Mission London

I have never been to Bulgaria yet and do not know the culture deeply. But the movie was funny.. Kinda crazy comedy where the story keeps tangling more and more.. It's funny how the characters escape from the absurd situation they got themselves into...

For years, I've heard Bulgarian audiences wonder why we cannot produce a movie that holds up when compared to Hollywood comedies. Well, now we have. And the result is pretty satisfying. The first thing that struck me about the movie was how professionally it was made. The camera-work, the editing, the sound mixing, everything was of a pretty high standard, which is not something that Bulgarian films have recently managed. The acting was generally mediocre and the dialogue was sloppy at times, but overall all scenes were watchable, even the more talky ones. The focus of the movie was not in the performances anyway. The tempo was brilliant. At one point I thought the scenes were too short and the film would lack cohesiveness, but by the ending this style of editing makes sense and the film plays great, seeming neither too short, nor too long. While this is predominantly a comedy, deeper themes are there and they are examined in a non-intrusive way even if they are mainly Bulgarian-specific. Being able to understand all the jokes will enhance the viewing immensely but that does not mean that foreign audiences will not appreciate the film.

Overall I give it 8/10 simply because the movie is head and shoulders above any Bulgarian comedy that has been attempted in the last decades. For non-Bulgarian audiences the film is a solid 7.

This is a hilarious movie, especially for Bulgarians. I am not sure how much of it will be comprehensible for a foreign audience, and I'm looking forward to some non-Bulgarian reviews. Anyway, there is a lot to laugh about. The film presents in a very benign, comical way many of the shortcomings and limitations of the Bulgarian mindset. The First Lady, the Ambassador, the embassy cook - the characters are fleshy and ring true, yet very funny. I also liked the cinematography. The soundtrack was cool, but a few Bulgarian songs could definitely be added for more authenticity. All in all Mission London is definitely worth watching if you want to know more about the peculiarities and daily challenges of the Bulgarian spirit.

I've never really appreciated the "modern" Bulgarian humor. It always has to be vulgar and obvious... not to mention repetitive. When I walked into the theater I was expecting to be bored out of my mind and if lucky to catch some Z's. I was pleasantly surprised. The movie had taste. The comedy was well thought through. The plot was interesting and hard to predict. While blown out of proportions Mission London perfectly describes Bulgarian mentality and way of life. And for a nation that gets things done half way this movie was almost perfect with no cutbacks and unnecessary BS.

I'm glad this movie wasn't a disappointment. And will gladly watch it again.

This is the first Bulgarian movie that has done everything professionally - the producing, the marketing and advertising, the vision and sound of the film etc. The commercial success of Mission London is of great importance because if there is profit - more companies will be attracted to invest in Bulgarian cinema. Therefore I really hope the movie gets a good revenue and for now it seems like it would succeed in this mission due to the record breaking audience that it attracted during it's first week. Thanks to a very good advertising campaign and extensive media coverage everybody in Bulgaria is talking about Mission London.

So everything involving the organization and the promoting of the movie was executed fantastically. However the movie itself in my opinion fails to live up to the expectations set by the trailers. Some of the acting is poor due to the casting. The screenplay is too chaotic and the directing only amplifies this feeling. In a few words I could describe Mission London as a mediocre attempt at reinterpretating Guy Ritchie's modern British style cinema of the previous decade (Snatch, Lock stock and two smoking barrels) and mixing it with some typical Bulgarian absurdness. Sadly though the result is neither as intense, complicated and funny as Ritchie's nor is it thoroughly exploring the absurd Bulgarian characters and modern politics. It's a movie that tried to imitate and be original at the same time and unfortunately it didn't succeed at both. Another problem is that Guy Ritchie's style has passed it's time and is already too exploited and Mission London doesn't bring anything new to it. On the contrary the director even picked Alan Ford to play a similar character as he did in Snatch.

In the end I would like to say that i'm hoping Bulgarian cinema will attract more sponsors and the producers will try to make movies at a bigger scale. Mission London is the first bold attempt and it's a good start. For those who are really interested in modern Bulgarian cinema I really want to recommend them watching "Zift", "The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner" or "Eastern Plays"! New films from young directors that really impress and show that there is a lot of talent here that just needs to be given the chance to work. Because even though the three movies I mentioned were done with very low budgets the results are really fascinating!