Reviews

I hate such movies. Being a frequent visitor of Festival circuits and fun of non-mainstream movies I like experiments but from time to time I come across some unbearable artsy-fartsy movie praised by people who must have come from a different planet than me. Battle in Heaven is such a gem of utter pointlessness, and its only 'value' are scenes of explicit (however emotionless and disgusting) sex - the reputation of this movie could have been built only on that, cause I cannot imagine any other baseline on which such a movie could work in critical reviews. Motivations of main characters are an absolute mystery to me, the atmosphere is colder than on Antarctica. I probably have not seen a movie with more emotional detachment in my life. Avoid at any cost!

I do not really get the hype sorrounding this movie - once again it turns out that in Hollywood it is enough to gather a cast including big names and the audience seems to swallow it like hot cakes. Big names but no acting, so serious I had problems with watching it through to the end. It was so emotionless I was annoyed for wasting my time for such a dumb flick. It was painful to watch Andy Garcia or Julia Roberts playing so shallow characters not to mention Brad Pitt in his probably worst role. But above all this movie was so artificial I hardly could believe Soderbergh made it. NOT RECOMMENDED.

Reading the previous comments I am a bit surprised by people who claim that this movie would appeal only to viewers from ex-Yugoslavia. I've seen this movie during this year's Film Festival in Warsaw, Poland. And it was extremely entertaining evening, people applauded many times during the movie, laughing all the way through. This reminded me of a similar mood and life-style in POland in early 90's after the end of Communism - when first ravers organized underground parties which then turned into techno and d'n'b scene. Maybe I feel some affinity with this movie cause I'm also Slavic and former heavy party-goer, but I believe that this movie could sell well in e.g. London, Paris or New York. True, it is hedonistic-pure trip, but well-acted (particularly older actors and a main hero in glasses and raver-hat). After the screening the audience had an opportunity to meet the director - a fan of Partizan Belgrad actually and not Crvena Zvezda represented by Dulan Savic in the movie. The movie was shot digital and then transferred to 35 mm. It cost just 30,000, unbelievable - return on investment should be probably calculated in thousands of percent! If you want to see not-politically charged movie from former Yogoslavia - this is a really good choice. Absolutely recommended, and not only to panters!

The only good element that stands out of this unviewable mess of images (I would never imagine calling this "thing" a movie) is first 2 minutes and music (at least in some parts). The rest is pretentious, crappy, pointless story in which the director tries to convince the audience of his originality using distorted, dialogue-less sequences, disturbing music, feeding on people's emotions. But what for? What is the message here? I've seen numerous artsy works, some of them good some quite bad, but nothing like "Sombre". AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! If you want to see a real shocker, reaching the depths of today's 'emotional' hell go for "Hundstage" (Dog Days) by Austrian Director Ulrich Seidl. Michael Haeneke and Werner Herzog praise this movie. And I fully agree with them. And remember do not waste your precious time for crap like SOMBRE. .F.

Prague in 1968 prior to the Soviet invasion. The setting is ideal for a political drama, but Czech artists prefer to make a comedy with political background. The action takes place in a house, where families from different political camps (pro-communist vs. anti-communist) live together. The story is told in such a warm, witty and funny way that it immediately resembles the golden years of Czech movie industry in the 70's and 80's. This movie was a tremendous hit on the local Czech market, unfortunately it has never reached my country (Poland). I've had a chance to see it only on the Warsaw Film Festival. It's sad but all the time distributors prefer to show s****y Hollywood cheesy-style romances or action packs, instead real-value movies. Definitely one of the movies of 1999 IMHO. The same goes for other Czech movie - "Return of the Idiot" (Navrat Idiota) - watch out for Czechs, they are on the right track again.

British movies are again in their "golden age", so many of them are floating around lately, and definitely one of them - Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - kicks a**, very very hard. It is almost impossible to dislike these rude boys from the very beginning. They are a bunch of most lively, funny and at the same time naive guys. The affair they got involved in grows and grows with almost every minute. Twists of action almost make it impossible to follow the plot, I have not seen such a "swift" movie in ages. Big pros for the director for depicting such a variety of characters from the London criminal underground. My faves are a guy with his son working for a local boss. Besides viewers should also notice the great music (with EZ Rollers DnB track in the lead).

Watch out! Rude Boys are in town!