Havana 57 (2012) User Reviews

Beautiful Scenery, Not So Beautiful Acting

[buckcash · 4/10 · 4 February 2014]

I had high hopes for this movie, especially given the glowing review by a previous reviewer, and perhaps I went into it with my expectations too high because of that.

My impression as I watched was that it had beautiful scenery, terrific sets, locations, props and actors. Visually, it was quite fantastic in an eye-candy sort of way. I thought the camera work and lighting were quite nicely done.

But the acting, to me, was not beautiful at all. From my point of view, it was quite stilted, stiff, dialogue delivered as if read from cue cards by students of over-clear enunciation school. It just didn't come off as natural to me, and kept me from immersing myself in the story, unfortunately.

When one actor's work in a film comes off as unconvincing or amateurish, I put the blame on that actor. But when it's a problem with all or nearly all of the actors in a film, I put the blame on the director, and that's the case here.

The story itself was mediocre, standard-fare good-cop-surrounded-by-bad- elements stuff, with no real surprises or notable twists to speak of, unless you're very new to the genre, which I'm not.

In the end, it's nothing I'd care to see again and, knowing what I know now, had I missed it, that would have been okay too.

Havana 57-Made by Canadians with Castro Cooperation for A Gullible Public.

[venomjrl312 · 1/10 · 18 June 2017]

Havana 57-Made by Canadians with Castro Cooperation for A Gullible Public.

As usual a Movie made in Castro Cuba,the usual propaganda,made by accomplices in the misery the regime has done in this case as usual foreigners who for some reason are under the spell of a ruined Country like Cuba and who of course rely on sources still in CastroCuba run by Castro goons.The movie is boring despite the name- calling of famous clubs the premise is the usual as in most so- called "histories" in books on Cuba and on film.While I am far from sympathetic to the Crook Batista,the fact remains that Cuba Pre- Castro was not only prospering but did better than the States(we didn't have segregation). The movie has errors such as the vehicles,the accessories for the vehicles and plain lazy when passing the malecon you see modern-day tourists in shorts and not 1957 Attire. The movie is slow,awful and typical of modern day Castro Cuba Apologists. You want to see a better movie see Lost City.

Let me be the first to submit a review!

[rchoyle · 9/10 · 5 December 2013]

I am amazed their have not been any reviews posted yet for this brilliant piece of work! I'm a huge fan of these lesser known independent flicks! Just love it when I come across one especially when at first I don't know what to expect, but what I found here was 90 minutes that was very well spent watching a movie with a very believable portrayal of Cuba before the fall of the Batista regime and when Castro took over and everything changed. But prior to that, for what I have been led to believe, Cuba was like the Wild West full of corruption and sin on every corner and this movie depicts 50's Cuba as it was portrayed in other films. Godfather 3 comes to mind. The storyline was nothing short of brilliant and had my attention from the opening scene! What you will not find me doing is posting reviews about popular major studio pictures. Those have 500 reviews and their is no room for anymore, but with a movie like this and no reviews, I'm honoured to put my stamp of approval on this little known gem and I will keep this movie as one of the better ones I have come across recently! That's all I will say about it. If you want to know more, you'll have to watch it and take my word for it, it will be time well spent!