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Good movie but grossly overrated

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The acting is forced. The directing is visible. The dialog is unnatural. There are awful inaccuracies both in dialog and in general direction. Truly a second grade movie. A nice Sunday morning story for those who haven't lived those times. From the tiny details that the license plates of the official cars had a yellow background and all cars in this movie feature civilian white background to the fact that the press did not use the regular passenger rail car as seen on screen, but a special postal car. A Jumanji in a Communist theme park.There are also quite a few more issues in the version I have seen (I have read there are more than one cuts). For example in the first story the visit is postponed to find out in the caption that the visit actually took place. It's true that abuse was a common place, yet sweeping the asphalt to receive the visit on a dirt road... that's quite insane even by those standards.What's worse, while trying to be some sort of "La vita e bella" of communism they take a lame approach dodging some interesting issues. So the story is childish, shallow and at the same time some consider it as some sort of irony. The irony is the fact that some of the people who created this string of stories were themselves the children of the party representatives featured here. I expected a more realist approach from them.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

Before actually seeing this motion picture I attempted to induce myself a complete amnesia related to this black page of Romanian history. When I was just a kid I almost died in a crowd struggling to buy some sort of food in a Romanian market. I'm not quite a big fan of the theme called communism. Nevertheless, I've seen some great and bad movies on the subject. Maybe one to many. For an easterner, or to be more precise, for a Romanian born in communism, the film strikes home like a time machine, from the beginning till the end.Every situation, ironical or sinister, can bring both hysterical laughter and painful memories you'd thought you'll never relive again. All the environment and the acting are amazingly truthful. In fact, you could ask any Romanian born before '89 and acknowledge his personal story through this film. My mother saw "Tales from the Golden Age" and couldn't be convinced it is just a movie played by actors, cause she almost recognized every character in the person of x or y. The reason? She lived for so long nearby the zealous Party activist, the grabby militiaman, the highbinder who represented the centralized authority, the possible unfair penalty pushing you to say "what have I done wrong?", terms like Party assignment, ideological correctness, Eastern egg ration; she, like many others, inhaled the stench of the chemical factory first hand. I mean she had her ball... A big chunk of communist history, served cold.Every Romanian who lived through communism could tell you what is like to darkly watch Bruce Lee on the illegal VCR machine, cramped with a dozen of people in a block room. Everyone knew the meaning of a present black Volga car or a white 4x4 Aro. Nobody forgot by now how cool was to wear blue jeans clothes afterhours; and no child forgot the bedtime stories told on the air. This is not average comedy. This is a black comedy of life, more like a drama in several episodes! The banana, the "Sibiu" salami brand, in fact any kind of meat in general, the eggs, etc... isn't just about common food anymore! These are true symbols of human survival in the communist Romania.20-30 years later Romanians still crowd in panic in front of the billing machines of the hypermarkets, just before holidays...like there's no tomorrow... like a sad apple, reminding of the Golden Age... and the "old ways" still prevail along with the bell ringer. But at least now they can listen to Pink Floyd without a hassle, and that's keeping me happy and gives me hope.

First thing first, this movie was no news for a citizen of Romania, just a reassurance of what we were. In the theater people were laughing at the apparently comical events that were presented in the film, but if we stay and think for a minute or two, we realize that these things really happened in Romania, and they were ordinary. Not only that, but people were really used to it and gave up easily when for example they had to be nice puppets and obey the higher officer's orders and act like you are a slave. Some people in that period actually fought and obviously lost, ending up in prisons or working as real slaves on different dirty and disgusting jobs. The occidentals can not despise us more than we despise ourselves for what we were, but if you watch this movie, you will know for sure.In other words, this is a movie worth seeing, which is for Romania that used to hide it's past behind the finger, a really cruel movie and even if on the facade it might be funny this movie is the most brutal ones in a while. Can't wait for the next one that's coming up this month!

There's pretty much no in-between when it comes to this particular movie. In order to love it, one would first need to fully grasp the social environment of the late 80's in eastern Europe. Having achieved that, the movie will suddenly become amazingly familiar. Of course, to a westerner, the movie may seem bland, with very mild comedic content, but to a eastern European, this movie will bring laughter throughout the runtime. In fact, I joined IMDb just to write about it. Yes, I found it to be that good.There are multiple factors that make this movie so enjoyable, starting with the fact that it is based on urban legends that used to circulate in Romania during the pre 1989 period (and in fact, long afterward as well), and ending with the amazingly detailed portrayal of the characters, while still maintaining a strictly necessary list of features needed to best summarise them. I'd go as far as to compare this movie to "Goodbye Lenin", which is a movie aimed at the same target as this one. I remember watching "Goodbye Lenin", and shedding a tear in the end, due to the amazing feeling of familiarity that it had brought on the screen. While "Tales from the Golden Age" will not have such a dramatic effect on you, I can assure anyone familiar with the eastern Europe social context of the 80's, that they'll definitely enjoy the movie. Of course, should one wish to nitpick, you'd find various anachronisms, mainly related to the props used, but then again, these anachronisms only helped us remember what the actual objects used to be like back then.Personally, I give it a 9, simply because I consider 10 to be a mark every director should strive to achieve, but never succeed.