Houston, We Have a Problem! (2016)

First have to give comment that in here the author did not type names all of the protagonists. It would be good that he/she mentioned all, as for example are Ivan Pavic and his daughter. Finally I saw it and in it all is for me more than "docu-fiction". For sure many of those things really happened in that period, what is shown in that some around hour and a half. It is the truth picture how it can be when someone who is poor, without any cent in his pocket, is gambling with the big and rich players, who have not only the money, but also all needed tools, but maybe not all needed knowledge. Generally speaking, from seeing this material you ask yourself, is it worth to sell the knowledge and how much is it worth? In that situation, you never think about what consequences will appear and in what shape and in what measure. The people of ex Yugoslavia survived that and know very well how it can be.

"Houston We have a Problem" started with an interesting enough concept through a documentary/narrative/fictional structure and strategy in order to deliver a certain idea, which in the end becomes a kind of clinical allegory about the disintegration of Yugoslavia – trying to be entertaining and funny while at it. Until the last third of the film, it was interesting, I admit, and intriguing where it would end up. By the end it was somewhat disgusting by the shallowness of its "irony," given the tragedy it depicts.Zizek's usual overcooked but useless philosophical platitudes ring even more hollow than usual in this context – although he did have some funny lines in the beginning (yeah, and the socks, whatever).It may be an interesting film for a disengaged and clueless audience, who were not affected by the history depicted in this film (or similar experiences in other parts of the world) – but imagine making such a clinical allegory of another, more "relevant" "country disintegration war" or even (gasp) genocide – take your pick – Israel, Palestine, Syria, Libya, etc. -- the filmmaker would maybe be more vilified/ostracized/banished than celebrated for his "cleverness." If you want an effective allegory of what happened with Yugoslavia, watch Tanovic's Oscar winner "No Man's Land," or even better, Kenovic & co.'s SaGA films (google it) – from that part of the world, Bosnians are much better and more interesting storytellers and record keepers than Slovenians (and much funnier, too – for full disclosure, I am not Bosnian and I don't subscribe to ethnic disparagement or similar).PS. It's not really a "1" more like a "5" rating, but just to counter this ridiculous overrated extravaganza here.

I enjoyed this movie, probably because being from the region and living through the demise of Yugoslavia I was left with so many unanswered questions. I am not sure if this movie answers them in the most truthful way, but it tries to give a plausible scenario. To counterpoint the previous review, this movie to me was foretelling the saying "if you play with the wolf you'll end up being eaten". There is no argument that Tito's charisma was not an equal match for American imperialism. If anything, he and his little country were the mouse that USA needed to play with in order to match up with the Soviet space program, if this story has any historical merit. Therefore, I felt that there were few essential questions still left out and that the movie was trying to play it safe and appeal to western audiences as a political thriller rather than a historical documentary. The main story of an engineer going back to Yugoslavia after living in the USA for 5 decades and meeting his daughter contained few inconsistencies and seemed over dramatized. The interesting commentator/narrator role of Zhizhek was also a bit over the top while offering simplistic analysis. I kept wondering "why isn't he wearing shoes" and "he needs a new pair of socks" throughout his energetic delivery. Nevertheless, I enjoyed all the documentary footage of Tito since for the first time I was looking at him as if he was an ordinary person. And I felt compassion towards him, even though this time I wasn't obliged to do so by the regime. Maybe after seeing other regimes fail in even more humiliating ways I realized the tough job he was trying to do. And this is the ultimate value of this docudrama.

For starters, every movie that gives you new information and makes you think, is a good movie. That said, I didn't really like the whole picture that movie tried to describe. But, that said, that picture is directors prerogative, and I respect that. There are a few informations in this film that were hardly obtainable before it, but they are used to paint that fore-mentioned directors vision. In his eyes, by my opinion, he tried to paint the story of Icarus, through a whole country of Yugoslavia and its late president Tito. But, in essence, it is a classic story about capitalism vs. communism (sociallism derived from communism) OK, Tito was master of "sales of testicles for kidneys" (majstor prodaje muda za bubrege), but nevertheless, while he was president, of former socialist republic of Yugoslavia, people always had their 13th paycheck, they were getting condos from their firms for contribution, and they had 30 days a year of paid vacation. It was a happy life. His main mistake was, by my opinion, that he didn't MAKE his successor in like 1965., and gave him power over country in 1970., continuing to lead from the "shadows". This movie, in first half is very joyous, but later it makes you think that all the bad things that happened in Yugoslavia were direct consequence of one bad deal in 1960, and some kind of revenge for that bad deal (SPOILER ALERT: Nikson says: "we will bomb the hell out of those Yugoslavs". In what civilized society is killing people OK as an retribution for bad deal?!). Film is also describing Slavoj Zizak as copy/paste of today's Srdja Popovic. Really didn't like the, not bitter end, but obnoxious end. (It is destiny of a single person, and opinion too. And a bit much dramatically intense). Base 505 (Objekat 505) was a military project whose prime mission was control of the Yugoslavian sky from strategically good position.Whose to say that Yugoslavia didn't sell a working project and after that America just said "IT DOES NOT WORK" (They did send a man on the Moon 7 years later). This is a movie that is supposed to tickle your imagination, and it is very good it that aspect. Makes you think, and that is what I love about it! 4 years ago I saw trailer for this movie and I was expecting it on my toes. I heard it was finished a year ago. And, if you look form marketing aspect, or marketing point of view, why wait so long for premiere?! Well, it has to have something with change from summer to autumn, people tend to stay at homes because it is cold outside, it is Sunday and this is literally THE PRIME TELEVISION time. HBO, Sunday, 8 PM. Prime goal is to reach to as many people/viewers as it can. (...but that is normal economic goal too...) So, to conclude, very interesting movie, but don't take it as the whole truth! :D