GK Films,

Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Serbedzija, Branko Djuric, Nikola Djuricko, Dolya Gavanski

In this story about the Bosnian War, Danijel (Goran Kostic) has a relationship with Ajla (Zana Marjanovic), a Bosnian who’s now a prisoner in a camp he oversees. Their relationship started at a dance club, but a bomb attack suddenly changed everything. Danijel uses his position in the camp to protect Ajla by giving her a special task of drawing portraits of the camp leaders. But as Ajla gains strength, and Danijel’s position is compromised, things get very complicated and it’s very difficult to carry on a relationship when they are on different sides in this horrible war.

This story was directed by Angelina Jolie in her first attempt at directing. She took on a very powerful story for her attempt, and she was, I’m pretty sure, trying to put a human face on the terrible atrocities that took place over there in the 90’s. Well, in many ways she succeeds, but in some ways the film falls short. In many ways the story is hard to believe, and it’s difficult to follow sometimes. It’s hard to accept that it’s really an accurate depiction of the situation, but some reviewers who lived through it swear that it was just like it was shown. It just seems a bit too set up to be historical fiction, and it’s more like taking a historical event and putting a fictitious story behind it to make your point.

The realistic thing about this is that the actors are really from this area. The down side of that is that it made them hard for me to understand. I tried to put the subtitles on and follow it closely, but if you miss reading a line or two, it’s hard to follow along with what’s going on.

All that being said, I didn’t hate the movie in the least. But I did not come out of it all fired up and ready to march against the war either. It just left me a bit too ambivalent. If you’re interested in the historical facts, and want to know more about the holocaust that happened here, then by all means rent the film. But if you’re looking for a strong romantic drama, this will probably leave you wishing for a better story. I came down in the middle, not sorry that I watched it, but not very excited about it either.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Revolution Films

Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan, Margo Stilley, Rebecca Johnson, Dolya Gavanski, Kerry Shale, Paul Popplewell

The Trip is a mockumentary featuring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon cleverly named Steve and Rob, who set out on a food trip across England to visit the best restaurants in the country. But these two guys try to entertain themselves on the road by talking about their career highlights and doing impressions of famous actors and developing scenes.

I didn’t get into this movie in the least. I am aware that many people find it hysterical, but there is not point to this in the least. There is no opening and no ending. It just begins with Rob complaining the Steve does not know the first thing about wine tasting. We get to watch the two arguing with each other about the finer points of properly tasting wine. They go through what seems like hours of discussion over such hysterical (NOT) subjects as announcing a show by Trevor Eve on BBC 1, attempting hundreds of ways to make the announcement in different inflections and with different emphasis. Later we get to see 45 minutes of the King announcing to his men that they will be in battle tomorrow morning, and many will die, but after a continental breakfast at 7:30. The battle will be 10ish. There’s very little material, and it’s very much repeated to death. We see what seems like hours of these two driving through the countryside repeating the same things over and over and over again. I don’t understand people who get this kind of humor. Perhaps if you are really familiar with English pop culture, and/or fans of Steve and Rob. I am neither, and this really was hard to sit through. It’s the first film in a long time that I really, really wanted to turn off after 20 minutes, but I sat through the whole thing just to see if it got any better. This was worse to me than watching paint dry, and I urge you to avoid this at all costs.

A horrible film!

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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