Love and Bullets

Love and Bullets is a pulpy musical terror, but you have to appreciate its good heart and the filmmakers’ intention to depict Naples and its flaws in nice colors. There is more killing and shooting than in Gomorrah, but also a lot of merry dancing and kissing, and the film often does not take itself seriously. Despite the fact that the storyline and the protagonists’ faces and expressions are straight out of a soap opera, the long runtime, the large number of characters and expensive production with grand exteriors make it a proper feature-length movie. This movie is a bizarre experience somewhere between geeky guilty pleasure and pure torment, which was not helped by my sleep deprivation during a late-night screening at Pragues' Lucerna cinema with its wooden seats. The film just would. not. end. (08.04.2018)

I believe that they had a positive atmosphere on set while filming, and most of the people involved had a great time. In many scenes, you can feel the immediate excitement of both the crew and the actors to be a part of it. It's a shame that the enchantment with the creative process prevented the authors from maintaining distance and professionalism. At times, you feel like you're watching a performance by an amateur group that adapted a play from their hometown, with families, friends, and local patriots in the audience. Everyone shines with satisfaction, but you notice the dead spots, the problematic acting, and the technical flaws. Love and Bullets is mostly undermined by the unwillingness to edit, so instead of being entertaining, the film drags painfully. This is also accompanied by the film's inability to find its own identity and define a style and stick to it. The elements of a crazy comedy and genre parody, which mock a mix of a soap opera and mafia drama, clash unhappily with the game of fate and bloody massacres, as well as with the awkward musical numbers. I can manage to give it a weak three-star rating, but I can't imagine what would make me want to repeat the experience. Overall impression: 50%. (29.04.2019)