Casablanca Express (1989)

I love this movie so much

You won't be disappointed!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Star power is perhaps less important in movies today than it was in decades past. Films are more often sold on a concept rather than a name and it is far less common for a star to have the ability to 'open' a film on their name power alone. The casting for Casablanca Express, a World War II set tale shot in Morocco and Italy demonstrates two types of name casting of the period. The first is the use of actors who had substantial careers but were perhaps past the point of being headliners themselves anymore. Glenn Ford at the age of 73 and Donald Pleasance at 70 are given substantial supporting roles that rely on their presence and the ability for their names to be used in print and related advertising. Ford had given very few acting performances in the previous decade, whilst Pleasance had been hugely busy in a large range of low budget features. The older audience would be familiar with the actors' work and be happy perhaps to see them again in a feature.The second form of name recognition used is to cast the offspring of known actors, in this case the sons of Sean Connery and Anthony Quinn, relying perhaps on curiosity value from the audience about whether they would be equivalent level stars to their parents. In this case neither has a great deal of charisma but their evident willingness to engage in complex stunt work un-doubled for the most part is impressive. The complex action sequences atop and around trains go a long way to adding to the conviction of the film.The plot is fairly perfunctory though with a non-cheat twist ending and the remote locations through which the train of the title travels are fairly evocative. Dialogue is at time unintentionally hilarious and extensive post-production dubbing appears to have occurred.I enjoyed my first viewing of Casablanca Express but did not feel it had sufficient depth or other items of interest that would support a repeat viewing.

I can only guess some of these actors were looking for paychecks and they are the only ones who profit from this. Nothing is good ; the camera-work is poor, the script is poor, there is no closed captions, and the sound really sucks. you can almost see 20 foot booms with mics dangling from them, instead of mics on the actors. Alright, the scenery is OK. And this is proof that just because you have actors as parents doesn't mean you get any talent from the genes. This was one of the last movies for Glenn Ford, an iconic actor from the 40's and 50's. Even Donald Pleasence is in this, the same year he shot Halloween 5. Some of the chase scenes were overly long and not necessary to the story. Unnecessary nudity and "love scenes" used as filler.

You'll find yourself laughing at the many historical errors and incongruities in this movie. For example: The average North African home surrounded an open court, why in the world would anyone place an anti-aircraft machine gun in the middle of a small courtyard unless he felt there was a good chance they would only be attacked by dive bombers!!! Or how about two hand painted vertical stripes on the helmet of an American captain, so oversize and off center, it's hard to miss his rank. Or how about the HUGE red cross bullseye's on the helmets of the medics. Otherwise the movie was fun but not in the way the producers ever intended.

This film was on a DVD with another film, "The Swiss Conspiracy," so comparisons are inevitable. I gave this a 6 because I thought it was better than "The Swiss Conspiracy." Which isn't saying much. But I actually liked this film a little better than most of the other people who commented on this board.Its stars are Jason Connery, son of Sean, and Francesco Quinn, son of Anthony, along with Glenn Ford, Donald Pleasance, Jean Sorel and Jinny Stefan. One thing that made me deeply regret watching this film was that I had never seen Glenn Ford in anything he did after Superman - until this 1989 movie. Though I give him credit for not wearing a hairpiece or getting a face lift, his appearance was an unwelcome shock.The story concerns getting Churchill to Casablanca via train. I am not the World War II expert that some of the other reviewers here are, so I can't speak to the inaccuracies. I found the action sequences, especially those concerning the train, exciting, suspenseful, and well directed. One thing that was somewhat stupid - one of the Germans goes through the train, shooting anybody in his way - we're talking men, women, or children. Then he tells his commander that one man, whose dead body the commander sees, came after him and he had to shoot in self defense. "I told you not to kill any civilians," the commander says. So much for following orders - there was hardly anyone left alive or not wounded on the entire train of civilians! As for the rest of the movie, forget it. I didn't feel that Quinn or Connery had any charisma or acting ability, though I notice that both men continue to rack up jobs. However, they are very handsome. Connery and Tyrone Power Jr. (who isn't in this) seem to come from the same Star Children Acting Academy - when they don't know what to do, they shake their heads and tighten their lips as a reaction to some event. This normally means that the camera is on them when they have no dialogue, and they think they have to do something. They do, but on film, often an internal thought that expresses itself in the eyes is better. Sometimes less is more. Of course, less can be less, too. Connery did this grimace/head business constantly, never changing expression.The film had that grainy, cheap look to it and poor color. Possibly the people in this movie have moved up to better quality projects. I don't know whether that's a good or a bad thing.