Au pays du sang et du miel

Bad story, bad acting, boring. One of the worst films I ever watched. Films with Chuck Norris deserve golden globe comparing to this.

This is a well intentioned film about the Bosnian war but unfortunately it doesn't work that well. Despite the powerful message it wants to deliver it doesn't draw one into the story.

Firstly the good points. Angelina Jolie makes a good attempt and achieves a good on location feel. The battle and destruction scenes are quite effective - realistic not exaggerated. It is interesting to see the war from 2 sides with lead characters on both sides of the conflict.

The main problem is in the story and screenplay itself. Maybe Jolie was taking on too much by both directing and writing. There have been more main stream movies about the Balkan conflict eg Flowers for Sarajevo and Behind Enemy Lines. I understand she was trying to make a very Un Hollywood movie but maybe a bit of a more traditional dramatic narrative would have been more compelling. Continuity in the story is lacking as the story is broken up between the love and scenes of fighting and other brutalities. The romance is unconvincing. Needed some serious editing.

The main actress is good but the main actor is a bit cold. Their scenes together are awkward and painful to watch.

Overall feels schizophrenic, disjointed and self indulgent.

It was just too much to watch this film. Not in sense of what it wants to say but time wise. Wanted to leave around half time but was together with friends so stayed. I recommend you not to bother watching it as it has nothing to offer that a European does not know about the Jugoslavian war. From the perspective of romantic storyline it is also very shallow. The unfortunate thing about this film is that a talented actress tried to make a film with quite a good cast, but none of them will be looking back at it proudly.

Money not too well spent (meaning here the budget of film and the price I paid for the ticket).

It's not a bad movie. Actually it would have been a pretty good if it was a Bosnian movie, but it does not live up to the expectations of a Hollywood movie of a major movie star.

The story was weak - the main characters meet once, then they meet again when she is kidnapped by Serbian soldiers and they are suddenly in love. It feels like they were in a relationship before the war but the movie never makes that clear.

There is no background on the war, no explanation why any of these events are taking place, no reason where the all that hate is coming from.

The characters stroke me as emotionless. I understand that some of that could be attributed to being used to seeing death and atrocities during the war, but there is little war footage and it feels fake.

There is some character development, the Serbian commander has some second thoughts about the reasons behind the war, but overall he simply goes along with everything with little to no emotion and giving very little insight in his thoughts reasoning.

The cinematography was good, the acting was pretty good, the story is original and engaging even though it's not developed well.

"No Man's Land" is much better movie on the Bosnian war in my opinion.

Disappointing, completely and thoroughly. Completely illogical, no connection between scenes, poor acting, strange reactions by the characters. It is completely unclear what message did the plot carry and where was it going? Waste of time, full load of negative emotions! It indeed remains unclear what was the message of this film? How war is terrible thing, or how women suffer the most, or what kind of animals people can be during war times, or to show one more time how love sees now boundaries, or... It seems that screenwriter/director choose topic that is far beyond her directorial capabilities and certainly not something that one should use as plot for director's debut unless he/she knows how to get through with the initial idea on the background of other actions happening...