El Nino (The Nativity) (Wide Screen)

Advantages: A well crafted tragi-comic satire on war
Disadvantages: Possibly one weak performance?

...morning. Ciki (Branko Djuric) survives to find his way into an unoccupied trench. Nino (Rene Bitorajac), a new Serbian recruit, and a jaded older soldier are sent to investigate. Thinking that the trench is empty they position the, apparently, dead body of Cera (Ciki's fellow soldier played by Filip Sovagovic) on top of a mine. When the body is removed the bomb will detonate and cause destruction for 50 metres - needless to say, Cera revives. The two men attract attention, and a French UNPROFOR Officer, Marchand (Georges Siatidis), goes against orders to try and help the two men. When he is told to move out immediately he involves an English reporter called Jane Livingstone, (Katrin Cartlidge,) starting a media circus which he hopes will bring about the rescue of these men - with the ensuing action set against the backdrop of one hot, sunny day... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Good Acting
Disadvantages: Unoriginal story

...abandoned Maggie and her mother in order to go native and join a tribe of Indians something, which Maggie will not forgive. He now acts and looks like an Apache and is not trusted. Tommy Lee Jones gives a good performance making this rather odd character believable in that world-weary way that he seems to have adopted in his more recent films. The focus of the film is on the relationship between Maggie and her father and few others get a look in. There is strange cameo role for Val Kilmer as a army captain that little to convince me even after all these years of moderate box office success that Kilmer can actually act, but no matter he isn't on the screen all that much. Eric Schweig as the psychotic Indian Shaman El Brujo provides the only other performance of note. He is pure evil with bad teeth to match! He doesn't speak a word... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Funny satire--will make you laugh and think; atypical ending.
Disadvantages: Will not make you smile.

..., a small relief band of Bosnian soldiers gets lost in the fog one night, and when the mist clears with the next day’s sunrise, they find to their horror that they’ve wandered too close to the Serbian lines. The Serbs spot the Bosnians and fire upon them. Only Tchiki (Branko Djuric) is not fatally wounded. He falls into a trench situated midway between the two enemy lines, in No Man’s Land. Serbs Nino (Rebe Bitorajac) and an older officer (Mustafa Nadarevic) are sent off to check on the enemy casualties. Tchiki has regained consciousness, sees his chest wound and crawls into a little cabin built into the widest portion of the trench. Meanwhile, the two scout Serbs decide to have “a bit of fun” with a grisly game that involves a land mine and uses a Bosnian soldier’s dead body to create a booby trap. A brief altercation between the Serbs... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful