I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

As Good As It Gets

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The list of the 100 worst rated films on IMDb is heavily populated with films that were featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-- partly because the films were so terrible but also partly because there seems to be an assumption that this show featured the worst films of all time. This is not at all true but instead they featured films they could obtain the rights to and many much worse films were never shown on the program. You'd think that "Plan 9 From Outer Space", "Robot Monster", "The Horror of Party Beach", "They Saved Hitler's Brain" or "The Apple" would make the list...but no, it's instead chock full of films from "MSTK 3000". While I would clearly say that "Last Train to Mundo Fine" is a terrible film, it is far from the Bottom 100 in badness. It's cheap, poorly made and dull beyond belief considering what the film is about...and probably in the bottom 200 or 500. The story is about some scum-bags trying to make their way to Cuba to earn money fighting for the insurgents. But when they are promised checks instead of cash, they attempt to escape. Much of the film simply consists of these idiots running about the countryside.The sound for the film is very cheap and sounds poor--like it was clumsily added later. Often lips are not synchronized to what the folks are saying and it sounds tinny. The cinematography is equally cheap and the acting no better. But it makes up for all this by being incredibly dull.

There is a good indication of whether a movie is bad if it's featured on MST3K and if it's on the bottom 100. Both of those cases apply to Night Train to Mundo Fine, a movie that has a reputation for being one of the worst movies ever made and is one that lives up to that reputation. It is a memorable movie, but as said in the review summary unfortunately it isn't for the right reasons. What is further unfortunate is that Night Train to Mundo Fine is also one of those movies where it is next to impossible to be entertained by it, because you spend the whole duration infuriated by how incompetently done it is. If there was anything that was remotely decent, no matter how small, it was the theme song which is actually pretty good. The editing and camera work however look like a real amateur's job, it's poorly lit, shot in a jumbled way and edited in a way that suggests the editor being drunk. The story is even worse, when it wasn't being so jumbled in structure and so tedious in pacing- though not quite as badly as Manos, Monster A-Go Go and The Creeping Terror- there was hardly even one. The dialogue is sheer laziness and reeks of cheese and you are never emotionally invested in the characters(as a matter of fact the only emotion for them that you feel is annoyance). To say that the direction is flat is being too kind, and the acting is some of the worst acting you'll ever witness, most look as though they're not even trying to act. All in all, so poorly done in every area apart from the theme song, no entertainment to be had in it whatsoever. 1/10 Bethany Cox

This review has been a long time coming for me. Most of the reviews I've done on this website are of low budget pictures. The Z and B grade films. There's something about them that appeals to me. It might be because I myself am a filmmaker. I've made one full length film and I know how difficult it can be even to get a shoddy film produced. Of the classic bad directors (Ed Wood, Tom Graffe, Hal Warren, and the like) Coleman Francis may be the most atypically worst. His plots are often rambling and nonsensical, and the production values are lackluster. However, much like many others (I'm sure) who have reviewed this film, his work keeps drawing people back.Red Zone Cuba is Coleman Francis' opus. Not only is it his last film, but it is his most grand in plot, setup, and story line. The film revolves around Griffin, an escaped convict, and his two drifter sidekicks Cook and Landis. On the search for the almighty dollar, they fight in the Bay of Pigs invasion as soldiers of fortune, and wind up robbing and pillaging the southwest until a shootout ends Griffin's life.The film contains all the classic Francis elements, coffee, cigarettes, implied assault scenes, closeups, and light aircrafts. The production values as you might expect are poor, as is the dialogue and acting. However, I do feel that this ambitious z-grade film is commendable. Foremost, the plot is, as I said earlier, ambitious. A shoe string budget film that involves an invasion scene, an aircraft shootout and an army training montage is no easy feat. While Francis' final product lacks the polish of a professional film, on the budget he was given I believe the product was fairly well done. His choice of sets is more than acceptable, the army base looks like an army base, the beach looks fairly close of a Cuban beach, and the bleak Yucca Flats setting was perfect for the drab remainder of the film. If I were to shoot a film like Red Zone Cuba, I could conceivably see me hiring Francis as a set director.My biggest problem with the film is the dialogue. Griffin's character of course is unlikable, there are of course all sorts of films with despicable main characters, Griffin, however is given no depth we don't get to know him, and our hatred is based only on his actions not his psyche. Likewise, we don't get to understand why his sidekicks, Landis and Cook side with him so quickly. I wanted to know more, but was not given the opportunity to given the poor script.There are sparks of genius in this film. Most often mentioned is the theme song which ties into the overall theme of evil. I also liked the film shot at the end, after the sexual assault scene when Griffin's car drives past the, "where are you going to spend eternity," sign. Small things like this show me that Coleman had at least some potential, I just wish he hired someone else for the script. Red Zone Cuba is one of those must see bad films. It's an example of a film someone made against all odds, and with few resources. It's availability outside the MST3k version is limited, but worth tracking down. If you like the z-grade check it out.

Auteur extraordinaire Coleman Francis once again proves that staying away from studio interference and a budget as well as casting one's incompetent self is the only surefire way to create a surrealist, absurdist, and yet somehow ultra-realistic cinema-verite masterpiece of the magnitude of "Red Zone Cuba", also known as "Night Train to Mundo Fine".Coleman Francis uses multiple inventive and original techniques to establish the absurdist atmosphere of this uncompromising noir epic. His use of repetitive imagery evokes the unnecessary nature of the lives being lived by the protagonists as well as the antagonists in Francis' typical ultra-realist and yet abstract sensationalist cinema verite noir universe. John Carradine in particular was an inspired bit of casting- a fine actor whose career was deteriorating- the perfect way to portray a character in the dark, gloomy, relentless world of continuous close-ups that Francis creates.Of course it's fairly obvious that "Red Zone Cuba" was Stanley Kubrick's primary influence for "2001: A Space Odyssey", but the similarity between both films goes even farther. Indeed, "Red Zone Cuba" creates an aesthetic far removed and yet nearly identical to "2001". Kubrick has stated that Coleman Francis succeeded so unbelievably well in "Red Zone Cuba" that no director in the future of cinema should attempt to equal it, resulting in Kubrick's deliberate attempt to create an inferior film. Needless to say, the poorly-paced "2001" succeeds in this aspect.Although released late in Francis' career "Red Zone Cuba" was actually shot in 1961. It is said that critics who viewed the film in 1961 walked out in droves appalled and yet fascinated with Francis' portrayal of Fidel Castro as an American man named Landis in a deliberately fake beard. This absurdist view of Cuban-American relations caused controversy that delayed the film's release by five years.Francis includes many of his trademark stylistic choices in this film as both a writer and director. For example, coffee is the focus of more than one scene, and we all know how brilliantly coffee is used in Francis' films as a motif. Another important aspect of this film is the use of repetitive imagery to enhance the gritty realist absurdism that is Coleman Francis' cinema. The scene where several men climb up a cliff using a rope is remarkable and possibly the greatest sequence in all of cinema.Of course the final line is the greatest of all time: "Griffin ran all the way to hell... with a penny, and a broken cigarette."Narration that is clearly an influence on Terrence Malick and other reputable directors.10/10