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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The Worst Film Ever

Excellent, a Must See

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Despite being panned by most " sophisticated " critics, this is a darned good movie. OK, it may not be Casablanca, but the two stars are interesting, and the story is a good one. Most of the cast is good, especially Menocal, played by Tomas Milian. The coolest part of this movie is the musical score which seems pretty authentic and gives the flick a lot of atmosphere. Even though it was filmed in the Dominican, most viewers would not care. I truly think this movie will rate better opinions "as time goes by" !! How you gonna beat Redford and Olin ?? The last scene in the movie where Redford goes to the beach in Key West and looks wistfully into the glorious sunset thinking of Bobbi, is one of the better endings of recent movies.

The island of Cuba is a long way from Morocco, but in Sydney Pollack's film of the same name the city of Havana isn't too far removed from 'Casablanca'. The two films share a similar exotic locale, the same shady intrigue, and an all too familiar bittersweet romance. All that's missing are Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, but what's surprising about Pollack's film is how well it stands up under the comparison. Robert Redford portrays a tough and charismatic (if slightly disreputable) gambler who drifts into the decadent Cuban capital during the last, desperate days of the Battista regime, and it's a pleasure to watch him playing, for once, a character without a built-in halo. The foreign intrigue, played against a background of political unrest, is perfectly suited to the swinging tropical setting, but the romance between Redford and beautiful revolutionary Lena Olin isn't as convincing. Don't blame the talented cast; the script lets them down too often during the last half of the film, undermining an otherwise attractive and entertaining bit of high-grade, escapist fluff.

I just never get tired of seeing the jubilant masses in Havana on January 1st, 1959, as the rats go scurrying to their boats and planes to escape the results of their support and participation in a cruel regime. It doesn't matter whether I am watching The Godfather or Soy Cubba or Havana, the exhilaration is the same.Robert Redford and director Sydney Pollack join together in what is billed as Casblanca in the Caribbean. Redford is great as usual and may be a worthy successor to Bogart. The dialog in the film was also good, as was the score - beautiful music! Of course, I was excited to see Lena Olin (the Ingrid Bergman character). As a big fan of Auturo Perez-Reverte, I enjoyed seeing her in The Ninth Gate and am glad she is here in her first American film. She was magnificent.Raul Julia played her husband. He always adds to any film he appears in.

It often seems like some critics chastise Sydney Pollack for inserting too much political commentary into his movies. "Havana" would be a prime example. It features frequent Pollack star Robert Redford* as a gambler who goes to Cuba's capital during the last few days of 1958, when the revolution is about to triumph. On the way there, he meets Lena Olin, the wife of revolutionary fighter Raul Julia. Over the course of the movie, Redford and Olin not only develop a relationship, but he comes to understand why the revolution is happening.Maybe the movie does go just a little overboard on politicking. But I would like to pose a question: are we supposed to focus on these sorts of things and totally ignore politics? Would the world be a better place if everyone just blindly accepted every piece of government propaganda? Because it seems to me that part of democracy is that people are supposed to challenge the government if they think that the latter is lying. Therefore, I have to commend Sydney Pollack for doing that in "Havana".Another thing is that it seems like this movie was a semi-remake of Richard Lester's "Cuba", starring Sean Connery as a British agent sent there on the verge of the revolution's triumph and discovering the status quo. Even if it is, I still recommend it.Also starring Alan Arkin (his character is very likely to make your skin crawl) and Richard Farnsworth.*Interestingly, they haven't collaborated since this movie.