So what happened last night?
Julio wakes up in a strange apartment with a strange woman. Neither of them remember much about the previous night's exploits. And to make things even more confusing, apparently aliens invaded earth while they slept. From the director of Los cronocrimenes (Timecrimes) comes a lighthearted approach to the alien invasion genre. The bigger sci-fi concepts sreve as the backdrop for what it really, a romantic comedy. This film is funny and endearing. Great writing, great acting and great cinematography make this film more than just a sci-fi flick or just a romantic comedy. Most definitely one of my new favorite movies.
Extraterrestre gets 4 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Writer: Nacho Vigalondo
Starring: Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Raúl Cimas and Julián Villagrán
Rotten Tomatoes: 68%
Metacritic: N/A
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
La Piel Que Habito (The Skin I Live In) 2011
Vengeance is mine?
Roberto is a well known, well respected surgeon with a haunted past. His life has taken tragic turns so he throws himself into his cutting edge work. Vera, one of Roberto's patients, is held captive by him in his home. Told in a dual timeline form, this narrative weaves from present to past and back to the present as we learn how Vera and Roberto ended with their lives thus entwined. This is my first time seeing Banderas in a Spanish language film and his performance makes me like and respect him much more than before. Very well told and extremely intriguing, this film is worth a watch.
La piel que habito gets 4 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Jan Cornet
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Metacritic: 70 out of 100
Roberto is a well known, well respected surgeon with a haunted past. His life has taken tragic turns so he throws himself into his cutting edge work. Vera, one of Roberto's patients, is held captive by him in his home. Told in a dual timeline form, this narrative weaves from present to past and back to the present as we learn how Vera and Roberto ended with their lives thus entwined. This is my first time seeing Banderas in a Spanish language film and his performance makes me like and respect him much more than before. Very well told and extremely intriguing, this film is worth a watch.
La piel que habito gets 4 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Jan Cornet
Rotten Tomatoes: 81%
Metacritic: 70 out of 100
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tres Dias (Before the Fall) 2008
I see the human dark potential
A meteor is hurtling towards the earth. The governments of the world have known about it and have attempted to stop it. Unable to do either, they announce the imminent disaster to the general population three days prior to the impact. And people go bonkers. A little bit of suspense, a fair dose of brutality, and a whole lot of bleakness, Tres Dias is interesting, although not necessarily enjoyable. This is the bastard cousin of Melancholia. The two films share a premise - a large object will collide with the Earth and destroy it. But Tres Dias shows how bad people can get when things look bad. Not my favorite film ever, but not bad for F. Javier Gutiérrez's first feature film.
Tres Dias gets tres out of cinco Poblanos!
Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez
Writer: F. Javier Gutiérrez, Juan Velarde (original story)
Starring: Víctor Clavijo, Mariana Cordero and Eduard Fernández (Biutiful, The Skin I Live In)
Rotten Tomatoes: Not reviewed by critics, 53% (audience reviews)
Metacritic: Not reviewed
A meteor is hurtling towards the earth. The governments of the world have known about it and have attempted to stop it. Unable to do either, they announce the imminent disaster to the general population three days prior to the impact. And people go bonkers. A little bit of suspense, a fair dose of brutality, and a whole lot of bleakness, Tres Dias is interesting, although not necessarily enjoyable. This is the bastard cousin of Melancholia. The two films share a premise - a large object will collide with the Earth and destroy it. But Tres Dias shows how bad people can get when things look bad. Not my favorite film ever, but not bad for F. Javier Gutiérrez's first feature film.
Tres Dias gets tres out of cinco Poblanos!
Director: F. Javier Gutiérrez
Writer: F. Javier Gutiérrez, Juan Velarde (original story)
Starring: Víctor Clavijo, Mariana Cordero and Eduard Fernández (Biutiful, The Skin I Live In)
Rotten Tomatoes: Not reviewed by critics, 53% (audience reviews)
Metacritic: Not reviewed
Friday, October 14, 2011
Biutiful (2010)
Beautiful disaster
Biutiful tells the heartbreaking tales
of several hardworking people whose lives have gone wrong. Javier
Bardem (No Country for Old Men, Eat, Pray, Love) portrays Uxgal, a low class entrepreneur in Barcelona who employs illegal
aliens to produce and sell counterfeit goods. Estranged from his
wife Maramba (Maricel Álvarez), and raising their two children alone, he
also happens to hear dead people. On top of all that he has cancer.
Uxgal is a hard worker doing all he can to support his family. But
nothing seems to be working out for him.
An engrossing tragedy with supernatural
undertones, Biutiful gets 4 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bo, Nicolás Giacobone
Starring: Javier Bardem,
Maricel Álvarez and Hanaa Bouchaib
Rotten Tomatoes: 64%
Metacritic: 58 out of 100
Monday, October 10, 2011
El Aura (2005)
Playing make believe
Esteban (Ricardo Darín) is a taxidermist with an active imagination and a photographic memory. He goes on a hunting trip with a friend and ends up in some situations that he never anticipated. There are some real money shots in this film - near the beginning when Esteban is telling his friend how he'd pull off a heist and later, the transition between him sitting in his home, in the airport lounge, on the plane, then in the jeep.
An engrossing story, beautifully executed scenes, and superb acting give El Aura a glowing 5 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Fabián Bielinsky
Writer: Fabián Bielinsky
Starring: Ricardo Darín, Manuel Rodal and Dolores Fonzi
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 78 out of 100
Esteban (Ricardo Darín) is a taxidermist with an active imagination and a photographic memory. He goes on a hunting trip with a friend and ends up in some situations that he never anticipated. There are some real money shots in this film - near the beginning when Esteban is telling his friend how he'd pull off a heist and later, the transition between him sitting in his home, in the airport lounge, on the plane, then in the jeep.
An engrossing story, beautifully executed scenes, and superb acting give El Aura a glowing 5 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Fabián Bielinsky
Writer: Fabián Bielinsky
Starring: Ricardo Darín, Manuel Rodal and Dolores Fonzi
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 78 out of 100
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Buried (2010)
Will no one help Ryan Reynolds?
A civilian truck driver delivering supplies in Iraq is kidnapped and Buried alive. Disoriented, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) uses every tool at his disposal to free himself from impending doom while his captors try to milk him for ransom money. I love the idea of imposing limitations on film making as Hitchcock did in Rope. Spanish Director Rodrigo Cortés limits himself to a coffin and the result is stunning. It is emotional, funny, thrilling, and just plain good. I was hanging on every frame of this one. Bottom line - he might be alone in a box, but Ryan Renolds needs no help. He puts on an amazing one man show.
5 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Writer: Chris Sparling
Starring: Ryan Reynolds
Rotten Tomatoes - 86%
Metacritic - 65 out of 100
A civilian truck driver delivering supplies in Iraq is kidnapped and Buried alive. Disoriented, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) uses every tool at his disposal to free himself from impending doom while his captors try to milk him for ransom money. I love the idea of imposing limitations on film making as Hitchcock did in Rope. Spanish Director Rodrigo Cortés limits himself to a coffin and the result is stunning. It is emotional, funny, thrilling, and just plain good. I was hanging on every frame of this one. Bottom line - he might be alone in a box, but Ryan Renolds needs no help. He puts on an amazing one man show.
5 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Writer: Chris Sparling
Starring: Ryan Reynolds
Rotten Tomatoes - 86%
Metacritic - 65 out of 100
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Intacto (2001)
Feeling Lucky?
Do some people have more luck than others? Is luck transferable? The Spanish film Intacto puts these questions to the test. Players who consider themselves very lucky compete for big stakes in order to find out who has the most luck. This movie was crazy. Good crazy.
Inatacto lucks out with 4 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Writers: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Andrés M. Koppel
Starring: Max von Sydow, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, Mónica López
Rotten Tomatoes - 72%
Metacritic - 59 of 100
Do some people have more luck than others? Is luck transferable? The Spanish film Intacto puts these questions to the test. Players who consider themselves very lucky compete for big stakes in order to find out who has the most luck. This movie was crazy. Good crazy.
Inatacto lucks out with 4 out of 5 Poblanos!
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Writers: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Andrés M. Koppel
Starring: Max von Sydow, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, Mónica López
Rotten Tomatoes - 72%
Metacritic - 59 of 100
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