Toocooltoobefooled As a Cuban American who came over as a child with his parents in the mid 60's I heard all too often the stories of loss, pain, and the horrors witnessed and experienced by my family under the ruthless Castro regime. We lost the future my parents had worked so hard to setup for us. My parents had to leave everything behind, their business, their careers, their family and friends, to start a new from the bottom all while in their 50's. They arrived in a Country they had always loved from afar with high hopes, abandoning all they new to flee political persecution. They came with open hearts to build a new path, focused on insuring success for us their children. The Lost City captures the plight of Cubans from that era so accurately that it felt if it were telling my story. Andy Garcia does an amazing job conveying the loss so many experienced to then be welcomed to our new home, a place were we were given a new opportunity, not handed easy street, but given an honest chance to work hard and to become part of this great United States. Garcia a Cuban immigrant himself knows the pain, the loss, and is able to transfer that to film and to the viewer in a very effective way. My parents taught us to expect nothing but work hard to be worthy of this wonderful gift America had offered to us. They taught us to be respectful, and be worthy of America. This is the greatest nation on Earth and the Lost City reminds me and should all that that which we love, our home, our country, can be lost if we are not careful.

SnoopyStyle It's 1958 Havana, Cuba. Fico Fellove (Andy Garcia) is a prominent nightclub owner. His father is a respected university professor. The successful Fellove family struggles to agree on the political change blowing in the winds. His revolutionary brother Ricardo gets arrested and he gets an old friend Captain Castel to help. Ricardo is released and runs off with Che Guevara. Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman) comes to him to turn his establishment into a casino. When he turns Lansky down, a bomb explodes killing his girlfriend. His other brother Luis gets in a plot to overthrow Batista and restore democracy. Luis is killed and he falls for Luis' widow Aurora. Bill Murray plays his constant writer friend.The filming locations in Santo Domingo are beautiful. The story is a vast family drama which Andy Garcia wants to be more like Godfather. However it never gets beyond the early promise. Garcia is mostly doing a solo gig and he's not putting enough energy into it. I don't get the Bill Murray character. The sunny Caribbean feel of the movie takes away the inherit gritty dirty feel of the story. It's too long with too much side trips. Andy Garcia's directions lack the urgency. He needs help to bring intensity into the film.

Iva96 As I wish to visit Cuba if I'll have the chance, I thought of this movie that it would be an interesting introduction to the city of Havana, to its people and to its history. Now, to be fair with the movie, it has great soundtrack and it shows people dancing everywhere (at least, they used to do so before Fidel came). Apart from that, the general feeling while watching the movie was that probably Andy Garcia had in his mind something like: "hey, I'm the producer, it's my money, so I'll direct it, make the score, and play the leading role!".I noticed other comments about how deep and insightful this movie is. In my view it is far from that. We had our own share of communism in Romania, so I guess I know what I'm talking about. Mr. Garcia does not. He only has a shallow vision about what happened there, about the drama of the people and about what a revolution means (or at least this is what he shows to us).Regarding the main characters, I found them to be unconvincing. I count here the entire family of the main character. And all the time we have close-ups of Mr. Garcia's eyes, reminding me about the expression of Steven Seagal.I wouldn't have bothered to write a review, but I really felt cheated for the time I spent watching the movie. Whatever you want (history, romance, drama, good acting, etc.) try something else.

j-lacerra This well-acted visually luxurious movie of revolution-era Cuba is a hodge-podge of beautiful and restrained scenes, many seemingly without any relationship to each other. An expansive and fragmented story like this can work well, or not at all. I'm afraid that here we have not at all. Why? One reason is that aside from Garcia and the older players, most of the primary characters look so much alike that it is hard to follow what is going on. This applies to the women as well as the men.The beautifully filmed attack on the presidential palace is marred by inter-cuts with a night club dance number and overwhelmed by counter-mood music. Clearly Garcia was influenced by The Godfather baptism scene.At one point in the movie the Garcia character takes the wife of his just-slain brother clubbing in Havana; both of them having a rather inappropriate good time. A bit part by Dustin Hoffman is well-crafted and to the point. A bit role by Bill Murray is superfluous and distracting.At the end of the day, the killer here is that the movie is boring. That drawback cannot be overcome. However, Andy Gracia does show promise as a director, and we look forward to other better efforts in the future.