey.
The main character is implausible, stereotypical and unreal (and bad acted to boot) First of all, is simply ridiculous that a Nightclub owner was the son of a intellectual University professor. Worse, a romantic night club owner with strong family principles and a passion for Classic Ballet!!.
In this lamentable parody of a movie, Garcia is a poor, pathetic and full of clichés caricature of a Puritan Casablanca's Bogart, better suited for films like AIRPLANE or SPY HARD.
Come on!!! Like it or not, EVERYBODY knows that, despite all the flamboyancy and quality of the spectacle, Pre-Castro Cuba's was a Maffia's paradise (As it was Las Vegas), and the Nightclubs were Luxury Bordellos with strong ties with the Maffia and any kind of Thugs and lowlifes (IF NOT DIRECTLY OWNED BY THEM), where, prostitution and illegal activities of all kinds were a commonplace.
And GAMBLING WAS ABSOLUTELY LEGAL IN PRE-CASTRO CUBA (still is in most of the Caribbean islands) so there was NO reason (other than pathetic soap opera moralism) for Fico to not fulfill Lansky's wishes.
The pathetic and unreal portrayal of a humble, nice and easy going Meyer Lansky is simply ridiculous.
The real Meyer Lansky was a though MAFIA BOSS, a ruthless murderer and one of the MOST powerful figures in Maffia's History, who didn't ask for favors.
In fact, He wouldn't had paid a personal visit to a stupid Club owner.
And NOBODY would say NO to Meyer Lansky so easily.
AH!! The Writer ( poorly played by a painfully miscast Bill Murray) is one of the most unnecessary, annoying and unfunny characters in cinema history since JAR JAR BINKS.
You take out Bill Murray's parts from this crappy movie and nobody wouldn't notice the smallest change.
This character has no impact at all in the entire movie, other than spitting unfunny and out of place one liners.
The "writer" is just annoying and unnecessary filler.
The rest of the characters are totally forgettable, severely undeveloped and incredibly unsympathetic.
There is no reason, background or origin for any of the character' s actions.
For example, Luis spouse (Ines Sastre) who played a simple wife who didn't show no political background, opinion or interest, who wasn't involved in any kind of political movement AT ALL who didn't know nothing about her husband's secret political activities during the entire film suddenly, out of nothing, in a blink of an eye becomes the quintessential symbol of Castro's revolution and his most powerful advocate, just because she was the wife of an "in the closet" revolutionary.
Pathetic.
The weak stories never gets to a developed state.
Ther is no conclusive moments. All the movie looks like a perennial first chapter of a very boring soap opera To worsen things, the movie is excruciatingly long and slow.
Special mention has to be made to Eduardo's revolutionary beard, a Landmark in the annals of the cheap looking make-up art in film history, only found in B or Z movies.
It looks like a cheap Halloween "werewolf" beard from PARTY CITY.
The only OK (Not fantastic, just OK) thing about this movie is the photography.
The Music was great.
But this was a MOVIE, not a CONCERT.
EEEEECH!! The Dialog!!! What can I say? There is one scene in which the conversation looks like it was entirely made out of SLOGANS and phrases taken from a clichéd political campaign scrapbook.
I'm sorry Andy, but your labor of love SUCKS.
Maybe next time.
And I despise Castro's regime.
One thing is to hate Castro's regime and another different thing is to say this movie is good.
I believe that people who gave more than one star to this poor turkey is speaking and writing out of political passion, not from a cinematic point of view.
I'm not going to criticize the poor and incomplete portrayal of the politics and reality of this movie,s vision of Cuba (I never saw a poor black guy or a Cane plantation worker in this movie, like Cuba was Disneyworld) This movie, AS A MOVIE, sucks donkey.
The main character is implausible, stereotypical and unreal (and bad acted to boot) First of all, is simply ridiculous that a Nightclub owner was the son of a intellectual University professor. Worse, a romantic night club owner with strong family principles and a passion for Classic Ballet!!.
In this lamentable parody of a movie, Garcia is a poor, pathetic and full of clichés caricature of a Puritan Casablanca's Bogart, better suited for films like AIRPLANE or SPY HARD.
Come on!!! Like it or not, EVERYBODY knows that, despite all the flamboyancy and quality of the spectacle, Pre-Castro Cuba's was a Maffia's paradise (As it was Las Vegas), and the Nightclubs were Luxury Bordellos with strong ties with the Maffia and any kind of Thugs and lowlifes (IF NOT DIRECTLY OWNED BY THEM), where, prostitution and illegal activities of all kinds were a commonplace.
And GAMBLING WAS ABSOLUTELY LEGAL IN PRE-CASTRO CUBA (still is in most of the Caribbean islands) so there was NO reason (other than pathetic soap opera moralism) for Fico to not fulfill Lansky's wishes.
The pathetic and unreal portrayal of a humble, nice and easy going Meyer Lansky is simply ridiculous.
The real Meyer Lansky was a though MAFIA BOSS, a ruthless murderer and one of the MOST powerful figures in Maffia's History, who didn't ask for favors.
In fact, He wouldn't had paid a personal visit to a stupid Club owner.
And NOBODY would say NO to Meyer Lansky so easily.
AH!! The Writer ( poorly played by a painfully miscast Bill Murray) is one of the most unnecessary, annoying and unfunny characters in cinema history since JAR JAR BINKS.
You take out Bill Murray's parts from this crappy movie and nobody wouldn't notice the smallest change.
This character has no impact at all in the entire movie, other than spitting unfunny and out of place one liners.
The "writer" is just annoying and unnecessary filler.
The rest of the characters are totally forgettable, severely undeveloped and incredibly unsympathetic.
There is no reason, background or origin for any of the character' s actions.
For example, Luis spouse (Ines Sastre) who played a simple wife who didn't show no political background, opinion or interest, who wasn't involved in any kind of political movement AT ALL who didn't know nothing about her husband's secret political activities during the entire film suddenly, out of nothing, in a blink of an eye becomes the quintessential symbol of Castro's revolution and his most powerful advocate, just because she was the wife of an "in the closet" revolutionary.
Pathetic.
The weak stories never gets to a developed state.
Ther is no conclusive moments. All the movie looks like a perennial first chapter of a very boring soap opera To worsen things, the movie is excruciatingly long and slow.
Special mention has to be made to Eduardo's revolutionary beard, a Landmark in the annals of the cheap looking make-up art in film history, only found in B or Z movies.
It looks like a cheap Halloween "werewolf" beard from PARTY CITY.
The only OK (Not fantastic, just OK) thing about this movie is the photography.
The Music was great.
But this was a MOVIE, not a CONCERT.
EEEEECH!! The Dialog!!! What can I say? There is one scene in which the conversation looks like it was entirely made out of SLOGANS and phrases taken from a clichéd political campaign scrapbook.
I'm sorry Andy, but your labor of love SUCKS.
Maybe next time.