windymilla

Like one of the previous reviewers, I was lucky enough to catch this gem of a film on a coach trip to Prague when I was living in the Czech Republic. It was the first Czech film I saw, and is still my favourite. Of course anyone who didn't grow up under communism will miss a lot of the humour and references, but generally speaking it has a wide-ranging appeal, and the convoluted situations are really funny at times, especially the incidents with his neighbour. The music is good too - mostly man-and-a-guitar type songs. I wish it were possible to find this in Britain, but foreign language films are a tiny market here, especially obscure communist-era East European films... Overall though, this is thoroughly recommended and if you're ever in Czech on a yellow Student Agency coach make sure they show this!

I really enjoyed this film - it works well as a piece of entertainment and something with a bit more bight. Like a lot of dystopia-future type films, it says a lot about the present, particularly the tabloid hysteria over immigration (interestingly there's quite a few Polish people in this film, something of a bugbear for the gutter press at the moment)and the footage we see everyday of Iraq. I think this film would sit nicely alongside Brazil, Dark City, or even Three Kings. Technically it's superb - it looks brilliant, and was nicely sombre and gritty, which worked fantastically with the special effects. The battle scenes were truly breathtaking, as were the sudden, almost off-hand explosions. It ends nicely as well, avoiding the temptation to 'over-tell' the story beyond its natural ending as far too many films have done recently. The actors all give good performances here, especially Clive Owen who makes a natural hero without resorting to absurd posturing, and Michael Caine is brilliant as ever, at once familiar yet completely different, even making 'pull my finger' fit into this movie somehow! All in all, this is really a film worth seeing. I just hope we can look back in 20 years and laugh at how wrong this prediction was...