Mission London

I'm not a Bulgarian, but I absolutely loved this movie (well, in the beginning it seemed a bit vague, but soon the jokes began to fall out of the closet), probably because I'm from the same region and sharing similar history, therefore I have recognized many of the cultural clichés used in the movie. I loved the character of the President's wife, as well as the ambassadors. Well casted and brilliantly written. Loved the worried British ornithologist part. These scenes beautifully infiltrated some of the English clichés - as we, Eastern Europeans see them - into the movie. Overall I am really happy that Bulgarians could produce such a movie. Never could have happened in Lithuania - we are too serious. It's very brave and it's a talent to be able to laugh from yourself.

I have never been to Bulgaria yet and do not know the culture deeply. But the movie was funny.. Kinda crazy comedy where the story keeps tangling more and more.. It's funny how the characters escape from the absurd situation they got themselves into...

Mission London never gets boring and entertains 100%. The actors - most of them very well known to the Bulgarian public and completely unknown to the rest of the world, are full of qualities and motivation to do their best. That makes them very persuasive. In fact this movie is so good, if it was a woman I would have married her brother (Bulgarian way of expressing). Of course it will be fair to say that the humor in the film is directed a little bit more towards the Bulgarians, there are some specific touches connected with the Bulgarian culture and style of living that the Bulgarians will grasp more effectively than others. So in my opinion that makes the film more enjoyable for a Bulgarian than anybody else. But nevertheless this one is a fine piece of a movie. If you watch carefully you will eventually know something more about Bulgarians and a lot more about the way they organize foreign adventures.

I'm not giving this movie a 10 just because I'm a Bulgarian. I laughed really hard - something that hasn't happened for years watching a Hollywood production. Yes, it wasn't a deep, meaningful movie, but who expects that from a comedy?!? The script was really original, nothing like the comedies I've seen in the last few years. We should admit at least that - we tried to do something different. That's the main reason this movie deserves an excellent rate - it's nothing like the movies we are used to watch. No hollow and unreal love story, no happy ending, no glorifying the nation. It's the exact opposite of that - short fling; interesting and unexpected, yet the only believable ending; exposing the main features (mostly the bad ones) of our nation. Shortly - the real life. And may be the main reason this movie has to be watched is to contribute the Bulgarian cinema - we showed talent and ambition, probably over time we will make something really great!

This is the first Bulgarian movie that has done everything professionally - the producing, the marketing and advertising, the vision and sound of the film etc. The commercial success of Mission London is of great importance because if there is profit - more companies will be attracted to invest in Bulgarian cinema. Therefore I really hope the movie gets a good revenue and for now it seems like it would succeed in this mission due to the record breaking audience that it attracted during it's first week. Thanks to a very good advertising campaign and extensive media coverage everybody in Bulgaria is talking about Mission London.

So everything involving the organization and the promoting of the movie was executed fantastically. However the movie itself in my opinion fails to live up to the expectations set by the trailers. Some of the acting is poor due to the casting. The screenplay is too chaotic and the directing only amplifies this feeling. In a few words I could describe Mission London as a mediocre attempt at reinterpretating Guy Ritchie's modern British style cinema of the previous decade (Snatch, Lock stock and two smoking barrels) and mixing it with some typical Bulgarian absurdness. Sadly though the result is neither as intense, complicated and funny as Ritchie's nor is it thoroughly exploring the absurd Bulgarian characters and modern politics. It's a movie that tried to imitate and be original at the same time and unfortunately it didn't succeed at both. Another problem is that Guy Ritchie's style has passed it's time and is already too exploited and Mission London doesn't bring anything new to it. On the contrary the director even picked Alan Ford to play a similar character as he did in Snatch.

In the end I would like to say that i'm hoping Bulgarian cinema will attract more sponsors and the producers will try to make movies at a bigger scale. Mission London is the first bold attempt and it's a good start. For those who are really interested in modern Bulgarian cinema I really want to recommend them watching "Zift", "The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner" or "Eastern Plays"! New films from young directors that really impress and show that there is a lot of talent here that just needs to be given the chance to work. Because even though the three movies I mentioned were done with very low budgets the results are really fascinating!