Irakli28

This is a wonderful educational film for kids, I mean the youth between 12-18, to inform them about the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust, but for adult Viewer who knows a lot about the Fascism and Concentration Camps this film will seem too straightforward and even tasteless. It is not enough to use a serious theme and a black and white film to make a good picture. And I definitely do not understand the viewers who behave as if they haven't seen any of anti-fascist films of much higher quality.

It is true -Mr. Spielberg is a great Master, Master of Manipulation and a great specialist of Exploitation Cinema. This is what exactly he does here - he exploits the Important and Painful topic of Holocaust (or it can be slavery, terrorism, etc) being perfectly aware that many would praise the film not for its artistic merits but for the STORY and the MESSAGE, and if one dares to say that the film is lousy - he/she will be immediately accused of being a revisionist, indifferent to peoples suffering, holocaust denier and almost Neo-Nazi.

Let me put this straight - I am none of these and still I think that Spielberg film is not good. It is not good as a piece of art but it might be good as an awareness raising reel - for those who had no or very little idea about Nazism and holocaust, but for those of us who don't need a gaudy movie from a Hollywood hack to know basics of history - there is nothing of interest here - I can name two or three dozens of feature films of documentaries that dealt with Holocaust much better, I suspect many of admirers of this film simply have not seen any of those.

Uneven script and even worse direction is camouflaged with the important messages and arty shell of BW photography. What comes tomy mind is another film about Nazism - somewhere in mid 70-ies Art-Porn maker Tinto Brass (of Caligula fame) took Nazim as a background for his film Salon Kitty. He invited famous art house stars Tulin and Berger who had previously acted in very highly regarded anti-fascist film of great Lucino Visconti and made own film about fascism. The result? Despite the sets, the stars, the important issues - the film still ended up being Art-Porn - as this was the only thing Mr. Brass could do. The same is problem with Spielberg - he might be really willing to make an important picture but still ended up with what he is best at making – exploitation movie.

As to the rain of Oscars – well, didn't "Around the world in 80 days" once get an Oscar?

Very disappointing.

Nobody expects film based on Sidney Sheldon's book to be come art-house masterpiece but at least it could be made into enjoyable crime movie like Death on Nile. Well it was not. Despite the rather famous director (Young is not Fellini of course but most his previous films were enjoyable eye-feasts; would that be a spy adventure (2 Bond movies), eurowestern (Red Sun) or costume drama (Mayerling)) and all-star cast the film is very weak.

The plot is inconsistent and empty the idea to equip the Agatha Christy-like crime puzzle with subplots from other genres may seem not bad idea but it doesn't work at all

Subplot 1- (WWII -Jewish Tragedy with absolutely aimless trip to Poland) and Subplot 2 (French one - Schneider/Ronet story ) seem to be taken from the absolutely different film as well as the type-cast Shariff's line

Actually this all-star cast is the only reason to watch it, but its is painful to watch so much talent wasted. If Hupbern, Gazarra and Mason are at least is doing something during the boringly unveiling plot, the others are just fitting the empty space. especially annoying to see superb dramatic actresses like Papas and Schneider wasting their talent in this turkey.

This is one of the BEST and MOST POPULAR Soviet Comedies ever!

In all former Soviet states this film is still loved and admired, so It's pity that non-Russian speaking audience will never get even 10% of its jokes and humor. There are several reasons for this:

1) To understand this (and actually all soviet film) one must not just know the Russian language - one must know the Soviet system, soviet culture, lifestyle.

2) Those who think that Soviet UNION=Russia are very wrong, and here the fact that USSR consisted of 15 different states (and hundreds of nations actually) has a great importance - as the story concerns the "adventures" of two southerners (a Georgian and an Armenian) in Moscow (that was both capital of Russia and USSR)-great deal of humor comes from their accents, as well as cultural differences. The director himself is Georgian who mostly lives in Russia and most of his films concern Russia (almost all of them are very popular in Russia) Only in one film (Ne Goryui!- that is equally as good as this one though very different) the action takes place in Georgia. (other much recommended films are Kin-Dza-Dza and Autumn Marathon..)

3) It is very important to know certain cultural confrontation that existed in USSR and still exists in Russia - Caucasians (Russia is the only v\country where this term means "black, dark person" - i.e. Georgians, Armenians, Azeri, and others) are rather unpopular in Russia (Russian nationalists consider them second main enemy after Jews, now due to Chechnya war Caucasian people became the most unpopular in Russia ); Characters of Georgian And Armenian visually fit the most standard stereotypes that exist in Russia (- big flat hat, moustaches, etc.) Armenians and Georgians for thousands of years had rivalry and competition, each trying to prove that it is older, better, and more cultural than the other;

• AND DESPUITE ALL THIESE Danelia MADE a film where there is no national problem - there are good people and not so good people, friendship and understanding between all these nations win - and therefore the film has a great political-subtexts - though it is delivered so lightly and tenderly that nobody thinks to call it propaganda or political film- its just a CLASSIC SOVIET COMEDY, delicious and funny, not that slapstick-cake-into-face staff, but film about real people, real feelings and real values.