Rating: 
Summary: This is one of Redford's better (recent) films.
Review: A great film. Beautiful, romantic, intriguing... period
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely Great
Review: Here's how it works.
First you totally dis a movie and everybody keeps you company cause they're sooo afraid of looking like a cultural critical dunce.
Next, you have a change of heart, or time takes the edge off, and you admit the film has some merit.
Third, it becomes a classic.It happened with Caddyshack, and though that won't recur with Havana, be assured you will love this movie. The soundtrack is awesome, Redford is nearly flawless - only a few lines are weakly delivered - and though Lena Olin misplays a few brief phrases, she is a haunting presence. It's the usual Hollywood political angle, but the body of the film, the tragic romance, and the setting make that a non-factor.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it then, love it now
Review: I absolutely loved this film when it was first released in 1990. I thought it was terribly underrated, and was disappointed when I learned that it got some negative reviews. The performances by Redford and Olin were understated and wonderful. I thought they worked well together. The music alone is worth the price of admission. I purchased the sound track on cassette, and played it to death. Today this movie was shown on AMC and I, once again, was mesmerized by all of it. Now Olin is gaining some fame again on the TV show,"Alias" as Jenifer Garner's mother. She is as beautiful as ever. Havana is a great flick-----buy it and see for yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Loved it then, love it now
Review: I absolutely loved this film when it was first released in 1990. I thought it was terribly underrated, and was disappointed when I learned that it got some negative reviews. The performances by Redford and Olin were understated and wonderful. I thought they worked well together. The music alone is worth the price of admission. I purchased the sound track on cassette, and played it to death. Today this movie was shown on AMC and I, once again, was mesmerized by all of it. Now Olin is gaining some fame again on the TV show,"Alias" as Jenifer Garner's mother. She is as beautiful as ever. Havana is a great flick-----buy it and see for yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: A moving love story with beautiful performances
Review: I was really surprised that this film film did so bad at the box office. I mean it gave a chance to Robert Redford to not play Robert Redford again. As Siskel (god bless him) and Ebert said this film is a burried treasure. It has a great story and becautiful sceneries and performances. There was a lot of chemistry between Redford and Olin and they are good together. For those who complained about lack of chemistry watch Horse Whisperer with Redford. Now, that is a film with no chemistry among leads. I particulary enjoyed the last scene when Redford gets out of his car in front of the beach and looks at horizon hoping for Bobby to show up. But he knows she is not coming. It was an unjustice not to give Raul Julia credit. I don't why they did that. But he was very good. I think in time this film will be rediscovered. Frankly, I enjoyed this much better than Out of Africa which I found slow and non involving.
Rating:
Summary: Cuba Libre.
Review: In a highball glass, pour 1.5 - 2 oz rum over ice cubes, add the juice of 1/2 lime and fill up with coke. That's the recipe for the drink political correctness has renamed "Rum and Coke," but which most of us also still know by its original name, Cuba Libre. And the cocktail invented just over 100 years ago to celebrate Cuba's freedom from Spain perfectly epitomizes the state of the island republic's society towards the late 1950s' end of the Batista regime: A sweet, tangy, intoxicating Caribbean foundation, mixed with the classical American exports; from Coke, cars and cigarettes to expatriates and their money ... except, alas, for the greatest thing the U.S. might have brought to Cuba, assistance in establishing democracy. Instead, during Batista's 30-year dictatorship, Cuba - and particularly Havana - became the Latin Las Vegas, a place where the action was on, the stakes were high, flesh was cheap, gambling was legal (and largely controlled by American mobster Meyer Lansky) and the party never ended. Until, beset by the revolutionary movement led by a certain Fidel Castro, Batista fled the country in the early morning hours of January 1, 1959. And suddenly the party was over. The last days of Batista's regime are the backdrop for 1990's "Havana," which sees high-stakes poker ace Jack Weil (Robert Redford) in Cuba for the game of his life. He has played "every elks' club and moose hole in America" and remembers every hand of every game, he tells Lansky's right-hand man Joe Volpi (Alan Arkin). Now he wants a shot at the big one - playing with guys who don't even think how much they're playing for. And he knows that the revolutionary fever in the air has the same effect on gamblers as a potent aphrodisiac on those in pursuit of Havana's other main commodity; so in Jack's eyes, now's the time or never. Yet, although liberally indulging in all of Havana's pleasures, he couldn't care less about Cuban politics. All he thinks he needs to know is who's in charge, and how to stay out of trouble. But then he meets Roberta Duran (Lena Olin at the top of her game), the wife of a wealthy physician aligned with Castro. (Raul Julia who, despite a stellar performance, chose to remain uncredited, reportedly because he didn't receive first billing alongside Redford - a great pity, and a disservice to himself.) Now Jack falls in love, badly enough to go against his life's entire philosophy to try and save Roberta from Batista's henchmen after her husband has been arrested and supposedly killed, and she questioned and tortured by the secret police. And now Jack really does get to play the game of his life - except that now it's no longer about cards at all; and when Volpi at last does put together the big game he has lobbied for, Jack is no longer even in attendance. Instead, he's out putting his personal interests at stake for Roberta. "Havana" was Robert Redford's and director Sydney Pollack's seventh cooperation after "This Property Is Condemned" (1966), "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), "The Way We Were" (1973), "Three Days of the Condor" (1975), "The Electric Horseman" (1979) and "Out of Africa" (1985); and it shows, for better and for worse. At his best, Redford delivers magically, whether dealing cards at a poker table surrounded by marks and beautiful women, or arguing with Roberta about her stake in the revolution, or letting her captured husband know how he has enjoyed being with Roberta; realizing jealousy's potency in stirring a betrayed, hot-blooded husband's fighting spirit, after Jack has decided, against all self-interest, to free and reunite him with her. But there are those few occasional lines, those few mannerisms that smack of just a pinch too much routine; and why an exchange like "Were you waiting for me?" - "All my life" didn't make Redford's and Pollack's usually unfailing kitsch-o-meters go into overtilt, I honestly don't understand. (Besides, whoever had the brilliant idea of making Redford wear a Hawaii shirt in the closing scene should be flogged and hung out to dry in a Hawaii shirt himself. Eeeewwww ...) Undeservedly, "Havana" flopped at the box office and only later began picking up audience favors. This is primarily blamed on its unfair (and shallow) initial comparison to "Casablanca," which I don't think it ever set out to replicate; in addition to its somewhat two-dimensional political outlook (and here I agree). Redford himself has also been quoted commenting on his suddenly prominent facial lines, an effect only underscored by the fact that he had last been seen on the big screen four years earlier in "Legal Eagles" with decidedly lesser visible lines. But come on, folks - the man was over fifty when he made "Havana" ... have you ever wondered to what extent you've internalized Hollywood's youth addiction if you did *not* expect his age to start showing at some point? Frankly, I rather think it's admirable if an actor whose looks have always factored highly in his appeal makes a point in going against the expectation that he submit to plastic surgery, *and* then continues to make his mark on society and the movie business regardless. So forget "Havana"'s bad rep. This is a beautifully shot, superbly edited, sumptuous drama (a particular delight editing-wise are the scenes setting Jack's forays into Havana's night life against the city's less glamorous realities); part romance, part political thriller; magnificently scored by Dave Grusin and endowed with all of Pollack's and production designer Terence Marsh's known attention to detail, whose authenticity even "spooked" Cuban-born Tomas Milian, (who plays secret police commander Menocal), as Milian says in the DVD's featurette - and this although for obvious reasons the entire set had to be reconstructed in the Dominican Republic. It may not be one of the multiple Oscar-winning Redford-Pollack collaborations ... but overall it's still head and shoulders above many another production I'll refrain from naming here.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapointing
Review: It could have been a good one. But everything seems to be out of focus. The love story does not work between Redford and Lena Olin, the story is too simplistic: revolutionaries are good and the Batista regime is evil. What a way to learn some of your neighbor's history! Of course there's more than that.
Simplifying the views may be good for propaganda effects but as for art or even for plain entertainment you need to give us something better. We may not know or care about Cuba's recent history but we know when the teacher is playing sides.
I don't understand how a good director like Pollack can sell himself -and his reputation- so cheap to the Holywood-propaganda-industry.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Reputation Undeserved.
Review: Many will claim that Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford were on auto-pilot while making this film. Based on their previous collaborative efforts, the well-received Three Days of the Condor, The Way We Were, The Electric Horseman, and Out of Africa, which swept the Academy Awards, people wanted to see their movies. They could make any movie they wanted. They made Havana, and NOBODY wanted to see it. Maybe Pollack, brilliant in his own right, set his watch according to Redford's schedule at this time, and history shows that, subsequent to Havana, and its box office failure Sydney Pollack basically quit directing. His influence in film is still served, and may be better served as a producer, witness Sliding Doors, Sense and Sensibility, Fabulous Baker Boys, and Searching For Bobby Fischer, all of which he helped bring to the screen. But, back to the matter at hand-Redford as a gambler, Lena Olin, his distraction (and what a distraction)--the film feels good, looks good, and gives us some perspective on Cuba in the waning hours of Batista. Olin (pre-Romeo is Bleeding, post Unbearable Lightness of Being) is properly introduced to American audiences, and is not inappropriate as leading lady to one of Hollywood's leading stars, Redford, who, even on auto-pilot, delivers a strong, engaging performance. I understand this film was heavily maligned at release, and failed dismally at the box office, but I enjoyed it. It is a beautiful film to watch with attractive leads-and that alone stands it well ahead of many of the alternatives out there today.
Rating:
Summary: Underrated, but uneven
Review: Robert Redford gives one of his best performances as an aging professional card-player in Havana trying for a last big score before Cuba falls to Castro. He helps Roberta Duran, wife of a Cuban revolutionary, to smuggle some military radios into Cuba almost as a lark--and finds himself deeply and romantically involved with her. The first hour or so of "Havana" is a triumph of production, with Pollack's evocation of the pre-Castro Cuban capital almost (but not quite) the equal of Coppola's in "Godfather II." After that, the action slows considerably, and credibility is stretched as Weil gets involved with the CIA and Batista's secret police in ways that are, to say the least, "out of character" for his character. Tomas Milian and Raoul Julia (unbilled) excel as the head of the secret police and the leader of the opposition, respectively, and Alan Arkin gives a typically fine performance as a Mob-connected casino manager. But Lena Olin is curiously ineffective as Roberta Duran, which adds to the credibility-stretching. Still, this is a very worthwhile movie that has been sadly underrrated.
Rating:
Summary: OUT OF CUBA
Review: Strange like things go. HAVANA is from the same brand of OUT OF AFRICA but failed terribly at the box-office while Karen Blixen book's adaptation was a hit. Both movies describe an unhappy love story in a world collapsing and should equally appeal to amateurs of romantic adventure pictures. Even if the screenplay leaves a slight aftertaste of Alfred Hitchcock's TOPAZ in the mouth, it still provides excellent scenes involving a great Lena Olin as a scandinavian guerilla sympathizer and a lucid Robert Redford who plays the character of a distant cousin of THE WAY WE WERE's hero. Sydney Pollack surely knows how to direct an intimate scene between a man and a woman and one enjoys these scenes without any scruples. As for the political analysis of the events happening during this last week of 1958 in Cuba, don't wait for more than the usual clichés one can expect from a production of one of the Hollywood majors. A DVD zone forgotten movies.
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