the audience applauded

I wanted to but couldn't!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

After an emotional film of the wall coming down, Lena (Felicity Waterman) comes to LA to see the sights and show off her bad German accent. She gets her luggage swapped with criminal who come after her, but not before she meets a rich cabbie and does the frolic in sand and sun scene. The film is light and tries to be clever. It has some folks with name recognition such as Bill Dana and Pat Morita and Susan Anton.Unlike my peers, I wasn't overly entertained. The accent was really bad. Available on multi-packs.

Lena's Holiday is certainly a slightly unusual release from b-movie producers Crown International Pictures. It's one of those uncommon films which combine the comedy and thriller genres, while it also has a title character travelling from an ex-Communist Bloc country which adds a bit of fish-out-of-water to the mix. The story is set in the immediate aftermath of the Berlin Wall coming down. An East German girl uses her new found freedom to visit Los Angeles. As soon as she arrives she finds herself mixed up with violent jewel thieves.This is an odd mix of genres which results in a film which is hard to fully categorise. There is some comedy but that's offset by moments of murder and threat, so the comedy and thriller elements are almost pulling against one and other. Still, this does ensure that the film is a little different from what you would expect. It's actually not too bad an effort from Crown, who by this point in time were churning out quite a lot of under par efforts. The title character is played by English actress Felicity Waterman who sports a pretty funny accent, it's not always convincing but she is successfully amusing with it and she is undoubtedly the star of the show here in a very likable performance. There's also a completely superfluous appearance from Pat Morita as a slovenly hotel owner…well it was nice to know he was there. This is a pretty middling affair overall in truth but it does have a decent likability factor and it also has the bonus of not being too generic or predictable.

I tend to avoid romantic comedies like the plague but I ended up watching LENA'S HOLIDAY anyway, purely because it was put out by Crown International Pictures and I've been watching a lot of their movies over the last year (blame a British TV channel which has been showing much of their back catalogue). Anyway, this is a low budget entry in that particular genre, but one which turns out to be surprisingly warm and likable given that I usually despise the genre.The story is about a young girl from East Germany who ends up in Los Angeles and gets taken advantage of by various unscrupulous characters. Felicity Waterman essays the lead and although her accent occasionally slips she's quite authentic for the most part, and has a sweet nature which makes her easy to root for. The supporting cast are fairly good too, with Chris Lemmon (son of Jack) as the quickfire cab driver and Nick Mancuso less scuzzy than usual (only a bit, mind) as a photographer. There's a random Pat Morita cameo, an aimless sub-plot involving Waterman being pursued by crooks, and plenty of fish-out-of-water humour.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, east German Lena Jung (Felicity Waterman) is a James Dean fan. She's a tourist in Hollywood. At the airport, a sketchy situation left her with a switched bag. She has trouble with her hotel's name, and the cab stops in front of a gallery where she meets photo artist Flynn (Nick Mancuso). She finally gets to the motel which turns out to be a dump run by Fred (Pat Morita), and finds none of her paid-up 10 days all inclusive luxury tour. In desperation, she goes to Flynn's place. There she discovers that her bag has been switched and Flynn is an lecherous unstable creep. She leaves a box of condoms behind as she tries to exchange the luggage. She finds the woman dead, and the the only help comes from cabbie Mike (Chris Lemmon).Felicity Waterman is very cute and her bad German accent is adorable. That's really all there is in this weak B-movie rom-com-thriller. Chris Lemmon comes after about 30 minutes and he doesn't have good enough charisma. He's also a little too old. I would prefer a younger better male lead. The quality of production is weak for this Crown International Pictures. In the end, I can't recommend this movie.