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Overrated and overhyped

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

What can you say about a fifty year effort that has a documented 638 attempts without success? Is the CIA that incompetent? It would certainly appear so as they have been unable to kill a World Leader like Castro - a crime, by the way, in any sense of the word.The head of Cuban intelligence is the focus of this funny and interesting documentary that outlines some of the strange and downright weird ways that attempts have been made on Castro's life, from exploding cigars to poisons to guns and exploding fish, as well as the infamous Bay of Pigs.The film weaves movie clips throughout as they obviously don't have film of the real attempts, and it makes for an enjoyable film. There are many interviews with the terrorists in Miami that made attempts that failed, and even George Bush made an appearance talking about those who harbor terrorists while all the while harboring two big ones himself.He who laughs last laughs best.

Since his ascension to power on New Years Day 1959 Cuban President and Dictator Fidel Ruz Castro has been in the cross-hairs of not only free Cubans who were forced to leave their homeland because of his socialistic policies but also the US Government; Ten Presidential Administrations worth. Among the others gunning for Castro's hide is US, at home and abroad, Big Business and last but not least the notorious criminal octopus-like Mafia. It was the Mafia whom Castro kicked out of the country together with their casinos hookers and drug traffickers soon after he took power in 1959.In the film "638 ways to Kill Castro" were shown just how far these groups would be willing to go to knock off Fidel Castro, code name "The Beard" or "El Beardo", and at the same time how they screwed up every time, 638 times as of last count, they tried! Watching the many almost comical attempts on Castro's life the thing that struck me about Castro's would-be assassins is that no matter how much they want him dead their not willing to risk their lives, or even their freedoms, in order to kill him!It's even brought out in the documentary about using an Arab, suicide bomber I would suspect, to get the job done but even that won't work. No matter how extreme an Arab or Muslim Islamic fanatic is in risking or losing his, or her, life he needs to be properly motivated to do it. How could you motivated him to kill Fidel Castro! A person whom an Islamic fanatic has no reason to get himself killed, in killing him, for! Would killing Castro bring him eternal paradise in his slaying an enemy of Islam?Were shown in film clips the "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba back in the spring of 1961 that turned into a major disaster for the then incoming John F. Kennedy Administration. A humiliated JFK became so obsessed to get Castro that he personally planned, through the CIA and Mafia, 42 attempted "hits" on El Beardo's, Castro, life up until the time that he himself was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The attempts on Castro's life increased with every preceding US Presidential Administration reaching the final count, as of November 2000, of 638! With a record high reached during President Ronald Wilson Reagan's Administration, 1981-1989, of 197! An average of 24 attempts on Fidel Castro's life a year!The movie shows just how hard ,if not impossible, it is to get close enough to Castro in order to knock him off. One thing that the film seems to ignore or overlook is how popular Castro is in his native Cuba which may well be the reason why he's been in power for almost 50 years. Those shown in the movie who want to do Castro in come across as what we, or the Bush Administration, would consider to be members of El-Qeada or the Taliban terrorist organizations. The film brings out how disingenuous US President GW Bush is in his statement that "Either your with us or with the Terrorists". It's both sad and ironic how that fighting and sh*t-kicking statement compares to GW's whole hearted support of those who want to do in "El Beardo". Who in their actions, like the bombing in 1976 of a Cuban passenger airliner with over 70 people killed, more then fit the bill that President Bush describes as the terrorists that he's so dedicated to eradicate!With Fidel Castro now voluntary out of power, having his younger brother Raul take over, even if he's assassinated it will just be a hollow victory to those who've been out to get him for almost half a century. All the attempts and lives lost, by both sides, in trying to take Castro out has now become history with Fidel Castro no longer a factor in running Cuba. A history that many in the CIA US State Department and free Cuban Community, in both the USA and abroad, will very well want to forget.

After a bit of calculation and counting, 638 is the number of plots and conspiracies against Fidel Castro arrived at by his former head of state security Fabian Escalante. This documentary looks back at the history of this continual attempts by the US Government to kill Castro via various proxies. Whether it be the infamous Bay of Pigs incident or the plans to undermine him by making his beard fall out, we get interviews from those involved from both Cuba and the US.A rather mixed bag this documentary. On one hand it feels all a bit cheeky and light hearted, using film stock from unrelated films (Angels with Dirty Faces) to illustrate what the narrator is saying. But on the other hand it is a film that includes footage of executions and does, at the end of the day, deal with a dictator who killed dissidents within his own country and has been a target of the US for decades. Some others have praised this light hearted approach but personally I found it distracting. Yes at times the plots are daft (powder to make his beard fall out, exploding cigars, LSD in a TV studio to make him freak out etc) but mostly this serious stuff. That said though, the film is still interesting regardless of this mixed approach and has done really well to get access to lots of significant players within this story. Infamous terrorist Orlando Bosch (granted residency in the US by Bush Sr even though 30+ countries refused to accept him) and it is chilling to watch him confess to a plane bombing that killed all the passengers but also more! The standard of the rest of the contributors is similarly high, including former US diplomats, former friend Enrique Ovares (who committed suicide just weeks after this film was made) and others. The narration is a bit flat but the biggest problem is the direction from Cannell. With so many great contributors talking so honestly about state-sanctioned terrorism, the death of innocents and so on, why was it felt necessary to overuse stock footage of a house exploding, or clips from old spy b-movies? I have no idea but it did seem that the film was interesting in spite of the delivery rather than because of it.Damning and fascinating stuff then. Really well researched and with great access to key people, many of whom are astonishingly frank. The comic tone to it and use lots of inappropriate stock footage were big mistakes though and undermine the importance and quality of the film. A very mixed bag then, but the good outweighs the bad but it is very much worth seeing.

This movie's sense of humor is on par with, and dare I say exceeds, The Power of Nightmares. The combination of lighthearted music, serious information, quick editing, and an overall swift pace results in one thoroughly entertaining movie. This film is on the forefront of the Edu-tainment style of documentary film-making. The information presented is simultaneously comical and weighty. There were at least two moments when I actually exclaimed out loud, "What!?" If you need a break from documentaries that make you feel depressed but you still desire to know what is going on behind the scenes in our world, check out 638 Ways to Kill Castro.I promise you will not be disappointed........unless you are an elderly Cuban exile who wishes Castro dead.