National Hero Lily Vidic (2015)

Sadly Over-hyped

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

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Croatian movies lack humour, but I had high expectations on this one, since it's trailer was very promising. Unfortunately, the trailer has most of the best parts from the film. Can't say there aren't many (often verbal or written) jokes in the film, but they didn't make me laugh, just put a mild smile on my face or more often "I got this one" reaction. I mean - I can't say the film is bad, far from that - but it's hard to say it's good either. Some actors are great, usual Croatian problem of actors behaving like they are acting in a theater is not present, camera is OK, but I expected more from humour after I've seen trailer. People who aren't from former Yugoslavia will hardly get half of the jokes in the film, since they are local, and there are many small details that have to be noticed. So to summ it up - after watching the film for the first time I was not positive about it, but I watched it once again the day-two after, because I wanted to see some scenes again.

Narodni heroj Ljiljan Vidic (national hero Ljiljan Vidic) is a pretty amusing croatian language comedy set in during World War II. It's about a young poet, Ljiljan who joins the communist partisans to help fight against the Nazis and Croatian fascists (ustashe). He and his partisan friends enter a talent show with the hope of assassinating Hitler. If you are looking for historical accuracy and gritty realistic look at WW2 look elsewhere. This is a broad spoof with allusions to modern pop culture, music and technology. The film can be vulgar at times and a little on the childish side but I found it amusing. I would recommend it if you are looking for wacky, irreverent comedy. The only issues for English speakers is that I'm not sure if there is an English subtitled version out and you might miss out on some of the jokes if you do not understand the context/culture. It's also surprisingly well shot and the costumes are well done.

This movie is packed with little jokes, it reminds me on old Monty Python films. It may have a strong local focus, so all the jokes may not be so easily understandable to public outside South-East Europe, although I think that everyone will laugh at "Lol". The film counts on younger public, but was fun for me, and I am 54.Characters are of a comic book style, do not expect a usual comedy, this film reminds on a video game, and needs full attention, so that all little details can be caught.For all youngsters - highly recommended, for others - also, if they still are young inside.

This movie had its bright sides, but overall it is yet another boring Croatian movie. It is a terrible satire with very few cheap laughs. The whole theatre chuckled a few times, but remained quiet (and deadly serious) for most of the time. Scenes with Pavelić were wasted opportunities and people in the theatre only wondered what the hell is going on when he arrived. Lots of high school Croatian humour (note: "Croatian humour" is a lack of humour in my book) References to modern brands, modern technology, shopping centres , internet culture and TV shows were the best part and even they were sometimes completely unoriginal. I understood the satire perfectly, but it really wan't clever. It wasn't great. Trailers and "Heil Katze" video uploaded by News Bar on Youtube were better than the whole movie, so if you watched those, you have seen the funniest bits. Feel free to skip the most boring parts and skip the 2 hour long snorefest of a movie with a story that felt too long and not complete at the same time. I understood the ending....but I did not like it.3/10-What's wrong with you Croatia, why can't you produce decent movies? Serbian filmmakers do not have Hollywood budgets but they make decent movies all the time. It's like the whole film industry died in Croatia after the war.