Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

MARIO GAUCI On first viewing – again, as part of that 2007 Bunuel/NFT retrospective – I had found this to be an enjoyable but rather insubstantial comedy; on this revisit, my opinion has not changed about this minor work from the celebrated Spanish director. Indeed, I was surprised to learn (from the opening credits) that Bunuel was not even involved in the screen writing process of this one – although, I do not think it is a coincidence that the film's comic highlight is a wonderful "Garden of Eden" pageant sequence early on (in which the three protagonists playing God, Adam and a swim-suited Eve, are tormented by a heavily-horned Lucifer wearing a shirt sporting the word "serpent"!).The film is fairly similar to Bunuel's earlier (and superior) Mexican 'road movie' ASCENT TO HEAVEN aka Mexican BUS RIDE (1952) in that it is set, for the most part, on a means of public transportation. Besides, its plot line of an ancient vehicle being taken for one last ride before ending up in a scrapheap also harks back to such classic comedies as Harold Lloyd's SPEEDY (1928) and Ealing's practically contemporaneous THE TITFIELD THUNDERBOLT (1953). Incidentally, Bunuel's cinematic idol Fritz Lang, made his own railroad movie that same year: the noir-ish melodrama HUMAN DESIRE (which I own but have yet to watch) – itself a remake of Jean Renoir's LA BETE HUMAINE (1938).As usual with Bunuel's films from this period, it starts with a faux-documentary narration and, in this case, amusingly concludes on a "this was just one of a thousand stories" line a' la Jules Dassin's seminal noir THE NAKED CITY (1948). The director's depiction of the downtrodden Mexican villagers' everyday life (culminating in a riot when the smuggling of corn as fertilizer is accidentally discovered by one of the bumbling protagonists) brought on comparisons with Italy's then-current Neo-realist movement – something which Bunuel readily denied. Indeed, while the story could well have been inspired by a similarly liberating ride through the streets of Paris made by the Surrealist movement in 1931, the truth is that the film was commissioned by a nascent Mexican public transport company to counter the bad press caused by an accident they had had the previous year!Two regular actors from Bunuel's work in Mexico – the lovely Lilia Prado and the amiably rotund Fernando "Mantequilla" Soto (as a streetcar conductor named Tarrajas) – also appear here, alongside Carlos Navarro (as Prado's streetcar mechanic boyfriend) and Agustín Isunza (as Papa Pinillos, a nosy ex-railroad employee). The perennially frustrated attempts of the two company employees to take back the streetcar they stole before its absence is discovered is paralleled by Papa Pinillos' constantly dismissed claims of this very theft to his pompous former employers.Among the commuters who inadvertently get to make use of the runaway streetcar (the film's alternate title) are: a schoolmistress with her classroom of unruly children who are, eventually, stranded on a film set (an orphan in their midst is told that the long-legged starlet being made-up is his long-lost mother!); two elderly ladies carrying a statue of Jesus Christ in "Ecce Homo" guise; a couple of 'penniless' politicians; a clueless American tourist who mistakes the protagonists' reluctance to accept fare – which would have aggravated their misdemeanor – as "Communist" behavior (possibly, former party member Bunuel's barbed comment on the "Red Scare" then currently scourging through Hollywood); and, most memorably, slaughterhouse workers carrying their slabs of meat along as 'luggage'! I cannot forget to mention that, very early on in the film, there is also a throwaway laugh-out-loud moment when a billboard reads: "Well…so what?"P.S. Surprisingly enough, the film played without a glitch on my Philips DVD player which, usually, has a lot of trouble dealing with DivX files!

kosmasp You have to suspend your disbelief a bit to fully enjoy the comedic moments. It is mostly based or let's say feels like something "real", but of course strange things are happening, that are meant to be funny (they are) ...Again Mr. Bunuel shows off his skills. Great direction, nice story, with a human touch. There's even the occasional obsession theme that ran through many of his films (haven't seen all of them, so maybe it's even a running theme through all his movies). But again it's a comedy so it's more lighthearted. Not that there is no villain, but suffice to say, that it's not really about that/him! :o)

Claudio Carvalho In the 50's, in Mexico, the streetcar mechanic Juan Godinez (Carlos Navarro) and the pilot Tarrajas (Fernando Soto) become upset when they are informed by their supervisor that the streetcar number 133 will be decommissioned. They go to a party and late night, they get drunk and decide to borrow the streetcar for one last spin for fun, without charging the passengers. Completely wasted, they sleep in the streetcar and on the next morning, they get in troubled and weird situations while trying to return the vehicle to the garage."La Ilusión Viaja en Tranvía" is a minor movie of Buñuel. This naive comedy presents jokes with religion; criticizes the inflation, the corruption and the tough condition of the poor people in Mexico city; exposes the ridiculous behavior of henchman, represented by the retired Papa Pinillos (Agustín Isunza). Unfortunately, the comedy is not funny, with the exception of the scenes with the villain Papa Pinillos, responsible for the best and funniest moments of the film. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "A Ilusão Viaja de Bonde" ("The Illusion Travels by Streetcar")

hawparks2 To all Buñuel fans that haven't seen this one, let me tell you that the big laugh comes at the end and keeps you laughing for a long time.after the movie is over. Very unusual for Buñuel, but nevertheless very realistic and enjoyable. For the delightful laughing effect he produced at the end, I rated 9.5.