CHE! is a bad movie and deserves it reputation as an unintentionally funny film. It takes a serious subject and presents it like the Cliff Notes version or Classic Comics because there isn't much emotion or a proper narrative--just episodic segments stitched together with mostly stupid "true stories" relayed by a variety of yutzes.

This is a deservedly derided film, as it is poorly written and acted. However, what I have found most interesting about the film is its apparent gay subtext. Instead of Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro working towards a Communist Cuba, they seem to be more of a gay couple--with Che behaving coy and aloof and Fidel as the ardent suitor! Again and again, the film abounds with great lines such as when Fidel implores Che "Cuba needs you....I NEED YOU!!". I am not sure if the studio intended this homosexual undercurrent, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to recognize it! I am very surprised that the other reviewers didn't point this out. However, if you remember this when you watch the film, it makes viewing much more exciting and even funnier.

A final note. In recent years, Che has been very chic--even a fashion statement with hoards of brain-dead teens, who have no idea who he was, wearing shirts emblazoned with his face. Considering he was a cold-blooded killer and nihilist (an odd combination for a doctor),this new reverence for the man is gross. What will they do next, put Hitler or Dr. Mengele on T-shirts and posters?!!? Even Communists with consciences should be appalled by the bloodshed Guevara was responsible for and I find it ironic that people with computers are championing a man who might likely have killed them given half a chance!

Considering how stupid and unintentionally funny this movie was, it does nothing to further the message that Guevara was no hero. I would love to see a realistic film done of his life--with the good and the bad but also with dialog and a plot that weren't apparently created by chimps!

To me, Che! is not one of the worst films of the 60s but it is one of the most disappointing, almost every criticism directed at it I agree with. It gets a few plus points for its beautiful scenic landscapes, stirringly rich music and Sid Haig giving a performance of fiery dignity. Unfortunately everything else is a failure.

Well actually the photography was not so bad, it actually looked decent and professional, but it could have been more expansive to give the scenery more character and it doesn't really shake off the 60s TV series look. In the acting stakes only Haig impressed, the rest of the supporting cast have hardly anything to work with and some like Robert Loggia spend their screen time looking annoyed. Omar Sharif's lead performance often is very stiff and a lot of the time he is either emotionless or perplexed. To give credit where he's due, he actually looks the part. Which is more than can be said for Jack Palance, who basically looks like Jack Palance with a fake nose and beard and glasses. His performance is a possible career-worst(even worse than that in Outlaw of Gor),being little more than a buffoonish caricature, chewing the scenery to shreds and I am sure that Fidel Castro in real life didn't behave like this much of an idiot.

The way the characters are written is never compelling and they never come over as real people either, coming over instead as caricatures with the cast attempting and failing to give them life or realism. Che! also has one of the worst-written scripts I've heard in a while for a film, with the dialogue flow and delivery being so stilted that you can't be blamed if you thought dubbing was involved, the actual dialogue being very flowery and with no substance or subtlety at all. The dialogue and blatant and sometimes disturbing "gay" subtext(or what can be seen as such) in the scenes between Guevara and Castro is just embarrassing on the ear. The story is never involving, it feels very episodic and one-sided with a lot of padding, so much so that although the film is 96 minutes long it feels longer. The 4th wall talking into the camera "interviews" were randomly put in and completely misplaced, they seemed to only be there for filler and just confused the storytelling rather than added. The Bolivia segment has a little tension and truth, in an overall story that has very little of either, but only in spades and it's too late. At the end of the day it felt like there was no point in the film being made, it tries to cover a lot but says very little and we learn next to nothing about what made Che Guevara famous and also learn just as little about him as a person as well. Not helped by that the film while mostly one-sided didn't seem to make its mind as to whether we should feel sympathy for Guevara or not.

All in all, not that dire but a miscalculated failure all the same that sees two wholly dependable actors giving very bad performances. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Richard Fleischer's biopic about the eponymous Argentinian revolutionary has been widely known as one of the biggest embarrassments in cinema history. Watching "Che!", I didn't interpret it as a particularly bad movie. What it is: extremely corny. As I understand it, the movie is historically accurate. It's just that, aside from all the overacting, Omar Sharif as Che Guevara looks silly and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro always looks as if he's about to fall asleep. In fact, Fidel adopts Che's comments as his own, just like Daffy Duck does with Porky Pig's suggestion in "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century"! There has been news of Steven Soderbergh's upcoming biopic about Che Guevara, with Benicio Del Toro playing the role. It'll probably come out better than this one. This mostly functions as an example of a movie intended as serious coming out really funny. Worth seeing for that.

Also starring Cesare Danova (Mayor Carmine in "Animal House"),Woody Strode and Barbara Luna.