Wake up, folks! This movie stinks!

Rating: 3/10 (1 June 1999)

I read all the other "user's comments", and found out there are only 3 among those 54 who didn't like this movie!! Well, I will add to that short list. Ever since I was a kid, I heard of Casablanca as "one of the best movies ever made". Sorry, folks. I watched it three times, and the more I watch the less I like it.
The characters are as empty as sea-shells. Bogart (whom I never found a bit attractive anyway) mumbles through the story, as a one-dimensional "cynical with a big heart" (my god, what a novelty!!), Bergman cries a lot, but as a compliant female does what she's told and follows her husband: Rick is a man, he knows what's best for her, and her husband needs her support, he's a war hero!! I would rather be alone, anyway, if I had to choose between dull Laszlo and cowardly Rick!
Fortunately Claude Rains can be funny, though utterly unlikely as an officer who at the last moment chooses to "be good". Nothing is convincing!
I have nothing against "classics", as Parca (another user) said before: I love Lawrence of Arabia, The Night of the Hunter (now THAT is a movie!!), Gone With the Wind... But Casablanca cannot be worshipped as one of the "best ever". It's the forties' version of a pop-corn movie. Should you see it if you haven't yet? Yeah, why not? Otherwise, how can you judge?
Just don't think you HAVE TO love it.