Afula Express

This movie is one of the best I have seen in 1997. Julie Shlez, a wonderfully gifted documentary creator made her first motion picture and proved again, that even with a limited budget one can make a little cinematic masterpiece. Shlez creates magic on screen. Her film is funny, sad and funny once again. The actors are wonderful: Zvika Hadar is amazing, Esty Zakheim is unforgettable and Orli Perl is so so sweet and sexy. "Afula Express" touches your soul so deeply, you will never forget this unique feeling. My grade: **** 1/2 (out of *****)

"pick a card", very funny & israeli film about couple from AFULA very little city that think they could find happiness in the big city TEL AVIV. the man have a dream that he could be wizard & make a lot of money but the reality is more hard then what he dreamed. very good movie i recommend with all my heart.

I just saw this movie and I want the last 90 minutes of my life back. At about the 50 minute mark I looked up and groaned that I still had 40 minutes left. I would've just stopped it, but I paid a damn good $2 to rent it so I figured why not let it end.

Pick a Card (Afula Express) is an entirely horrible movie. It follows to hateable, mismatched people who are in love (??)....Maybe. David is a pathetic, lazy loser that dreams of an obviously unreachable stardom. Batya is his overweight, whiny girlfriend who appears to have no ambition or care about anything else but David and her former home. There is no rhyme or reason for these two to care about each other except maybe they're both so unattractive they can't find anyone else to sleep with them. In fact, the most memorable thing, and by memorable I mean nightmare-ish memorable, is a scene of rough sex between the two leads in a darkened alleyway. The scene is disturbing and completely non-sensical in the context of the relationship.

The plot is both non-sensical and predictable. I won't tell you how it ends, but if you can't figure it out halfway through then you have not seen very many movies.

You'll be better off if you don't see this movie. And if you do see it, don't be angry...I did warn you.

In the lead role of a nobody who wants to be a magician, it's a pleasant enough surprise that anyone can steer clear of facile slapstick on the one hand and facile pathos on the other. But that it's Zvika Hadar is simply astonishing, given the bottom-of-the- barrel humor that he supplies on Israeli television. The movie is in excellent taste. (Well, aside from that sex scene in the alley...)

Israel's submission for Best Foreign Language Film to the 70th Academy Awards is a lighthearted romantic comedy about an aspiring magician and how his striving towards his goal affects his relationships with people. I had never heard of Julie Shles before watching "Afula Express" (also called "Pick a Card"), but I'd like to see more of her work. This movie manages to create many emotions without getting sappy. Check it out if you get a chance.

Watch for playwright Amit Lior as Yair.