Rating: 
Summary: I love what it says, but does it have to do it so slowly!?
Review: I'm a guy who can sit and watch the slowest movies on Earth without once complaining. I like it when a film can take it's time building up a story, characters and/or a message. People said this film was slow but I said "nah, how bad can it be?" Apparently bad.The problem is that there is nothing to build up on. Yeah, I get the message and everything, but there is only 30 minutes worth of substance in the story. The rest is long-drawn conversations, which could have been shortened 90% or long scenes of the main character driving around. It was incredibly slow, I couldn't believe it. This movie actually bored me. I did admire some of the shooting and some of the scenery, and the acting on the most part was good (the person playing the main character was wonderful). While I guess the director was trying to get us to savor the emotion and life, he dragged on the savoring. This would have mad an excellent short film.
Rating: 
Summary: Taste of Cherry
Review: If people thinks this movie was too long, it moved too slow, or simply boring ? Well, would you ever imagine if you speed the whole thing up ? And if you're looking for the "ending" ? Well, not all movie should have the so-called-perfect ending, right ? Like one of the reviewers said, this movie kinda makes you think instead of judging what the perfect ending was. I would say the best part of this film is the 'body', not the conclusion (ending), even though i think that the ending was great. If you want a good conclusion (ending); well, just do not see this movie. This is one of the reason why we should have so many varieties types of film. You can not expect 'happy ending' all the time. What do you expect from a film, really ? A solution ? Like the movie teaches us the thing that we never know before ? By the way, if people thinks the movie was kinda tampered. I think it will be better if you go see Hollywood movie, maybe 'Armageddon' ?
Rating: 
Summary: How is this worthy of being in the Criterion Collection
Review: If there was a deep meaning in this film, then I missed it entirely. After the first ten minutes of driving and talking I was bored. And then I got to sit through another hour of it before anything different happened. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of independent film and artsy originality. This simply had no depth. For a film that was apparently (from what I could tell) a character study of a man that is being slowly talked out of killing himself, it never once achieved any sort of intensity for me. I was so bored by the end of the film that by the time we saw the rough "home-video" style footage of the cast bumming around, I actually found myself laughing hysterically at the fact that I managed to sit through it. And then I laughed even harder when I ...found that it had been released by the Criterion Collection, and that it had an average review of 4 stars. What did I miss?
Rating:
Summary: KIROSAWA...FELINI...KIAROSTAMI...
Review: If you liked Kirosawa's 'Rashomon', you'll love 'Taste of Cherry'. This is a brekthrough not only in Iranian film making, but world cinema as a whole. Kiarostami challenges your intellect by taking you to the edge. A must see.
Rating:
Summary: What a complete, utter piece of crap!
Review: If you somehow get suckered into watching this pretentious pile of garbage, at least wait until you get to the scene where the protagonist is trying to convince the young soldier to return in the morning and bury him. The soldier's response will tell you everything you need to know about this film: He jumps out of the car and runs for his life. Believe me, you should take the hint. My barometer of a bad movie is how well it might serve as "Mystery Science Theater 3000" fodder. (And believe me, the people who have praised this movie as some sort of "high art" are not MST3K fans, primarily because they don't have 1/64th of the needed intelligence and sense of humor.) This "movie" would be torn apart by Mike and the 'Bots--I just wish they were still around to do it.... Let's have an omelet! Gary
Rating: 
Summary: A taste to be savored
Review: If you're going to make a film which largely consists of a man driving his Range Rover along dusty Iranian roads, soliciting various men for their assistance, you'd sure better make an engaging film. For the philosophically inclined, Abbas Kiarostami has done just that. Though most of the film takes place on a few dirt roads over-looking Tehran, you could still see it as a road movie, albeit a sophisticated, intellectually engaging one. Homayon Ershadi plays Badii, the driver of the Range Rover, as a strong yet depleted man, a man with resignation etched into his face in every frame. Mr. Badii is trying to find someone to help him with his suicide. The job is simple: come to cover his body if he's successful; rescue him if he is not. He's willing to give a tremendous amount of money for only a little work. Each man he picks up reacts to his offer in a different way--each of them conveys the belief that Badii's taking his own life would be wrong, but each of them gives different a reason for his inability to help. The only man willing to help Badii is another who once attempted suicide. Even he tries to convince him to remain, to remember the taste of cherry. The end of the movie has been misunderstood by some reviewers; it's not a trick, the movie is not a sham. The ending simply provides a jolting coda, reminding us that no matter how barren life may seem, there is a reality uncolored by emotion and mental disease, and in that reality there are others leading joyful lives. Not only has Kiarostami given us food for thought, he reveals gritty, dusty Tehran to be a city of haunting golden beauty. Another filmaker would have taken us to Eden to prove his point, but Kiarostami shows us there is beauty wherever you are, even in a land seemingly drained of color and steeped in binding tradition.
Rating:
Summary: leaving me speechless
Review: In addition to being an incredible work of art and cinema, "A Taste of Cherry" is a profound philosophical film about reflection, perspective, honesty, truth and life.
Rating:
Summary: HOW IRAN LOOKS TODAY?
Review: Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami is taking you for a ride around Teheran through his hero in the movie Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi).Silence misery povetry and the mixture of different cultures give you the sense that something is going to die in this place and reborn from the ashes. Amazing photography travells you to Iranian landscape taking its time exactly like the oriental mentality. The people dont talk very much or they dont talk at all.What you want to know it is written on their faces on their clothes and the enviroment.
Dont look for western type of action dont even look for a story everything you see is symbolic.Just concetrate on what you see and believe me if you never experienced before the taste of cherry you will now and you will never forget it.
Rating:
Summary: Life! what's it worth?
Review: Is life worth anything? Perhaps this is one of the main questions going through the head of the main actor through out this film. The films first setting carries on for about 10-15 minutes leaving the viewer confused. It's not until half way through the movie that one realizes what the plot is about. Boring? no, but perhaps different and keeping you interested by making you more confused :)
The movie is slow paced but will have you sigh a big "wow" at the end and make you realize why they took it so slow. It will also leave you with questions that only you can asnwer for your self and not a buddy who was watching it with you. Lastely It will make you think twice about the gift of life and how we engorge ourselves in the big picture and overlook the small details.
So take a deep breath and be prepared to think of the unthinkable :)
Rating:
Summary: Cinematic perfection.
Review: It is just unbelievable the way director Kiarostami manages to communicate so much about our conflicts and contradictions using such few elements, and at the same time allowing so many different interpretations. Film-making at its best!!
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