Rating: 
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: Very Intersting. Get it, you will be pleasantly surpised.
Rating:
Summary: Kusturica's Finest
Review: This is the finest film to come out of Serbia. The film sweeps viewers into a satyrical and sometimes hypnotic world of emotions.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly intriguing
Review: I used this film as a platform from which to base a term paper I wrote. I didn't quite like it the first time I saw it, but the more I read about Yugoslav history and politics, the more I understood it. It's very clever. Lots of symbols and imagery and philosophical dialgoue. I wouldn't quite call it a fantasy, but it has that feel of magical realism. It skips a bit too much in time, but it does have a concurrent theme which keeps it together. I recommend it, whether you know about the region or not, because it has so many layers to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Hasn't Yugoslavia suffered enough?
Review: When it appeared in 1995, Underground joined that hallowed group of Great Films that I Don't Get. Because although it received ecstatic praise, was almost unanimously declared by critics all-over as a staggering masterpiece, and even took the Palm D'Or at Cannes, it left me more or less baffled. The movie is, well, bizarre. It involves two communist resistance fighters in Nazi occupied Yugoslavia, Blackie and Marko, who also happen to be THE loudest people on earth. Indeed, if there's anything remarkable about this movie, it's that it manages to keep its characters shouting their lines for no apparent reason through its over 3-hours running time. Blackie falls for a blonde actress and the shrillest woman in a country that (if we are to believe the film) is entirely populated by women doing Tarzan impressions 24/7. When Blackie must hide from the Nazis, Marko puts him up in a huge underground cellar along with dozens of other characters. There they form a mini-society and make weapons that Marko is supposed to distribute to the resistance. Marko, however, sells the weapons on the black market, becomes rich, and seduces Blackie's girl. So when the war's over and Blackie is declared a national hero by the new communist government, Marko has little reason to pass the news onto Blackie and his gang, who go on believing for 15 years after the war's end that the combat against the nazis still rages on. A lot of other stuff happens in the movie, and I must say that not all of it is disagreeable. The opening bombing of the zoo is a tour-de-force and the film saves its piece de resistance for the very end; indeed, the film's conclusion, quiet and contemplative (by the film's standards, of course) is a thing of infinite beauty. Other good moments and ideas are interpersed here and there, but at a 3-hour running time, the film hasn't nearly enough of them. What it does have, however, are characters screaming because, apparently, loudness is equivalent to humor. Underground is a film bursting with energy. It might very well be the most kinetic movie I've ever seen and it gives other famously bustling movies (like Fellini's Amarcord) a run for their money. But in the end it is humorless, a fault that would not be quite fatal were it not for the fact that the film wants desperately to be funny.
Rating: 
Summary: nothing new
Review: In my opinion, there is not much good about this film. Its main problem is that it tries to mix comedy with drama. To me, while humor can be a part of a drama, drama itself is too serious a thing to be made a part of a comedy. A sloppy and uneven film like "Underground" is a result of such a mixture. I think that it could have been an excellent comedy, because as long as it is a comedy, it is very funny! However, the story, which starts up with so much exuberancy and which is in the beginning so funny, leads absolutely nowhere. To be more exact, it tries to become a drama but it succeds in only pretending being one. "Underground" is too long. It is badly moralizing too. We have already seen it all - love towards one's country, war, "holy" fools, saving stray monkeys, life of simple people - exactly as it is here in many other films. I don't think that saying platitudes (and in this respect the last scene is the most indicative) is a good way of paying tributes to your country, especially to a country which has suffered so much grief.
Rating:
Summary: !
Review: this movie starts out as a rollicking comedy and then turns into a poignant tradgedy. my ex boyfriend was serbian, and talked about this movie constantly, but i wasn't able to see it until after we broke up. he was convinced it couldn't be found in america... but i found it on amazon.com! it's just as good as he described it.
Rating:
Summary: Betrayal and gun-running, set to great music
Review: Watching this film too closely could very well make your head hurt. In many ways, I felt like I was suffering from a cinematic hang-over for days after watching this raucous fable. Miki Manojlovic, as Marko, and Lazar Ristovski, the rough-and-tumble Blacky, have a Walter Matthau/Jack Lemmon quality which makes their disgraceful behaviour oddly less appalling. They fight, party, and have their own traveling soundtrack in the form of an insanely abused band. And yes, that band makes some pretty great noise. From what I gather, this video represents this movie in its shortest, most-concentrated form -- a five-hour miniseries reduced to 167 minutes of intense and surreal plotting. Even then, the circular plotting, the repetitive elements, the farce are presented with shocking clarity. If anything, I suspect that the greatest loss to the movie probably is made up of surreal sequences that would help to add consistency to the surprisingly explicit (in narrative terms) and thought provoking ending. By setting the film against 60-odd years of Balkan history, UNDERGROUND looks to explore what "Yugoslavia" means to the people who used to live there. The answer is given in very specific terms, but the movie will take you for a dark, musical ride along the way.
Rating:
Summary: STUNNING
Review: This film is in my top ten all time favourite films. It is as close to perfect as celluloid life gets. The story told is about two best friends who fight together in Tito's underground movement for a united, socialist Yugoslavia. Their activities (manufacturing munitions in their secret basement and conspiring with Tito) are completely illegal, and one of the two, an electrician, Blackie, becomes a marked and wanted man. The Germans are in "Yugoslav" territory, and they will stop at nothing to find Blackie. Franz, one of the German Nazi officers, is pursuing Blackie, but also has amorous intentions toward Blackie's actress girlfriend. Blackie and his best friend decide it would be best for Blackie and his family to go underground to hide and secretly continue manufacturing weapons after Blackie murders Franz. And here is where the deception ensues. I don't want to spoil the film if you have not already seen it. I will just say that what ensues is outrageous and comical but at the same time deeply sad and moving. The film tells a painful story that takes decades to unfold. Ultimately loyalty proves false and tragedy is all that can quell the need to avenge loss. An amazing and fantastic story.
Rating:
Summary: It's one of my best films !!!!
Review: Is really great , how Emir Kusturica describes the serbian culture , and they morals . Yes what's in the film is in the real life , how they talk , and how they do things , is exactly like in the film ! Really sad what happened in the film , but it's true . All the humor , the MUSIc , and everything is great ! It's one of my best films !
Rating:
Summary: Another masterpiece!
Review: There are not enough words to explain this movie..Kusturica, as always, is fantastic and extremely successful in presenting his characters in sort of a surreal way. The movie is poetic. The colours, the sounds..it is a feast to our senses. The story is dramatic, you will find yourselves crying for the charming characters. However, it is really hard to take a side in this story. Kusturica presents us a part of these people's lives in a time where chaos and confusion affect their behaviour. It is a sad story told in a humourous way. However, it is hard to just laugh at what happens in the movie because the movie puts you in the characters' emotional state and you experience the confusion, alienation and anger that those people experience. I admit that it is a long movie for the average American viewer, however, having seen this movie at least 9 times, I think the movie's length was just perfect. Remember, Kusturica, who is one of the best living legends in movie-making, could have done this movie shorter if he wanted. So, if you say that the movie was uninteresting and therefore you got bored and couldn't stand watching it for hours, I can undertstand that. But saying that it was just long is a little disrespectful to this award winning (Cannes) film and to its genious director. By the way, the soundtrack is the best of Goran Bregovic. I definitely recommend it!
|
