Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite movies - nice DVD transfer, too
Review: There's a lot to like about this movie: the characters, the music, the unusual setting. But there's a lot of magic in the story and the way the movie is shot. Give this movie a chance, and you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, yet tender
Review: This is a film that nicely illustrates the way people's lives affect each other. It does so with humor at times and poignancy at times. There is a surreal quality to it.The one scene that I was not expecting was the painting scene, when Palance exhibits Ruebenesque skill. And that scene came off quite well showing the unexpected beauty of the star. The chemistry was indeed just right for the three main characters. The direction and cinematography alternated between keeping one on edge and then gratifying our senses. This indeed was a "sleeper", and if it did slip past you, I recommend heartily to see it for a very different treat to the eyes.
Rating: 
Summary: oddballs
Review: you know the story from the other reviewers..i had wanted to watch this for some time and finally did. to my surprise, there is no story, only quirky characters coming together; as if....and i have lived in the desert as well as odd locations....yes, they become friends, and yes strange locations made for unusual friends, but this was a very long and uninteresting movie with the exception of the scenery. save your time and spend it with your family.
Rating:
Summary: Freak Shows & Oddballs That'll Touch Your Heart
Review: Bagdad Cafe is an odd film, and I mean that as a compliment. The characters are all greatly flawed individuals who, as the film starts, are largely unhappy. CCH Pounder plays Brenda who owns the cafe. This woman could scare the hide off a cat with that shrill voice that drives her husband off to park in the desert and observe her with binoculars for the rest of the film. Jasmin, the Bavarian German who likes her coffee strong, is fat and seems to change clothes regularly despite having a suitcase supposedly filled only with men's clothes. She is not the typical Hollywood star, but she comes to win our hearts. Jack Palance as Rudy Cox, the set painter from Hollywood, lives in a trailer and sees the world through rose colored glasses. His costumes are pure Santa Monica Boulevard chic. He charms us as he falls in love. The sequence of paintings he does as Jasmin gets progressively less dressed is hysterical. The other characters are also unique. Brenda's son who also has a son, a baby, wants nothing more than to play piano all day. The daughter dresses in trendy teenage garb and seems to repeatedly run off with anything with two legs and pants. Debbie, the tatoo artist, seems like an S&M freak, and eventually leaves because "there is too much harmony." The thing I love about this film is that most all of the characters change. Jasmin's unfolding is glorious. The themes in the movie of racial misunderstanding and harmony are also interesting. Jasmin has never seen blacks and pictures herself in tribal Africa being roasted for dinner. She's amazed at how light the palms of Brenda's daughter's hand is, a simple detail but beautiful in its innocent sense of wonder. The DVD version doesn't add a tremendous amount of extras such as bonus material, but the movie itself is the reward. If you like upbeat films somewhat off the beaten track, seek out this cinematic gem.
Rating:
Summary: Bagdad Cafe
Review: This is one of the sweetest flicks I've ever seen, and I tend toward the swashbuckling, "guy flicks".
I think that what has grabbed me most with this movie is its surreal, yet believable premise; there IS a feeling of MAGIC throughout. The evolution of true friendship between Brenda and Jasmine is as genuine as that between Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin in Patrick O'Brian's novels. Their friendship is tense, tested and true. Also, the music is haunting and most fitting to the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Sutble Pleasure
Review: I was originally introduced to this movie during its initial release in '88 and enjoyed it thoroughly. I purchased the VHS version (and soundtrack on LP) as soon as it was available. The DVD version allows for the wonderful cinematography and editing to be further enjoyed. There is certainly a lesbian subtext that is often overlooked. It reads as a slightly different movie within that context. It makes it all that more wonderful. (Check out Zuckerbaby, Salmonberries and Rosalie Goes Shopping also my Percy Adlon)
Rating: 
Summary: Hated it! One star for the theme song
Review: "Bagdad Café" -- aka "Out of Rosenheim" -- is an offensive chick flick written and directed by Germans who know nothing about North American people of color. A generous interpretation of this work thinks it's a story about friendship between two women from different worlds. The honest interpretation reveals it to be about an alien visitor from another planet -- in this case a white savior in the form of a prim and zaftig German tourist (Marianne SŠgebrecht) -- who walks away from her contemptible husband in the middle of Southern California's Mojave Desert and winds up at the rundown Bagdad Gas & Oil café and hotel. It's run by the loud, obnoxious and unkempt African-American Brenda (CCH Pounder), who evicts her triflin', dim-bulb African-American husband. He spends the rest of the film in a car, on high someplace, observing the goings-on through binoculars. The other motley supporting characters include a creepy artist (played eerily to perfection by Jack Palance) whose claim to fame is having painted Hollywood movie sets, and a voluntarily mute woman who ostensibly makes a living as a tattoo artist. But the film suggests she trades in more than just tattoos. Brenda's employee in the café is either a Native American or Latino man who spends a lot of time napping. She has two teenage children: a dangerously hard-headed nymphet daughter of about 15, and a son who's incredibly skilled at the piano, where he spends practically the entire movie. He has an infant son who's cared for by everyone but his father. The only dignified supporter is the Native American sheriff. And the only good thing about this film is the Academy Award-nominated theme song, "Calling You," performed by Jevetta Steele. Maybe my Western chauvinism won't allow me to enjoy a chick flick by non-Americans attempting to create a world of racial harmony -- because that idea is drowned out by Brenda's yelling throughout the first half of the movie. On its face it's a great idea: People from different backgrounds learning tolerance and eventually love and respect. But the execution fails because the racial- and cultural-understanding theme is lost among cultural and racial stereotypes and extreme Euro-worship.
Rating:
Summary: Bagdad Cafe
Review: Absolutely marvelous. Have watched it at least 8 times, and enjoy it more everytime.
Rating:
Summary: A sweet and suprising tale
Review: Possibly one of my favorite films ever made, this story of a german housewife, that leaves her husband in the Mojave Desert, end up suprising me constantly. Why?
The lead actress Marianne Sagebrecht performance as Jasmine is so full of poetry and subtle nuances in the body language that most actors often forget to use. Many times she is in a scene where she is not saying much but she doesn't have to because her lines are in the way she moves and the expressions on her face. The story is about a sleepy two building town where despair is turned on its heel by the arrival of this stranger. It's about two very different people who become friends despite the tragedys they both are facing and its about the magic we all carry inside of us to transform other around us by being our most beautiful selves. This film was followed by a television series that failed to capture what this story easily told in 90 minutes. It also has a very haunting song called "calling you" that once heard will more than likely stay in the back of your mind. Its a gem and definitely belongs in the collection of anyone who really loves what great film making is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Are you a "friendship" material??
Review: This is the definitive "friend" film. What is friendship? How do friendships develop?? Bagdad Cafe will define and explore the nuances of human relationships for you on celuloid - no experience necessary. You'll come away not only enlightened, but spiritually uplifted,
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