Popular reviews

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  Review by Jake Cole ★★★★½ 2

  "So they call me Concentration Camp Ehrhardt, eh?"

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 2

  87/100

  A proud, important joke mixed and matched for an hour and a half, but when its subject is so sinister and its execution so multifaceted in delivery and tone balances, it doesn't really matter that each comedic springboard is built off of the same root feelings of anger and frustration. Ernst Lubitsch is pissed off but entirely confident in his storytelling, never relenting from harsh realities but still sly enough to make a smile and a tear one and the same. If any one moment shifted towards the absurd, Lubitsch would dial it back for a more humane, grounded segment, and in a few sections, he even shook the two flavors and moods together for an unpredictable end result…

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  Review by Nick ★★★★½ 3

  One of the most well-written anti-war comedies in cinema history, To Be or Not to Be manages to land almost every joke non-stop during its runtime while pronouncing its unmistakable anti-war stance that's as relevant 80 years later as it was then. Roberto Benigni, Lina Wertmüller and Taika Waititi should definitely thank this movie for existing.

  Depicting tears through laughter, To Be or Not to Be chronicles a Polish theatrical troupe's equal parts intense and hilarious journey of fighting Nazis. It's the ingenious ways of combining the dream-chasing ordeals of struggling actors with the absolute atrocity of war crimes that give this movie a distinctive if somehow controversial touch that eventually stands the test of time.

  Ernst Lubitsch's decision to…

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  Review by Rembrandt Q Pumpernickel ★★★★ 1

  More transgressive and surprising than Inglourious Basterds.

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  Review by vincent price was 6′4″ ★★★★ 4

  "What have you to say for yourself now? Here is a man with a beard, and you didn't even pull it!"

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  Review by Dragonknight ★★★★½ 2

  Film #9 of Project 40

  ”They named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out of Bismarck, and the Fuhrer is going to end up as a piece of cheese!”

  This is how it should be done. Every now and then you find a movie that you can watch over and over without getting tired or bored, for me To Be or Not To Be is one of those films. A charming and delightful little comedy from Ernst Lubitsch set in the Nazi occupied Warsaw which makes fun of Nazis better than any other satire, honors actors who are passionately working to bring us lively theaters and like other Lubitsch movies bombards us with polished, highly amusing and elegant…

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  Review by trex888 ★★★★½ 5

  to live or not to live this is the real question

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★½ 2

  87

  "Well, Colonel, all I can say is... you can't have your cake and shoot it, too."

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  Review by Will Steele ★★★★★

  “What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland!”

  I’ve seen this twice and the 1983 remake once yet it still has me guessing at every turn. The narrative is digestible yet unpredictable. Paced perfectly with densely-packed fortuitous plot wound around tight wry dialogue which is leaner than a side of beef. I am flawed as to how this film feels as if it were written with a hundred years of hindsight. 

  An intrinsic instalment in cinematic culture and language linking premises of The Guardsman to the ambitious alternative history of Inglorious Basterds. No wonder I adore a film which shares a writer and director with Ninotchka; both political comedies with immense wit only matched by their courage to address the hypocrisies of their time.

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  Review by Paul Elliott ★★★★★

  Interweaving numerous threads of prudent humour within ostensibly solemn scenes, German director Ernst Lubitsch jumps energetically at the opportunity to laugh at the Nazis through a storyline which centres on a cast of performers in Poland employing their proficiencies to deceive the Nazi-occupying forces. To Be or Not to Be is full of spontaneous interactions and hardly subdued insinuations, and is perhaps one of the sharpest meta-comedies to materialise from the Hollywood studio system.

  Its scenes are crowded with wisecracks and actors playing multiple parts, and Lubitsch makes forceful efforts in breaching the hampering restrictions of the motion picture production code by various carefree techniques. It effortlessly jumps the rails of the perceived impression that the menace of Nazism was beyond lampooning, and incorporates tremendous proportions of amusement and enjoyment. Additionally, it was released just thirty-four days after Carole Lombard tragically died at the age of thirty-three.

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  Review by Justin Peterson ★★★★ 1

  Criterion Collection Spine #670

  I finally took issue with this film after the 42nd Sieg Heil ... not really ... but it's incredible to think this Nazi farce was made during the darkest days of WW2.

  "They call you Concentration Camp Ehrhardt ... Ha ha. Yes, yes... we do the concentrating and the Poles do the camping."

  Director Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be is about a troop of actors in Poland, that get tangled up in a Nazi spy plot in occupied Warsaw. The actors greatest advantage is being able to use their quick wit and acting skills to impersonate the Nazis ... as hijinks ensue.

  "They named a brandy after Napoleon, they made a herring out…

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  Review by Joe ★★★★★ 4

  The best humorists will always be the ones who can laugh in the face of things that are absolutely devoid of any immediately apparent humor, no matter what "they" say. Ernst Lubitsch and the rest of the cast and crew of To Be or Not To Be are definitely a part of that group - I didn't think it was possible for a movie made in 1942 to be so refreshingly and boldly irreverent about the Nazi threat. And unlike, say, The Great Dictator, it doesn't fall into sentimentality or preachiness at the end - this is a true smartass's look at WWII, and it very rarely if ever compromises that point of view.

  The whole cast is excellent (this…