Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Predrag 'Don't Drink the Water', directed by Woody Allen and based on a Broadway play by Allen is distinctly different from most of his other films due to its dated and just ordinarily funny plot and jokes. I believe this movie, which may have been made for television, was filmed relatively recently, probably after Michael J. Fox left 'Family Ties' and while or before he began his last TV series before retiring due to Parkinson's Disease. I have strong suspicions, however, that the play was written in the early sixties, not too long after the time in which the play takes place. One result of this being an adaptation from a stage play is that there is little or none of Allen's visual humor. All on screen business is written to be done on a stage with one scene on stage at a time. There are also practically none of Allen's favorite topics and plot tricks. This is nothing more than a stage comedy, and virtually none of Allen's other movies are 'nothing more than stage comedies'.The high point in casting, however, is that of the fine character actor Edward Hermann in the role of "Kilroy." It's a pity that Hermann isn't seen more often, because he is a gem of an actor. His character, Kilroy, is an ultra-conservative by-the-book diplomat who despises Axel Magee for his incompetence. Then, hit in the head by a projectile during a riot outside the Embassy, he suffers a concussion and acts as though he were the Wright brothers, both of them. The low point in casting is that of Dom DeLuise as "Father Drobny," a priest who has sought political asylum at the Embassy and hasn't left in seven years. DeLuise, regrettably, offers us the same pseudo-Italian accent he's been doing since the "Dean Martin Roasts" and "Smokey & The Bandit II." I like it because it was very stagey, no surprise for a filmed play. Woody has made some brilliant films and this isn't one of them, but its fun, energetic and we see him in classic Jewish Kay/Hope/Marx/Lewis/Allen mode. Great fun. And don't forget the marvelous Julie Kavner, voice of Marge Simpson, but even so much better as a comedienne.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

eschetic-2 More faithful in tone and probably in detail to Woody Allen's successful 1966 Broadway farce (589 performances from 17 Nov. 66 to 20 April 68 at the Morosco, Barrymore and Belasco Theatres) than the successful but now badly dated 11 Nov. 1969 film, this made for TV movie suffers from a rather unrelenting craziness of pacing that worked better on stage than in the intimacy of the small screen.Woody Allen's nebishy lines fall naturally from his own lips, but lacking the distance or the simply larger body Stanley Prager had to work with when directing Lou Jacobi as the naive Newark caterer who is accused of spying while innocently taking vacation pictures while on vacation in an unidentified Eastern European country on Broadway - or Howard Morris had when directing Jackie Gleason in the coarsened role in the 1969 film - Allen comes across less sympathetic and more blindly hysterical.Nevertheless, Michael J. Fox (who had already been BACK TO THE FUTURE in his successful trilogy but was still a couple years from his last successful sitcom, SPIN CITY) as the disaster prone son of the ambassador who grants the family asylum balances the hysterical performance of the author nicely, as do TV favorites Julie Kavner (TRACEY ULLMAN and THE SIMPSONS) as Allen's wife and Mayim Bialik (BLOSSOM and THE BIG BANG THEORY) as his daughter and Fox's inevitable love interest.Since the Cold War was essentially over by the time this picture was made, it remained a nostalgic picture of an earlier era told in farce form with comfortable narration from the late great announcer Ed Herlihy to remind us of the context (Americans believed innocent tourists were picked up on the slightest pretext to "trade" for captured Soviet spies after a few well publicized "spy trades").Written at a time before the Middle East blew up, the visit of an unidentified emir and his harem (that the US wants to cater to for good relations - OIL hadn't seriously entered the picture yet) is played, along with an Orthodox priest who's been in asylum in an apartment on an upper floor of the embassy for six years and counting (an idea which horrifies the Allen character who can't bear the elevated menu at the embassy and can't understand why they can't send out for Chinese) as minor plot contrivances.If this sort of old fashioned humor isn't your cup of tea, DON'T DRINK THE WATER may not go down too easily, but as an honest souvenir of Cold War humor and the transition period between Woody Allen's stand-up beginnings and his later serious films, it's well worth a look for any serious student of film or Allen. If you can take the stage farce pacing, it will even provide a fair share of honest laughs - more than the '69 film in any case."Isolated in the Embassy" situations have been grist for the comedy mills for years - although it's been a while since we've had a new one. Billy Wilder's 1961 ONE TWO THREE (based on a Ferenc Molnar play, "Egy, kettö, három") where a hard charging Jimmy Cagney tried to deal with the love and marriage of a runaway daughter of an Atlanta Coca Cola executive for a passionate East German worker while Berlin was still divided, or Art Buchwald's sadly unfilmed 1970 play SHEEP ON THE RUNWAY which satirized the havoc a right wing columnist like Joseph Alsop could cause in a front line embassy were probably better structured and hold up better than the early Allen play, but they all came from essentially the same well. All worth a look for nostalgia and more.

duraflex As a big Michael J. Fox fan, this film was a major disappointment. Seeing him portray an inept ambassador was distressing. Seeing Edward Hermann as a buffoon, again disappointing.Woody Allen is more neurotic, obnoxious and generally less funny than in many of his other films. This is not one of his best efforts by far.Julie Kavner's voice (Marge Simpson) is annoying beyond words.Mayim Bialik's character is without any special appeal.The premise of the film is an interesting one but it does not play out well.If I was running that embassy, I would have simply turned the Hollander family over to the Russians. A few hours with this bunch and they would be deporting them - problem solved.

knifeintheeye I LOVE THIS MOVIE. The story involves visiting American smucks in the old communist Russia. A picture is snapped in the wrong spot and the KGB assumes the family are spys. They take up residence in an American embassy and need asylum. Love blossoms and tempers soar--an old fashioned screwball comedy. I know some people say it's not one of Woody's best...and it isn't. It isn't even close to the top of that list. But...I laugh my tush off with this movie. Alex Keaton and Blossom are great. Woody Allen is, well, Woody Allen. It is nothing but a popcorn movie. Flawed? Yes. It is very funny though and a great mid level Woody movie in the same vein as "Take the money and Run'--but with a plot. Watch it, enjoy it, laugh.