Runs more wide than deep, but it's such a vivid portrayal of two decades of a man's life - nimbly moving from place to place, person to person, etc. - that it's nonetheless very entertaining. Assayas' every step is extremely confident, and his technical mastery is something to behold. The use of lighting, the excellent sound design, and a killer soundtrack (Wire!) all make for a hell of a ride.

Over five hours long, yet it is tightly cut -- no scenes are unnecessarily drawn out and the film does not sprawl. Excellent acting, cinematography, writing, direction. It is an amazing story which deftly covers a wide variety of countries, time periods, and true events. The neutrality of the presentation is notable, as the filmmaker manages to never take sides. Great film.

There's certainly a lot to like here, but once I was done watching, I couldn't shake the fact that this felt less like a movie and more like a 5½ hour audio-visual history lesson, so much that I thought reading a book about the subject matter might actually be more interesting.

Even at 5½ hours it's perhaps too concerned with outlining the main historical bullet-points and doesn't take enough time to tell us about Carlos the person. Like Soderbergh's "Che", the director's desire to remain a neutral observer and not condemn or glorify leaves it feeling a little cold and detached. Still, it's an impressive effort. Ramirez is great and the excellent soundtrack gives the film an energy and momentum that doesn't lag for the entire duration. (Mini-series version.)

Epic, exhilarating and perfectly suited to Assayas' global sensibility, acting almost as a culmination of the themes his films have dealt with over the last ten years. Because of it's historical and incident-driven nature, the film lacks some of the more overtly poetic flourishes of his other recent work, but on the other hand the constant procedural dialogue alleviates some of the problems Assayas tends to have sometimes with non-French dialogue.

Not quite what I was expecting from a film my friend described as "rock and roll". The first half of Carlos bubbles with action, climaxing with the beautifully staged conference takeover, in which Julia Hummer shines as the tough-as-nails Nada. What follows is sort of a prolonged denouement, not a swan song for the titular character, but the slow, pathetic fade of a lost cause.

So entirely forgettable I forgot to rate it until now.

Successfully conveys the kineticism and restlessness that one imagines is appropriate to the subject's existence, but somehow still seems not to go very far. Biopics are prone to two pitfalls: either to slavishly reproduce the facts, or to too willingly doctor them. To some extent the problems here derive from being unable to avoid either of these traps. Nevertheless, still somewhat interesting. Saw the full version.

The success of Carlos doesn't emerge from the biopic of namesake character, events or ideals, rather from drawing revolutionary movement bussiness as a subfunction, subsequence, consequence of govermental bussiness.

Holy crap, an excellent history lesson. I grew up reading about this stuff in the newspapers, but had no idea about the magnitude and inter connectivity of all these events. The impact of these issues and political figures in this film still resonate in our current society (the 2011 Arab spring revolutions). If you liked the Baader Meinhof Komplex, you'll be blown away with this one. A must see for any European born in the 70's.

Assayas manages to exhibit so many angles of a period in history, so closely connected to the time we live in now, that it almost feels unbearably claustrophobic. In short; A captivating history lesson (on speed), which both aesthetically and thematically is a joy to watch.

You're not going to believe me when I tell you that a 5 1/2 hour film manages to come across as tidy and economical, but somehow it does. It's also fantastically energetic, exciting and ambitious - praise I laud on a film by the same director of Summer Hours, which is better suited to the adjectives subtle, serene and lovely. Feature after feature, Assayas is proving himself to be one of the most confident and skilled filmmakers working today. And my, what a breakthrough for Edgar Ramirez.

You couldn't have found a better lead than Edgar Ramírez who, like the real Carlos, is Venezuelan and speaks five languages. He convincingly, with no makeup to speak of, plays him from a lean, hard soldier in the 1970's to a paunchy, middle-aged man in the 1990's. It's an incredible performance.

It's refreshing to see a hostage situation work out for the captors for once

Há exatos 10 anos Carlos terminava de ser exibido na televisão francesa. Saudade da esquerda de antigamente que não fazia ciranda né, minha filha? Eu normalmente gosto muito do Assayas, mas com essa minissérie ele atingiu um tipo de brilhantismo essencial aos grandes cineastas, são quase seis horas de filme que você nem sequer vê passar, extraindo a essência da luta armada, cada simbolismo dialogado fictício é um rastro de luz que se espalha. BlurayRip no MakingOff

Western-like. Carlos, his team, as if hostile bacteria to a superior immune system, facing adaptations on all fronts, are left with fewer options at every turn, and eventually, upon looking back, realize their journey to have been as necessary as it was unnecessary.

I watched the "abbreviated" US edition - coming in at a quick 2 hours and 45 minutes. Unfortunately, that length still didn't seem long enough. The story felt jumbled and things just happened. I get the feeling they quite literally just did a quick edit of the much longer mini-series, but those edits were too much. Beautifully shot and stylistically on point, the story is incredible and I wanted to like this a lot more than I did. Ultimately I lost interest in the last 40 minutes.

I seem to really like films that start with the letter C. The miniseries makes Carlos seem like if Michael Corleone was a fat dumbass in comparison to the film, so the film makes him less cantankerous.

Glamorously stylish while morally ugly, Carlos is perhaps one of the best thrillers ever made. Spanning three decades and filled with post-punk music, it's an oft-masterful take on a genre that often feels played out, but in Assayas' hands, it's enthralling and bold. Edgar Ramirez is superb.

Interesting choice of material for Assayas, as it doesn't play to his strengths. There is a great party scene around the beginning (before it's interrupted by jarring violence and digital blood), and I appreciated the sensuality of the sequence where Carlos seduces his future wife, but it's perfunctorily directed - more of an entertaining political drama than an accomplished artistic work. Seek out instead his less conventional and superior films, Demon Lover, Boarding Gate and Irma Vep.

Long-winded recounting of the story of one of the most famous revolutionaries of the twentieth century, which does a fine job to capture the political mood of the 1970s, a mixture of determination to make change by any means possible, yet at the same time completely oblivious both of the cost to bystanders and the ambitiousness of the goal. Probably better to see the mini-series than this cut-down version, although I haven't.

Watched it over two nights, couldn't sit down and watch over 300 minutes in one go, but the time invested in it was well worth it. Has a similar feel to it as Mesrine films, a film about an interesting person and how they came to be.

First two parts are brilliant. It peters out a little in Part 3.

Part 1: 65, Part 2: 80, Part 3 55. Part 2 is the only film here. It certainly is an exciting couple of hours - brilliantly written, acted and directed. Part 1 is good too but it makes part 3 necessary, which doesn't warrant anywhere near 2 hours of film. By that stage I simply didn't care what happened to Carlos.

Skinny German interludes frustratingly distract from clit-stimuli.

Assayas didn't let ideas to cover the real thing. He manages to show the facts without imposing his/some group's ideology. It makes you think even a day or two after.

At 5 1/2 hours it still only feels like a snapshot. It jumps in time so much, especially down the stretch of part three, that it's fairly disjointed. I can only imagine how slight the theatrical version must have been. It's a fascinating character study that neither praises nor condemns the man or his actions or motivations. It takes a lot of restraint to simply show a story and allow the audience to make up its mind but Assayas does that here.

24 temmuz 12 & Carlos, beş buçuk saatlik akıcı bir biyografik- tarihi- politik film nasıl olurmuş ders niteliğinde bir iş. Assayas, ritim konusunda iyi. Filmin okuması bir de narsizm &libido üzerinden yapılabilr. Başarılı bir terör eylemi sonrası ayna karşısında penisini sıvazlayan Carlos.

An incredibly informative and surprisingly entertaining account of the life of an international terrorist. Edgar Ramirez is unforgettable as the charismatic, intelligent, slightly-crazy revolutionary... a great way to spend five and a half hours.

The definition of overrated.

An astonishingly accomplished work by Assayas who shows impressive mastery and control over the subject matter while sidestepping the usual biopic pitfalls. The third and final part is admittedly less than stellar and unfocused but it's just a small step backwards considering what the first two parts have managed to achieve.

Ramirez was okay but not great. The action scenes work better than the drama. It's an impressive production but a somewhat forgettable end product.

The Best!

I watched the mini-series. Impressively shot, with a lot of in-depth history, this does a good job of placing Carlos' actions in their historical context. Ramirez' performance is a tour de force, but I found the whole thing too long, and uncomfortably glamorous.

There are a few romantic tinges what with the music choices and his ideological earnestness. The third act brings it together with a downfall into obsolescence and being used up by the likes of Assad, Hussein and Gaddafi. The overall quality is that of a film made for television but with such strong subject matter it's very compelling.

As happened with other European films about the same theme, they portrait the terrorists in a very romantic, stylish way.

Well-researched, excellently acted, and energetically shot, the film is consistently engaging throughout its nearly six-hour run time. Assayas utilizes a punk soundtrack that effectively captures the historical moment, and works especially well as a counterpoint in Carlos' later years. The final third of the film, a quiet portrait of gradual ruin and desolation, offers the necessary cap to a story of a man who believed that by oppressing some, he would free others from their oppressive rulers.

5 hour version: impressive masterpiece

The mini series, not the short cut version...

Carlos is cool. Carlos' beret is cool. Carlos' sunglasses are cool. Carlos speaks 5 languages fluently, and that's cool too. Carlos' revolutionary politics are cool. His movie has a post-punk soundtrack, which as any sensible person knows is the coolest genre of music. Carlos is also full of shit. Ego supercedes revolutionary zeal at the crucial moments, ironically denying him the glory he seeks. Edgar Ramirez is magnificent as Carlos and it's remarkable that such a long film never goes stale.

I'm really not good with movies where a terrorist is the main character which have become frequent the last couple of years and this did nothing to change my oppinion. All of them way too long and way too boring. But that isn't my main problem. When the characters are portrayed like rock stars, are we supposed to think they are good or bad? Should we feel sorry for them or their families or their victims? I ended up not feeling anything for any of the characters... (watched the 165 min version)

5 hour version: The length is appropriate. A lot of material here. Although it has good pacing including legitimately good action as well as a few intimate moments, the piece sometimes feels detached and may be a bit confusing. However, there's something really great about it at the same time. It's not perfect, but it's still great in its own right, Ramirez is incredible, and definitely an achievement for 2010. Score is not a grade.

Any 5 hour movie is gonna drag on a bit. Overall though, interesting and ruthless at times...in a badass revolutionary kind of way...

Carlos gives hipsters Munich minus the moral conviction and dramatic cogency that hipsters fashionably distrust. It's being presented in two versions: 330 minutes and 165 minutes, one as emotionally flat as the other.

"Though commissioned for the small screen, Carlos's widescreen visuals demand a theater, and its aesthetic dexterity is a continual marvel." - Nick Schager

Heavily politicized and arguably sympathetic trilogy of films recapping the 20 year career of Carlos Sanchez. Sex and violence literally merge in his fiery well-to-do revolutionary beginnings. A nice touch as, as the final film draws to a close his fate as a character is known before we are shown the politically irrelevant and sexually impotent Carlos fade into the French correctional system. The ideological opposite of Spielbergs Munich, the exotic nature of Carlos's subject splits the two.