..LAST MOVIES SEEN (by date)

Seeing it once again after more than 15 years without setting eyes on it became one of the most amazing moments in my lifetime: everything I remembered loving was there, only better.

On an objective side, I discovered this was a much better film than I expected it to be: Anjelica Huston's performance ranks high on iconic and timeless, she's larger than life and commands the whole thing every time she's on screen.

The make-up is still extraordinary and the whole transformation process (for both kids and witches) and Anjelica Huston's human mask are still timeless and unforgettable but, unfortunately, the visual effects (explosions and ray beams coming out of fingertips) grew old very quickly and feel more dated than the freakin Bible.

While there was one Roald Dahl book-turned-movie that needed to be remade for the sake of Dahl's legacy (Willy Wonka), this one stands right there with Matilda as a truthful adaptation of one of the greatest voices in children's Literature: a man who never talked down to kids. Including some exact extracts from the original book (you can tell when the narration is word-by-word from a literary text rather than a screenplay), the essence of Dahl's rebellious, intelligent spirit is right there, frame by frame, mouse by mouse.

By far, the greatest movie experience I've ever had.

Breathtaking, that's the word for it.

Exciting, engaging and sometimes hilarious and ridiculous. Washington is the master of cool even when he wears a belly, gray hair and an office-yellow shirt, and Travolta is absolutely over the top but he's just so damn charming you can't help but love him all the way through.

I've realized I'm not a fan of the Crazy Scott (Ridley is the Cool Scott) and his hyperkinetic style of a thousand cuts per sequence but this time I bought it completely, blindly and lovin' it!

Nice for a Saturday night.

Seeing this in Mexico City, just a couple of weeks after the shooting in the subway was weird, uncomfortable at some moments and strangely relaxing. People clapped at the end. Awkward.

People just don't get it. I got it and I had the time of my life.

Fuckin awesome!

Apatow's misunderstood masterpiece.

Hard to watch, but rewarding if you're ready for some Bruce LaBruce extravaganza of over-the-top sexual situations, campy performances (you just can't help to adore sexy, charming Tony Ward, and LaBruce himself playing a hilarious preppy writer), narrative experimentation and pure, old-school sexploitation.

It just can't be rated as any other movie.

Beware: not for everyone.

Deep in my heart, I always knew Jim Jarmusch was meant to be my ultimate influence when it comes to filmmaking, as he single-handedly influenced almost every single indie filmmaker in the last two decades, including most of my favorite directors. Maybe that's why I'm always so afraid of seeing his movies, what if I don't find myself influenced or at least attracted to them? I've been very careful about when and how I watch his films. I saw Stranger than paradise and I liked it a lot, but I didn't feel it as close to my heart as I thought I would. I will see it again someday, hoping this time it speaks to me in a more personal way.

I had to choose carefully which Jarmusch movie I was going to see after the first tone, Down by Law maybe? What about Permanent Vacation or Night on Earth? The decision was made for me when the Cineteca Nacional released a program called Rock & Film: Mystery Train was the lucky one.

I was sadly disappointed by all the negative, awfully lame reviews I've found all over the internet but, thankfully, I hadn't actually seen or read anything about the film before today's screening so, in a way, I was a virgin. And, boy! What an experience it was!

From start to finish, I realized every single movie that came after Jarmusch's was just a mere -sometimes clueless- attempt to evoke his idea of beauty, rhythm, loneliness, minimalism, gesture economy, character development, use of music, sense of humor, odd friendships/relationships: the essence of his genius. A friend of mine who watched the movie with me actually said afterwards: "This just ruined Pulp Fiction for me." I wouldn't go that far but it definitely opened my eyes to new possibilities, and made me as happy and joyful as a Jarmusch movie should make you. The details of everyday life suddenly looked brighter and funnier with every step I took after the credits rolled: I was hooked. Next stop: Down by Law and Dead Man.

I read somewhere a review saying the characters were not interesting enough, and another one saying the second part of the story is complete non-sense and the third one is just lame. I keep reliving the movie in my head, unable to understand which "uninteresting" or "lame" scenes and characters those people saw! Every single character is beautifully developed through unrelated dialogues (the characters express their feelings and thoughts by not expressing them), looks and silences, usually broken by Elvis himself. Every single second of silence makes more noise than all the dialogue put together. As for the second segment being "non-sense", I found it to be the most emotionally gripping and sad. Nicoletta Braschi (who I usually relate to crappy, annoying Roberto Benigni movies) digs deep in her soul through a subtle, almost inexistent performance, portraying a woman whose husband died, wandering alone through Memphis, surrendering to the mischievousness of others, who scam her every step of the way. She's lost, hopeless and doesn't know how to react to every single thing surrounding her yet, at the end of the day, she finds solace inside the same rundown hotel as the other characters, a dark, old, falling-to-pieces limbo that keeps the souls of its inhabitants locked up for one night only, changing their lives not with big explosions, but with small decisions that create big waves in their relationships.

You can read deeply into every frame of the movie or you just can sit down, relax and laugh (a lot, trust me), as Jarmusch's movies usually have space for both interpretations. This is 100%, pure Jarmusch, from start to finish, and an excellent start for neophytes like myself.

This is the movie that came before every other movie, and that's a fact.

Nothing really improved technically since Mexico's last serious animated feature effort, 2003's Magos y gigantes (obviously excluding 2006's blockbuster, Una película de huevos, which didn't really relied on technique rather than a nicely-paced screenplay and hilarious situations), but this is a completely honest, cute as a button example of the possibilities of the genre within the nation's context. The stiff animation distracted me a couple of times and the screenplay could've been a lot better considering the material they were working with, but the voice acting is so fantastic, you truly forgive every single flaw (and there are plenty) when you pay close attention to the magic performed by the extraordinary cast. I was thankful for the un-Shreked screenplay (almost no pop culture gags at all!) which let the plot speak for itself (the 18th century context helped a lot) and the characters actually develop rather than just being "funny".

Some jokes are kind of lame (or maybe I'm just a bitter old man) but if commercial products like these are released successfully in this country, I'm happy with that. I rather see kids quoting this one than Madagascar, seriously.

I'd never seen this movie until a couple of days ago. Growing up, I saw it several times but never complete or in one sitting and almost 70% of the movie got lost in a sea of memories over the years. Now, about 15 years later, I saw it with mature eyes.

Let's just say it was absolutely better than I ever thought it was. You simply can't realize how extraordinary Burton and Depp are (in their respective fields) until you see this one again after seeing every other movie they've done so far. It's an eye-opener.

A timeless classic.

We're watching history in the making, like those people who saw those movies back in the day.

The ultimate love story.

I have to be honest and stay true to myself this time: I didn't like it.

I don't think it is any good and I just didn't enjoy it at all. I love Eraserhead and, obviously, The Elephant Man (Lynch's most mainstream film) but I don't get Lynch's vision.

And, yes: it is just me.

And, you know what? For once, I don't care about liking something everybody else does just because it's "the right thing to like" and I'll say it out loud: I really don't like David Lynch.

A delight! Russell Crowe has a natural cute charm that he doesn't let out as much as he should. He's lovely and hysterical, and he carries the entire movie with so much ease it's insane.

Philippe Le Sourd's cinematography is a true discovery. Look out: he's gathering an extraordinary resumé.

For a long time, I thought Battle in heaven was the worst film in the history of mankind, a movie that doesn't belong to the filmography of someone as talented and poetic as Carlos Reygadas, a piece of obvious, lame controversial imagery with no more depth than a sandbox full of urine. A group of non-professional actors with absolutely no direction whatsoever, who spit stupid dialogues without one single drop of emotion in their voices, who strip their bodies to feed some drunk guy's hunger for provoking audiences to hate his movie. Reygadas disappointed me to the point of madness. A boring, retarded exercise of so-called "poetic", "deep", "thought-provoking" scenes put together while on a bad acid trip. The film equivalent of a piece of poop laying over a plate of pasta inside a dumpster where a Tijuana whore with a severe case of herpes and gonorrhea lives with his Uwe Boll-loving redneck husband and their ugly, toothless children, peeing, sleeping and eating in the same place while they listen to reggaeton and wear I <3 George W. Bush t-shirts.

Get it?

Well, Los muertos makes Battle in Heaven look like a masterpiece.

You don't even have to push Play, you just need to take the DVD box in your hands and that's when you can predict the whole plot, the dialogues, the obstacles in the hero's path to triumph, the character "development" and simply every single minute of film. You don't even have to see the movie! Read the synopsis and that's all you need.

Despite this important flaw (being one of the most predictable, unoriginal movies in the history of filmmaking) and others (like Shannon Elizabeth's nonexistent, unimportant, two-scene character or Burt Reynolds hair dye), the movie is absolutely light and absolutely entertaining.

Why is this? Well, dear reader: the one and only Bret Harrison, one of the saddest stories in Hollywood (only 3 feature films, a bunch of unsuccessful series, audiences asking for his character in That 70's Show to die after a couple of episodes, being best friends with the utterly more famous Adam Brody) is the lead man who carries this awful, lame mess over his shoulders with such elegance, subtlety, charm and insight, it's almost as if he was starring in a completely different film. His acting range hasn't been put to the test yet, his career is flatlining (even with Reaper's average success) and Heaven knows how's this going to end, but Bret Harrison needs more movies, he needs indie filmmakers to look closely at his body of work and realize he's the next big indie thing. Michael Cera had better move over, the little bitch.

I'm working my ass off every single day to become a filmmaker, and I'm looking forward to work with my favorite underdog, he just has to wait for me, and if that means more bad movies like this one so he can pay his rent, well, so be it.

5 stars for Bret's performance, 1 for the movie itself. Let's leave it at 2.

A perfectly built film experience. Everything fits in its right place: the lead character (astonishingly portrayed with dexterity and depth by an uncanny Adam Sandler) and the road to true love.

What's the difference between this and other lame love stories? This one takes you deep (and raw) into the mind of Barry Egan, a man obsessed with his own loneliness and insecurities, afraid of living, in constant panic of being in the same room with somebody else. The music becomes a greek chorus, constantly reminding you of Barry's emotions, rather than just beautifying a scene (Jon Brion's most beautiful work to date) and the whole universe surrounding the character morphs and stumbles into the ground when Barry's insecurities arise. Crashes and accidents are a direct result of Barry's crisis and fear.

Pay attention to the color palette, specially the use of blue and red.

PT Anderson's most experimental, yet enduring and emotionally relatable film. He simply took one cliché love story and turned it into a study on human nature and love as a disease, that invades every single one of your organs and evaporates your sense of self-protection along with the barriers in your mind.

There's a lot more in this movie than people usually thinks. You just have to look close enough.

It's definitely hard to watch but, once it finishes and you look back at those last 73 minutes of your life, you realize it is a powerful piece of film as art: everything is a plastic/aesthetic statement more than just a movie, from the color palette to the sound editing (which works as part of the creative part of the movie instead of simply being a technical department), from the theatrical performances to the extremely slow pace and the whole depth of the main character (the Son), specially since the sounds of nature and games of light and shadow that Sokurov plays with the countryside and its gigantic hug are a truly magnificent reflection on the Son's thoughts and feelings towards his Mother, her death and the need for her to stay alive. Is he selfish? How big is this love? A movie that doesn't play by the rules: it needs to be felt more than simply seen.

It's definitely not my kind of movie and I can't say I enjoyed it to the fullest, but I don't regret giving this film my precious minutes and be rewarded with an experience more than just a nice time.

I will rate this a 4 to try to explain my mixed feelings between personal enjoyment and the contemplation and patience needed to fully realize how extraordinary this film is.

Once in a while, a movie like this one reminds me what I love the most about films. Every single frame, every single shot, every dialogue, every character hit me in so many ways that by the end I was weak and fragile as if I had come out of a street fight or a bad break-up. This tiny masterpiece (as I like to call it) became a personal experience, a journey that took me two hours to fully digest.

But enough about me. Let's be honest: indie filmmaking has been knocking on Mexico's door for the last decade and it seems as if we'd finally let it in. This 100% hand-held film, shot from the main character's point of view (it is a chronicle of Mariano's last days alive before his imminent suicide) with honest, raw performances and painful dialogues, is a breath of fresh air between Mexico's finest films and it's not as gloomy and hard to watch as it sounds. It's actually a cute, lovely little gem that takes its time to tell a beautiful story with a great sense of rhythm and editing. Director Sergio Tovar Velarde takes you by the hand and tells you this story with ease and elegance. It's never boring or overwhelming.

A wonderful thing about this movie is how it places you in 1994 from the beginning and how the storm of memories from the 90s are so real and alive in your mind: the music, the videogames, the Nirvana references all over the place, the toys, the TV shows (He-Man and The Wonder Years make nice cameos) and the overall feeling of confusion and economic fear. It's like browsing through the pages of a photo album or a box of old souvenirs.

There's nothing huge or fancy in this movie because it's not necessary. It works at so many levels and you can dig deep into it or simply relax and have a nice time watching it.

I tried hard to tell you how great this movie is, now it's your turn: go see it.

I thought the whole experimental nature of this movie (made entirely out of still photographs and voice-over dialogue) was going to be boring and uninteresting after the first 10 minutes or so, and I was scared because it seemed like a very cool idea to be wasted. The best thing, by far, from this beautiful film is the fact that it surprised the hell out of me by being absolutely entertaining and light, easy to digest and enjoy, considering you're watching, in lack of a better word, a slide show. But the great thing about it is that it isn't just a slideshow: it's a breathtaking work of editing to put everything together in a logic, easy-going way and then decide how many seconds/frames we're going to watch each picture, some of them more time and some of them very quickly, in order to accomplish a great rhythm that many conventional movies don't have! After a while, you truly forget you're watching only still photos and the dialogue is so extraordinary, it takes you by the hand into a cute first-love story between a horny teenager and a naive, innocent and slightly dumb American girl. They don't understand each other beyond language barriers: they simply don't speak the same "language" when it comes to love and relationships, specially all the flirting part which is awkward to the point of extreme hilarity and uncomfortable because we've all been there. The subtitles work beautifully by translating everything that is heard, Spanish and English, into the opposite language, a nice detail that may be unimportant to some but it is, in fact, a way to put everything together and forget about the language for 78 minutes: all the characters have serious communication and understanding issues, despite their language being the same or different and Jonás Cuarón succeeds at telling us that language is not the ultimate communication obstacle behind relationships.

It blows your mind how simple/light, yet beautiful, this film can be, despite its apparently complicated nature. Give it a try, it's worth every single minute.

The endless meanings behind every single second of film are gorgeous to think about after seeing it and gorgeous to look at while they unfold in 100 beautifully shot and carefully directed minutes.

Lucrecia Martel hit all the right notes with this 2001 quiet masterpiece and influenced one of the most amazing styles in Latin American cinema this decade: nothing happens. Suddenly, movies about groups of friends doing nothing for a weekend and families coping with rough summers while falling into a spiral of decadence and silent violence became one of the most beautiful branches of filmmaking in Spanish. Some of them are obvious rip-offs from this one, the pioneer, but most of them were just honest tries to pay homage to a movie that opened many eyes in filmmaking.

Flawless cinematography, awesome screenplay, marvelous subtle performances and precise direction. Haunting, sometimes scary, sometimes hilarious, it's hard to take it out of your mind after many days.

You simply can't miss this one.

It is time a Harry Potter movie gets more than 3 Oscar nominations.

Thank you, David Yates, for making such a serious, dark, completely cinematographic film. It has life of its own and lives out of the shadow of the book, just as every book adaptation should do. The film took its time to develop everything and Yates wasn't forced into doing a crowd-pleaser and it shows, every single frame: this movie is not light entertainment. It's a perfectly pitch-black bridge between the previous films and the darkness in front of us: a strong, exciting ending ahead of us.

The performances reached the highest level so far (obviously besides that awful boy Radcliffe, for whom I don't give a damn) and every single actor is at the top of his or her game, no matter how little screentime they have (David Thewlis, Julie Walters and Maggie Smith gave their few seconds on screen so much passion and power as they've never done before and Evanna Lynch fiercely stole the movie) and it was nice to see SPOILER: Michael Gambon saying good-bye with style: with his best performance within the saga.END SPOILER.

But the best element in this beautiful puzzle had to be the screenplay: I've read all the books (twice each, and some thrice) but I'm a film lover (and a filmmaker) so, I went into the theatre expecting a movie, not a book. Books belong in your bedside, movies in the theatre. The translation from book to film was simply outstanding, the things they took away, the things they added, the new dialogues, the way everything made perfect sense. Beautiful adaptation, an example to follow in the future, no matter which book you adapt: you must breathe life of its own into it, no matter what fans want, they don't know best. Film is film.

By the way, thank you, Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie, Un long dimanche de fiançailles, Across the universe) for yet another extraordinary cinematography. Gorgeous.

This is not a movie for everyone, that has always been the main difference between this and, let's say, Lord of the Rings: it doesn't have the ease or charm to lure people into seeing it without previous knowledge of the whole Universe behind it. Yes, that's a problem, it is a flaw. But, what to do? What about this? You don't like Rowling's world, do not see this movie. That's it. It's not fair and it's not objective but maybe that's the only solution behind that specific issue.

A hard-to-digest movie, but a rewarding one if you happen to love both Harry Potter and extraordinary filmmaking.

Cute and harmless, it needs to be taken a little bit more seriously as it is not your average teen-chick flick. The performances are nice and every character is surprisingly well developed for, well, this kind of movie. We have to deal with the fact that this world, in its vast diversity of audiences, needs movies for those annoying, pink, teen girls and if this is one of them, I'm OK with that: it won't rot their brain. Cool movie for a Saturday morning.

I have only one complaint: Blake Lively's segment must be the worst portrayal of Mexico I've ever seen. How bad is it? Beverly Hills Chihuahua looks 100% mexican in comparison. It is that bad.

One last confession: I cried. Thank you, Jenna Boyd: keep on the good work.

Fun, harmless and forgettable: the trifecta for a Saturday morning movie. Entertaining and cute, cliché and never too good or too bad to make you whine about watching it, perfect when there's nothing better on TV.

I have just one complain: is there something Kevin Bacon won't do for money? I mean, seriously...

Tanner Cohen is, by far, the most charming young actor I've ever seen. His sweetness and grace fill up the screen every single frame, from start to finish, and his voice is as powerful and rich as one could wish from a lead role in a movie musical, something that hasn't happened often in the last few years (Pierce Brosnan or Johnny Depp, anyone?), while the rest of the cast feels a little bit overshadowed. But it is, after all, Tanner's show and he manages to hold your guts every single second.

The music is fantastic, each song fills your heart with warmth and love and the plot feels relatable and heartbreaking. Production design, costumes, cinematography and dialogues (a cute, intelligent mix of Shakespeare's lines within the screenplay) work together as the best team to get this ship to the greatest end.

This is a movie that is close to you, that speaks to your heart and never lets go. This is a movie to enjoy, under a blanket, with the one you love. This is a movie shot with soul and emotion like no other.

I have seen several teen adaptations of Shakespeare, from Othello to The Taming of the Shrew and, obviously, Romeo and Juliet, but this kicks ass like no other. This is the best one, by far. And the best A midsummer night's dream adaptation yet.

Do not miss it. Really: don't.

I know: I have a thing for slacker movies about a group of teenager friends coping with everyday problems while hanging out on a regular afternoon/night. From 25 watts to Temporada de patos, and maybe even Glue and Cómo estar muerto/ Como estar muerto, the subject always feels painfully close to my heart and the whole screenplay/performances combo works like magic into my eyes and memory.

After surprisingly discover Guatemala film industry through this tiny, extraordinary movie (the same way I discovered Uruguay movies by hand of 25 watts), I watched it with my jaw wide-open from start to finish: fun, deep, sometimes hilarious, sometimes painful, wonderful, real and never dull or even slow.

Look for it, it's well-hidden somewhere in your town: it's worth the search.

For most of us, Drama/Mex is proof that a man with talent, focus and a fantastic screenplay will be able to make an extraordinary piece of filmmaking without tons of money or help from certain government institutions if he has the balls and guts to go and film it already: no money, no support, just a camera and some friends. Gerardo Naranjo (again, for most of us) became a hero, an example to follow. Somewhere in between his Cannes success and the difficult commercial release of his masterpiece, somebody gave him money to support his second movie, now that they knew what to expect from such a man like him. Voy a explotar was born.

I'm in love with this movie. Once again, words are not enough to describe the power behind its images, its story, and, most of all, the best part: its characters. Voy a explotar flows like magic, like fairy dust on your eyes, a tragic love story between outcasts, a teen drama that doesn't focus on the geeks or the cuties but on the freaks who everyone avoids eye-contact with, the ones with the deep thoughts, immature but uncondicionally romantic.

The character development (from looks and kisses to voice-overs and costumes), the screenplay (my favorite love story ever, real and painful but dreamy at the same time), the directing (fresh, playful, young), the whole production design (every location is flawless, every set decoration is gorgeous and important), the movie itself: everything works perfectly to move this lovely story forward.

Let's wait for Naranjo's third: it's going to be history in the making.

If you're a movie (picture yourself as a movie), and you're slow-paced and quiet (picture everybody yawning), then I'll definitely love you to death (picture me loving you, with a smile on my face) and I won't, I repeat, I won't be bored.

I tried really hard to love this movie. I really did. But the plot (MJ impersonator lives in a comune with other impersonators) was so extraordinary on paper and the beauty of some scenes was so amazing, that I hate Harmony Korine for ruining the precious sack of gold he had in his hands and turning it into one of the least interesting films I've ever seen. Nothing, I insist, nothing that happened on the screen captured my heart, not even for a single second. It's a shame because Diego Luna actually manages to show depth and range as he has never showed before and Samantha Morton feels uncomfortable in what could've been her best performance yet but, of course, it wasn't.

Just like Michel Gondry without Charlie Kaufman, I feel that Harmony Korine without Larry Clark is all over the place, sometimes genius, sometimes dumb. The boy needs guidance and focus... and some actual character development. To make your lead role disappear for so much time as if it wasn't important and then trying to shove it down our throats before the ending is just too rookie to be true.

It's only the second time in my life that I find myself editing a movie inside my head while I'm watching it and thinking: "Damn... it could've been so much better."

And, do we really need to discuss the nuns? Herzog: stay behind the camera.

Touching, moving, simple, tiny and cute. The movie works from start to finish and never gets dull, boring or slow. Anton Glanzelius' uncanny charm is just icing on the cake. It avoids the melodramatic path towards tears and, instead, Hallstrom develops beautiful characters we can all relate to, specially the lead role, which is a reflection of every "trouble" child out there. Deeper than it seems.

A pure classic!

Creepy movie. Truman Capote wasn't a saint, and the movie portrays it in a scary way, how he took advantage of the killers (specially Perry Smith, beautifully played by Clifton Collins, Jr.), how he didn't care about what happened to them. Everything has been said about Hoffman's performance and I think no one has realized how extraordinary the cinematography in this movie is, seriously: by far, one of the most amazing cinematography achievements of the decade.

It must be a bitch to live under the shadow of something like American History X, which I consider an extraordinary piece of acting and filmmaking. It's a pity, because this movie, by itself, without dumb comparisons between similar-subject-matter movies, is a punch in the stomach: but one I enjoyed with a shocked grin on my face.

Instead of taking the obvious route of shocking the audience with a parade of nazi monsters on screen just for the sake of being shocking, the movie is, from start to finish, a deep, explicit, moving character study, masterfully commanded by a tour-de-force, explosive performance by Gosling.

It's not about faith or race or politics: it's about fear, anger and confusion. Daniel Balint is one of the most intelligent characters ever portrayed on film. He asks too many questions and has too many doubts to the point when God (or Judaism) doesn't have answers for him. He is, by itself, a beautiful, troubled, charming character, who lures you to his deepest thoughts and the pain in his soul.

This isn't a movie about Neo Nazis. It's about a powerful mind, searching for answers in all the wrong places.

The ending is absolutely golden.

Words are not enough.

By far, the most ridiculous superhero movie ever created. Every single second of film feels like a camp-movie gone bad and there are entire minutes when you feel inside an actual 90's videogame. The performances are a joke, the action sequences are a joke, the so-called character development is a terrible joke and it's, to say the least, a hundred steps back in the race towards taking superhero movies seriously. What Christopher Nolan, Brian Singer and Sam Raimi did for the genre, poor Gavin Hood (or should we blame it on Hugh Jackman?) undid it on the first 10 minutes.

A joke.
A torture.
A piece of pure, brown crap.

Absolutely entertaining, cliché and crowd-pleasing. It is, underneath it all, a lame love story played by the rules, but its pace, hyperkinetic scenes and two-dimensional characters make you enjoy 90 minutes of lame as the ultimate mexican movie experience. Fun and forgettable: just what a weekend at the movies needs.

An absolutely hilarious collection of extremely awful performances, put together by a lame portrait of self-injury. The saddest thing about this? Self-harmers actually relate to this movie and its characters... I suppose they really have issues to take care of.

Sean Young is bitchy/creepy from start to finish and the characters are so effin' two-dimensional, it's almost embarrasing to see.

Poor self-harmers, not only do they have to cope with depression and suicidal thoughts, maybe they're being punished in rehab with repeated screenings of this jewel. I hope somebody makes a decent movie focused on self-injury. Those kids deserve it.

By the way, Kimberlee, what's with the eyebrow?

A classic.

Depressingly underrated movie, a true little gem of filmmaking. Cute, acid, interesting and engaging. We all know the contemporary Pacino is sadly washed out and hasn't delivered the goods in more than a decade but he's wonderful in this and Rachel Roberts graces the screen with her amazing stage presence, we buy the fact that she is the best actress ever even if she "acts" only for a couple of minutes.

IMO, the secret behind the failure of this movie is the fact that nobody understood it was a sci-fi, fantasy-drenched satire of the comings and goings of Hollywood and the craze behind superstars, created and destroyed by press and executives alike. People took it too seriously and it was its doom.

Chill out, grab a nice, comfortable seat and give it a try, you won't regret it.

(Only one complaint: why is Evan Rachel Wood so dull in this? I mean, c'mon! She's freakin Evan Rachel Wood, for Christ's sake! She's the greatest! There must be some sort of mistake because she's next to boring in this movie. Absolutely not the girl I fell in love with so many years ago. And don't go blaming it on the age: ever since her first film she's that awesome. But I'm sad to report this is her worst performance ever.)

I find impossible to describe the way this movie moved me.

Penelope is the reason God created women, and Almodovar is an uncanny force of nature. Cast, music, words, shots, tears, silence, wind, clothes, color, high heels: everything works like the most beautiful clock in the world, flawless and precise.

I have not one single doubt in my mind about Jason Segel's uncanny acting talent. Producers must start seeing through the whole dumb comedy shell and realize the Apatow gang has a lot to offer besides laughter. But if I was surprised by anybody in this movie, it was by Paul Rudd. The man has a lot more range that I thought!

It's a little bit sad that Apatow didn't take this production under his wing because it's clear this movie would've been a bromantic masterpiece with his talent behind the paperwork. Some stuff feels all over the place and it sure needs some editing here and there but the leads' performances save the whole thing over and over again.

Hilarious, cute, smart and bromantic, all the way.

Guys, go see it with your best friend: it feels better.

It tries too hard to be as funny, cute and acidly romantic as the first one, but it isn't. Everything feels fake, plastic, unfunny and dull and you don't give a rat's ass for Bridget or anything else on the screen. The first one was comic genius, Zellweger's performance was out of this world and the screenplay was simply extraordinary from start to finish, mostly because it aimed low and became a surprise. This sequel aims too high and crashes sadly into oblivion. It's not cute anymore: Bridget becomes a psychopath staulker with serious mental issues instead of a clumsy, silly woman with a crave for attention, just as we love her.

A taste of endurance for any human being who has seen at least 1 decent movie in his or her life.

I lasted 55 minutes before aborting this mission. I didn't crack a single smile.

America Ferrera gives a truly tour-de-force performance owning the entire movie and developing one of the most touching characters of the decade, ricocheting her career with no end in sight.

Surprisingly enough, the movie doesn't fall into the usual chicano clichés (unlike the awful Tortilla Soup) and creates real characters with relatable stories and backgrounds, and, above all, dignity and love.

Some unforgettable scenes (the stripping in the factory is absolutely uplifting) and a great mix of cast and screenplay, make this tale of freedom and family a must-see.

Sometimes, trailers can gather people around to see a film. Sometimes, a trailer can alienate people from an extraordinary film by making it look like a completely different movie. This was the case for Winged creatures. In a couple of minutes online, it looked like Crash gone bad or at least The Air Breathe gone not-that-bad, but it couldn't be more untrue.

Winged creatures tells a lot of stories with a lot of characters but it doesn't play its narrative in a pretentious, Look-at-me-I'm-indie kind of way. It develops each character slowly, quietly, in poetic, beautifully shot scenes that capture some truly genius moments of acting by most of the cast (Dakota sure needed to go supporting one day) and a screenplay that, miracously enough, gets more and more interesting by the second and goes from fear to hope to self-destruction to hope again in its gorgeous 100 minutes.

The music is extraordinary, the cinematography is beautiful, the editing makes the film flow with awesome dexterity and Beckinsale and Hutcherson prove they're truly great actors with crappy choices in their careers. Pearce, Fanning, Haley and, specially, Whitaker, are as fantastic as we're used to see them.

There are no shiny stars in this film, just a marvelous screenplay and a fine director to put everything together along with deep, subtle performances. The thick, sometimes dark aftermath plot is portrayed with poetic beauty.

Give it a chance, it deserves it.

I thought it was going to be good.
I just didn't know it was going to be that good!

HOLY COCK!

There most be something really wrong with me because I can't find any reasons why people seemed to hate this so much. Or maybe it isn't me. Maybe it's the world the one who's becoming bitchier by the second. I'm usually not attracted to blockbusters but, c'mon! This is fun!

I suppose the whole "teleport anywhere" idea sounded just so damn cool that people expected just a little too much from this poor movie. But I think it's a breath of fresh air into sci-fi blockbusters. Everything is so simple and easy to digest but cool and exciting at the same time. There's absolutely nothing pretentious about this film and all its parts are really great, specially the visual effects and the (I suppose) painful editing job so that such a far fetched superpower could work in a context far away from any other superhero movie out there. These guys ain't no superheroes, they're people trying to survive in a world infested by people who hates them. David Rice (played by Hayden Christensen) isn't interested in saving the world (as we see in an earlier scene where he watches the news about a flood somewhere in the world and he gets up and goes to London to hook up), he just wants to have a nice life and, then, take care of those he loves.

Everybody complains about the performances but I didn't find anything that annoyed me (and I'm a bitch when it comes to acting, trust me) even in Hayden Christensen, seriously! Of course, the movie sometimes feels too big for him and he has the lead-man skills of a brussels sprout but he's not disgusting. Let's be honest for a second: there are more awful people in blockbusters than this poor guy doing the best he can (Daniel Radcliffe, anyone?); but, obviously, Jamie Bell steals the entire movie with great charm and a special something for action movies. He needs more blockbusters. Please.

I'm actually waiting for the sequel.

Is there something wrong with me? Probably. But I think there are worst movies out there to be bitching about this one.

I've been hearing the worst reviews from this, a movie I expected to see for its incredible cast and the chance to finally see Jennifer Connelly doing comedy. I hate bitter, bitchy critics who just can't take a light, touching comedy for what it is. This is great.

It's definitely hard to make actual statements in a screenplay, to make your characters spit life lessons surrounded in such a tone that will make words sound like absolute, like the truth about love and relationships. But it works. These characters are well-written. They aren't annoying because of the screenplay, you want to choke them most of the time because they are dumb, they are naive, they don't know how to deal with rejection, loneliness, physical attraction, desire or the first steps towards actual love. But still, you laugh, simply because you know somebody like them or you are them. Every single one of them is relatable and annoyingly charming enough to make you care for them the whole time and the entire cast is at the top of their game. Yes, sometimes you really feel the burning desire of bitchslap Ginnifer Goodwin but her character is still bubbly, cute and lovely, like a puppy who keeps bouncing on the same wall over and over again. Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck are likable, probably because of their little screentime and their commitment to avoid their usual gimmicks and lay low for once. Justin Long gives his best performance yet, finally showing his true potential beyond dumb teen comedies and Bradley Cooper (whoever that is) showcases his stud looks into a deep, funny role. But, ey, it wouldn't be Me if I didn't praise Jennifer Connelly, right? Well, she was actually, as if it would surprise me by now, the best-in-show. Her character was hilarious and she has amazing comedic timing. Beware! When she mixes comedy with her extraordinary dramatic talent, she's pure gold: that breakdown at the end? Damn. She's just The best. And her scene with Luis Guzman is priceless. I think her storyline was the best, because it was the most serious, the most dramatic, but still remained hilarious because of her. I really don't want to talk about Scarlett Johansson because she disappointed me and her character was poorly written and annoying, without the "cute" part I was talking about.

The way all the storylines meet is actually really original, more in the style of Reinas, by Manuel Gómez Pereira than, let's say, Crash or anything by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The editing gave the screenplay just the flow it needed to never drag and stay sharp and funny. And the Baltimore setting is amazing. You buy the fact that everybody bumps into each other and the city is a breath of fresh air from the usual rom-coms in L.A. or New York. It has absolutely nothing to do with him or his style, but John Waters would be proud.

Please, check this out. It's light-hearted, hilarious, cute, well-acted and well-written. Even if you don't agree with the relationship advices they give (I mean, I know love sucks, but, c'mon, this was too much!), you will enjoy this. Trust me. It's surprisingly original and fresh for a romantic comedy.

A badass version of Battle Royale. I don't know how to say this but, yes: I buy it. I drink this milkshake, I drink it all.

This is, in fact, an exciting, dumb, fast-paced, intoxicating action flick with lots of fights and explosions, and I like it.

Of course, I hated when they tried to be all socially aware and tried to shove down our throats some weird, anti-reality message but as long as they remained in the safe, warm place called action-flick-with-wrestlers, it was all good. And it's always a pleasure to see (and hear) Rick Hoffman talk as fast as he can. He's simply hilarious.

I don't know who the hell is this Steve Austin, but I buy him as an action star. The Rock he ain't.

Everytime I cry when watching a movie, it's because I find something in it that I can relate to: a character, a situation, a choice. I see myself in it and the tears don't wait to start coming down like rain. I like to cry when watching a movie, and it's always a sign that the movie itself is pretty awesome. But this is the first time, and I don't know if it's going to be the last one, that I've ever cried because of a performance, and not a character. For example, when I was watching The Wrestler, I cried for the character, even if I didn't relate to him (Thank God!) but this time, it was the actual performance of Dakota Fanning that set the tone for a nice crying when her breakdown near the end came along. I was moved to tears without even a warning, and I realized she has become the mature actress we all knew she was going to be someday, sooner or later. She has never been this subtle before, developing depth instead of sass or simple emotion. She has always been terrific (I still think her performance in Uptown Girls is fantastic, as her roles in Man on fire, Hide and Seek and I am Sam) but now she goes far away from her usual gimmicks and finds a new voice in the hands of a beautiful character and an awesome screenplay, which could've gone wrong (Lifetime wrong) but didn't.

A gorgeous story of hope, anger, guilt and pain, surrounded by a magnificent production design and cinematography, along with a nice, quiet direction from Gina Prince-Bythewood, that puts emphasis in gazes, silence and subtlety, setting the perfect tone for breakdowns and crying, instead of filling the entire movie with grief, which would've become a cheesy chick-flick instead of the Southern masterpiece that it is.

The entire cast is at the top of their game, from an awesome, almost divine, lovely Queen Latifah to a cute, masterful Sophie Okonedo (great, as usual) and a haunting Paul Bettany in a character I'd have loved to see more developed that it was. The thing is, I have a problem with Alicia Keys. I mean, if Norah Jones was able to make a good debut in My Blueberry Nights (of course, guided by WKW, duh), why couldn't she be at least mildly convincing at all?! She was dull from start to finish. But still, the whole movie made such an impact in me that I kept forgiving the filmmakers for trusting her with this. As for Jennifer Hudson, I'm starting to think she actually has a great future in front of her. I haven't seen Dreamgirls but she blew me away in this film, and I hope that all the haters see her here in order to realize she's a pretty damn good actress besides some cheesy diva musical.

Awesome high-class drama. Nothing less than that.

My brother-in-law is flying to Israel soon, so I'm going to ask him to buy me original Israeli copies of both The Bubble and Yossi & Jagger.

I know I won't be able to see them on my DVD player but I want to keep them close just in case I meet Eytan Fox and he'd sign them for me and I'd be able to tell him how much I love his movies.

Just a dream.

Not bad. For a couple of years now I've been thinking (thanks to bitchy critics) that the movie was boring, dull, over-the-top and Blanchett's performance lame and screamy.

Well, it may not be an epic masterpiece (it feels too big sometimes) but Blanchett's performance is extraordinary (mostly when she's silent and scared in the privacy of her bedroom) and her character feels more developed that any other queen, king or prince in an epic movie before. This Elizabeth is a woman with fears and the need to be loved more than a flawless, beautiful queen.

I completely agree with those claiming the supporting cast is just a decorative element for Blanchett's performance, as Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and Samantha Morton feel like bad cameos. They give amazing performances for badly written characters. And no matter what Abbie Cornish does for her role, you simply don't give a rat's ass for her in the whole movie. She may be just a cardboard cutout and it would be the same. That's something I really hated.

But, damn! The costume design is not as cliché as so many other period costumes. It mixes a contemporary vision of glamour and edginess with classic dresses and traditional British gowns, creating an eye-candy that shouldn't be missed.

The cinematography for the quiet, indoors scenes is marvelous.

A good sequel.
Not perfect, but far from lame.

So predictable, it's almost as if you've written it yourself.

But, at the same time, it's absolutely cute, funny and innocent. Katherine Heigl has a natural talent for rom-com and so does James Cyclops Marsden, who reveals himself as the ultimate contemporary rom-com stud.

It's nice to see Maulik Pancholy in a more-than-a-couple-of-lines role for a change (two complete scenes! Awesome!) and David Castro is really funny, nice kid. It pisses me off to see Judy Greer as a bitchy best friend for the twentieth time.

Special mention to the costume design. Not only the 27 dresses stand out (they're extraordinary and hilarious) but every single wedding scene shines with cute dexterity.

A nice movie to chill out, relax and laugh a little.

I've been hearing the worst reviews ever about this poor movie for more than a year but it's unfair. It may not be a masterpiece but it's not bad, not at all. Except my sister and I found something that kept bothering us for the entire running time: all the extras, in all the scenes, are the worst group of extras ever put on film. Seriously!

From all the flawed movies with important subject matters that disappoint everyone by not being deep enough and never taking things to the next level in 2 hours of wasted performances and bright moments lost in the haze of dull stuff, this is probably the one that hurts the most.

It is not a bad movie, per se. It's just flawed and soft. The characters, the direction and the whole screenplay feel like a pack of confused puppies running into each other constantly.

Let's see: you have one touchy, painful, cruel real-life subject (stop-loss) and you have some kick-ass, extraordinary young actors (Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and... Ok, let's say it just once: Ryan Phillippe), you add these elements to a well-known, indie director with a heartbreaking, painful first movie and you have yourself a modern masterpiece, right? So... what the fuck went wrong?! Channing Tatum doesn't dive as deep into his guts as he did in A guide to recognizing your saints, but still manages to give us some good acting here and there, and the Man, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has absolutely NO screentime at all! He starts to hypnotize us in a couple of seconds and right when we're all set and ready to go, bam! Cut! Let's move to the Phillippe subplot! Who on Earth wrote this screenplay?! And who edited it?! Ryan Phillippe has always been a limited actor and even if this role could be counted as his best one yet, he's just not that good.

Still, the movie has brilliant if not extraordinary moments here and there. Tatum's and Gordon-Levitt's characters are haunting and real, their war nightmares ruining their lives feel more wrenching than Phillippe's weird crazy lapsus. The war scenes are cool and they remind me a lot of Jarhead on how contemporary filmmakers manage to portray young, twentysomething soldiers in no-sense wars. The clips Rob Brown's character taped and edited together are sad, exciting and even cute. It shows you how these soldiers we just label as stupid or ignorant rednecks are human beings who don't know anything better than believing in an imaginary war. Maybe the film should've stayed with just that idea and create a human, small-town drama instead of a weird crosscountry chase.

Special mention to Victor Rasuk's lovely character and incredible performance. When the movie started, I was really hooked with this latino-soldier surrounded by so many texans and I was disappointed about the little screentime but then, suddenly, out of the blue, right when I was disappointed the most, BAM! Rasuk tore my heart away with the greatest moment in the film. This guy was a huge indie promise a few years ago and now the promise is coming alive. He needs more and better work, ASAP.

I can't say I didn't like the movie, I even think it is a really good movie, but it's awful how it could've been absolutely BETTER and it just wasn't. Again, the actors, the plot and the director were there, so, what happened? I think it was a matter of commercial value that made this movie turn into another one we didn't want nor expected.

Still, kudos on never taking sides on this touchy subject. The director lets us create our own opinion on what's behind these poor men's minds and souls and the characters speak to whoever wants to hear them. It doesn't matter if you're pro-war (shame on you, though) or you think invading a third-world country for oil is absolutely stupid and retarded, you must realize the young men (and women) risking their lives over there for whatever are real, they bleed, they cry and they need a better movie.

I name it the 35th Best Movie of 2008 simply because of the promise of what could've been a hell of a movie. And you just can't deny the performances are high class.

It took me a while to get into it but once it grabs you, it really doesn't let you go.

Maybe my problem with the movie is that I thought it was going to be deeper. A really raw study of artistic couples, with a mumbly touch à la Joe Swanberg. But it wasn't. It was great, it just wasn't that great.

I liked the performances, though. With her little screentime and change of acting style from what we're used to see her in, Jane Adams steals most of the show. Except from Justin Rice who is better than any of us could've expected from The guy from Bishop Allen. Every time he's on the screen it's hypnotizing. One of the cutest characters you'll find nowadays. Who doesn't want a husband like him?! His rendition of The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe is one of the best parts of the movie, only exceeded by the music sessions with his bandmate, wisely cut into other scenes. Actually, that's something I really enjoyed: the editing job by Joe Swanberg himself. The most genius moments of this little, cute film come from scenes put together in a big, sometimes funny editing ballet.

A nice addition to the Swanberg filmography. Can't wait for Silver bullets.

Tour-de-force is such a small word to describe Daniel Hendler's performance here. There isn't any word able to fully describe the power of his eyes, his voice, his body language, the ability he has to deeply swim in his characters' mind and soul. In this extraordinary film, he avoids his usual arrogant, sexed up gimmicks (which always work brilliantly) and develops a tender, cute, broken, soft, paranoid character who will get stuck to your memory for years to come.

Gabriel Medina's playful (but mature) direction is able to keep the fun going in this high-class, hipster dramedie about a loser writing a screenplay while struggling with his insecure being and working in children's parties as Cachito, the purple, fluffy monster.

The screenplay takes you deep into an underachiever's heart. A man who closes his curtains at night, smokes a joint and dances wildly to punkrock music in the safe environment of his apartment. A man who is afraid of living and avoids any kind of human relationship. A man who is, and probably will always be, alone.

One of the underrated elements of this movie (everybody focuses on Daniel Hendler's uncanny acting... not that there's anything wrong with that, of course) is the music score, which is so subtle, so tiny and precise that helps us understand the lead character instead of telling us how to feel or think. The soundtrack is also wonderful and absolutely downloadable.

Don't miss this one for anything in the world. Truly inspiring for any fan of slacker cinema, a truly wonderful work from the 25 Watts generation.

Go Hendler! Go Medina! Awesome!

A wet dream.

Whoever thinks this is Dangerous Minds in French is out of his fuckin mind.

And whoever thinks these students are scary and unrealistic... is lucky to have been in such a nice school.

A masterpiece.

Entertaining, funny, touching and moving, but also tense, raw, cruel and heartbreaking.

Probably, the cutest, nicest, most charming characters in contemporary filmmaking. A modern day Amélie with cleptomania and a cheap apartment in New York.

Indie cinema at its best.

One of the funniest, wackiest, most interesting homages to the French Nouvelle Vague nowadays.

Absolutely, one of the most hilarious movies of 2008.

Even with a mind-blowing cinematography, smart editing and nerve-wracking patience from both directors, it doesn't stop being a documentary about a freakin pond and the birds living in it for a little bit more than an hour which felt like four or five hours.

One of the most boring movies I've ever seen.

Awful.

One of those movies you're extremely proud to say: "It was as good as they said..." and maybe, even more.

While the whole music score was a little bit over the top, the entire screenplay was beautiful and intense.

Lina Leandersson devours the entire role by actually feeling like a 12 year old that may have lived over a 100 years of experiences and pain. She's hypnotizing and plays her role flawlessly, while Kare Hedebrant is just the cutest, skinniest boy ever. You just feel like hugging him til his eyes explode.

I was nearly peeing my pants in excitement: my first mumblecore film... on a theatre in Mexico City! After hanging out with Joe Swanberg for a couple of days!

I expected the movie to be all the things my dreams are made of, but it just blew me away and destroyed my expectations by going beyond them by many miles.

Deep, raw, emotional, cute, hilarious, depressing, extraordinary performances and a beautiful cinematography.

Some genius moments (the opening sequence is one of the funniest sex scenes I've ever seen and the banana conversation was simply wonderful) and a painful ending, Nights and Weekends was everything I asked for, and more.

Picture two groups of siblings (cousins) alone in an adult-free country club for a week. Interesting, huh?

A beautifully shot social experiment. You can cut the sexual tension with a butter knife and drool all over the gorgeous cinematography.

Also, incredible performance from the teen cast. Amazing group of non-professional actors.

I have no words.

A dream.
A triumph that any stop-motion artist will have trouble reaching.

Weird but lovely.
One of the most interesting and silly aesthetics ever seen on mexican cinema.

No.

Mind-blowing!

Every single second of film blows your mind.

We all know that every word said by any character in this movie is like a knife slashing the receiver's guts and soul, but I think the most beautiful, painful part of this film are all the eyes, the sights, the pain written on the faces of these characters.

Extraordinary cast.
This time, the hype was right.

Best smallest performance of the year? Not Viola Davis but Joseph Foster II that develops such a deep character everytime you look at his face. Awesome.

Nothing extraordinary, but not bad.

The movie doesn't stand out as good or bad, and that's not something you want from a movie these days.

Also, I'm quite disappointed as I saw this in a gay film festival and it was advertised as a gay movie, even taking advantage from Jorge Adrián Espíndola's greatest hit, the gay short film David. But this is not a gay movie. There is one same sex relationship through the plotline but it is a subplot from a supporting character and by any means that makes this movie gay. I didn't hate it for that but it was quite lame.

A great surprise: Tenoch Huerta, a rising actor in mexican cinema nowadays, gives a tour-de-force performance (he is the one with the gay plotline, actually) in a character we have seen zillions of times in local films (downtown small time crook with nothing better to do than crime) but breathes fresh air into it and you can't help but love him.

Jorge Adrián Espíndola, usually an amazing actor, feels bored and stiff all the time and Claudette Maille, an old-school actress in her comeback (she's the mother of the lead characters in 2008's Quemar las naves), steals the show all the time as a prostitute/wrestler (holy crap...) with a heart of gold (apparently), probably the best character in the movie.

I think the issue with this film is that there was virtually no direction. The so-called director doesn't pull the guts from his actors and they all feel confused and weird in a movie they probably didn't understand. It could've been a movie full of great moments and interesting characters but it just feels like... whatever.

You just don't care about anything on the screen, except for Tenoch Huerta's character.

I cried.
A lot.

What to do, what to do?

I can't say I loved this movie because I didn't but I had a really hard time hating it.

Let's put it this way: if the movie was silent, this would've been one of the greatest films I've ever seen. The cinematography was simply mind-blowing, as it is now usual in any mexican movie in the last decade. The soundtrack was actually really, really good. And the whole plotline (three friends on the verge of severe depression due to their sad, little, bourgeois lives, decide to go on a road trip to eat peyote and then randomly go to the US to find themselves in the process) was simply mesmerizing... in paper. The sad thing about this utter mess is that every single time any of the characters opened their mouth, shit came out of their mouths. Shit. That's the only word I can use to describe the dialogues: shit. Excrement. Poop. Caca.

The worst thing about this is to see the poor Andrés Almeida, one of the greatest rising actors currently working in Mexico, being wasted over and over again by being forced to speak said shit. Even with the kind of "dialogues" this movie pretends to have, Almeida manages to give an extraordinary performance that verges on flawlessness everytime he gets the chance. If you watch closely enough, you may find a tour-de-force performance somewhere beneath all the crap. His character is also the only one you can relate with and the one who feels more real as the other two are simply aliens who came to Earth and decided they wanted to be intellectual mexicans.

So, why are the dialogues shit?

Many people in Mexico complain that the language used in most of our films is far-fetched and unrealistic. Sadly, it isn't true. The whole colorful vocabulary used in almost any mexican movie, is what you listen to on the streets everyday (or in the mall, depending on the social group) and it is embarrasing but it is, ultimately, real. Some movies triumph in their use of language more than others.

Unfortunately (or luckily?), I haven't found (yet) any human being on this planet (less in this country) that speaks the way this so-called characters do. When you're on a road trip, what mystical power gets into you so you talk only about politics? What kind of friendship moves around the sole purpose of talking about POLITICS the whole damn time? Are these people REAL? Why do they insist on speaking ONLY about Bush, oil, war, mexican philosophers and poets, money, immigration and anti-american crap?

It's a true shame. If the movie had focused on real friendship issues and deep conversations about relationships or maybe the human nature, this movie would've been one of the greatest films on Earth.

It is not.

If you think, by any means, that Sean Penn's masterpiece Into the Wild is, in fact, a pretentious, new-hippy, Generation X, artsy piece of bullshit... go see this junk.

We have a word for this kind of movies in spanish: MAMONA. And this is the Queen.

NOTE: The 2 and a half stars (as my review may match a half-star movie) correspond to the beautiful plotline, the first 15 minutes, Andrés Almeida's performance, the fun soundtrack and the cinematography. If this elements weren't as great as they are, this is a 0 stars movie.

I don't know how great Slumdog millionaire really is, but I seriously doubt there's any movie better than this one in 2008.

BEST MOVIE 2008

10 minutes of pure, thrilling, deep and beautiful delirium, supported by gorgeous music and an extraordinary, non-invasive sound design.

Shane Acker has something to talk about and I hope the upcoming feature film with Tim Burton having his back (in order to prevent big producers to PG-ize the concept) will help him to develop the career this unforgettable short film promised all of us.

Expect giant things from him.

Wow!

I really don't dare to look at any reviews or IMDB forums before writing this. I just don't want to know if this was a box office flop or if the critics hated it.

I was reluctant towards seeing it because even if I liked The Pursuit of Happyness and Will Smith's new contemporary urban drama career (and enjoyed Tony Goldwin's remake of a Gabriele Muccino movie, The Last Kiss), I didn't know what to expect from this. Would Muccino work wonders with Smith giving him lifetime characters or would this be another pay-it-forward movie with a message and high level of tears and no brain?

I gave it a try.

I liked the fact that the plotline wasn't entirely crystal-clear from the first half of the movie towards the very ending. It wasn't just drawing a plotline and suddenly giving it a twist at the end, but actually building the characters and their backgrounds without being too obvious about it.

What do we know about Ben Thomas? His name, his day job, his everyday journey, his kindness. We know he is hiding something and that he has some mental issues he needs to work on. He is sad, he is broken, he is alone. And for the first time in the whole of the complex, fun, interesting Smith's career, I bought it. He isn't just crying and being all drama-king and stuff. It's not only the screenplay. This time, he is completely immersed in creating poetry with his eyes and his entire body and not just throwing "sad" lines all over the place with touchy music in the background (not that there's anything actually wrong with it) but actually commiting to a story. What I loved the most about his job here is how we finally see a broken Smith. His vulnerability is remarkable, like a thorn blossom. Extraordinary.

What about Rosario Dawson? I've followed her career closely since she became the one and only redeeming element in the movie adaptation of Rent and I've always wanted to see her in front of a big project like this one.

People don't want to be preached about life and death. Movies are not motivational speechers and audiences are not as stupid as it may seem (specially when they line up to see The Fast and the Furious) but sometimes judging a book by its cover before opening it and taking a look makes audiences lose the chance to see an amazing movie once in a while.

Ben Thomas doesn't want you to agree with him, with his way of healing his soul. You can disagree, or even think he isn't doing the right thing as he thinks he is. But his journey towards redemption is poetic, beautiful, perfectly performed by every single actor in the cast and with some extraordinary moments of despair, as if the whole film was surrounded by a blue feeling that reaches the viewer.

4 stars for the filmmaking (excellent, not too full of itself or pretentious, at all) and an extra half for the outstanding cast and the (finally!) revelation of Rosario Damn! I'm a good actress! Dawson to the world.

GIVE IT A TRY.

I have never in my entire life seen a crazy psychobitch as charming, sexy and hilarious as Penelope Cruz.

I think I'm in love with her as much as I'm in love with this movie: my first Woody Allen experience, can you believe it?

Not that bad.
But it was definitely flawed.

The first two movies weren't masterpieces but they were sinfully entertaining. This one is dull and boring.

I just can't take that Letters to Cleo cover out of my head! :)

NOTE to all the haters: consider this is a dumb comedy meant to make an audience laugh, not think. Mexican cinema lacks on dumb comedies as we always think we must do serious movies with serious topics. Relax a little, laugh a little.

Wow.

Daniel Hendler keeps captivating me with his average man performances that always fall into some social/cultural group in particular, creating a unique character that almost any man in that group can relate to. From his extraordinary gay man facing the first gay marriage in Spain in Reinas to his dreamy, kind of a jerk high school slacker in 25 Watts (my favorite character in a movie, by the way) and now with his wonderful display of a bored son in search of answers about his parents' past, creating a jewish character like most of the jewish twentysomethings we actually know: forgetting about tradition and religion and trying to cope with a family environment that annoys and wracks the nerves.

The whole cast is superb but without him this would be another wannabe jewish modern masterpiece lacking on the tons of charm Hendler has to offer. Definitely one of the greatest young actors working today.

Kudos to Ariel's Grandma, a beautiful character played with dexterity and high class skills by Rosita Londner.

Unforgettable piece of cinema. One of those movies I usually fall in love with: a slice of life, painted in grey and blurred colors.

Gorgeous!

This movie will definitely give you a hard time. Specially if you're used to the pretty, easy-to-digest Hollywood kind of movie.

The raw, low-budget, third-world B/W tale of a 15 year-old gay hustler struggling with life (charming, non-professional actor Francisco Rey) will haunt you and make you feel unconfortable and disturbed for more than 90 minutes.

I am hesitating a little bit on how to feel about this movie: I wouldn't recommend it because I know almost no one would ever like this film but I think I liked it... a lot. It's raw, it's indie, it's poor in its technique but strong in its soul and spark.

Stay away from it if a mildly explicit, in-your-face story about a gay, junkie child hustler who engages in sexual situations with older man disturbs you.

Give it a try if you're ready to face an honest, crude, weird, kind of fresh point of view on despair and haunting past. This is a nerve-wracking ride in a spiral to the shadows.

Flawed, but deliciously entertaining.

I don't like trends. I'm completely out-of-style and I've always been outside the box ever since the day I was born.

I read Harry Potter before the movie was even an idea in somebody's head. I liked Panic! At the Disco when their website was under construction. And I could give more and more examples but I will leave it in this: I haven't read the book but the few pages I read were extraordinary. So, I was dying to see the movie.

I don't give a rat's ass if it's trendy or "OMFG zo fukyn kuLL! <3"... it's just a movie. And it was extraordinary. That's it.

*Full review coming soon*

Everytime you look up filmmaker in a dictionary, Fernando Eimbcke's picture should be in there.

Whoever thinks for a second that this is just another propaganda, Christian, anti-abortion movie is absolutely missing the point.

As one of the most atheist, most psycho pro-abortion dudes out there, I truly loved it to death.

Beautiful, beautiful movie.

*Review coming soon before the end of November... I fuckin promise! Ok?*

This movie is the definition of unfunny.

I died a little bit inside after 10 seconds of crap.

Who the hell writes this shit?!

Unlike most of the times I love a film which is hated by almost everyone, I can see where does the hate come from: ignorance.

Gringos (I'm sorry for the word but they don't have a word to call themselves) are used to evil virus who ends humanity movies and demand a movie using a similar plotline to respond to every single cliché and gimmick all the other evil virus who ends humanity movies have.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, gringos, but this is not that kind of movie: this is real. The way Meirelles (a filmmaker in the whole meaning of the word) portrays human beings (and the way Saramago did when he wrote the book) and their choices, flaws and fears, is absolutely real.

I'm getting sick of every single "OMFG! Julianne Moore could've done this or that to save those poor people! Boo-hoo!" post out there. SICK!

This is not an action-popcorn-horror-evil virus flick!

True film lovers around the globe: do not get fooled by all the moronic reviews talking about plot holes and crap!

This is (and I'm using this word from the bottom of my heart) a masterpiece.

*Full -no yelling- review coming soon*

Anna Faris is a comedy goddess!

*Review coming soon*

Simply mesmerizing!

*Review coming before the end of November*

Ok, yes, it is probably one of the worst horror movies out there but listen up people: Paris Hilton is not the worst thing ever. She's not even mildly annoying in this movie. I didn't care for her at all.

You know what's the worst part of this piece of junk? The screenplay. It is written using the pubic hair of a Tijuana whore dipped in ink and then brushed all over a piece of paper previously used to whip somebody's butt after a night of eating at Chili's with some spicy Margaritas mixed with burbonic acid and the water from a mexican river.

Yep, it is THAT poorly written. And THAT's the annoying part.

Paris? She looks kind of hot.

Absolutely MORE than just a horror movie.

*Review coming soon*

Please, do not pay attention to the negative reviews on Flixster about this one.

Give it a try!

*Review coming soon*

I'm disgusted by all the negative reviews, both critics and Flixster users.

Please, trust me, this is fantastic.

*Review coming soon*

Dear Mr Cronenberg, would you marry me?



*Review coming soon*

The ultimate B/W slacker indie film.

Yes: it is THAT bad.

It has a LOT of unintentional laughs but every time you're not laughing, you're feeling actual physical pain from the awful performances, the third world cinematography and the disgusting Reggaeton soundtrack.

*Review coming soon*

Don't believe the negative hype and the blank Flixster profile: this is awesome!

*Review coming soon*

Only Judd Apatow and his team would be able to give such a bunch of heart and soul to a gross-out teen flick.

As always, flawless character development.

Pure genius!

*Review coming soon*

Don't dream it, be it!
By far, the most beautiful & sexy portrait of freedom and soul.

*Review coming soon*

Stop the hate! Feel the love! :)

*Review coming soon*

It just DOESN'T STOP! Scene after scene after scene is... a joyride!

But I just wanted to chop Paulie Litt's head off with a kick and pee all over his grave. Could a kid be more ANNOYING? Please, God... make him die a painful, slow death.

*Review coming soon*

It is THAT good.

*Review coming soon*

"The most important thing in business is honesty, integrity, hardwork... family... never forgetting where we came from."

Some people are being kind of mean and illogic about this one: it's not slow, it's epic! An epic tale of crime, family, corruption, drugs and money, all covered up with a good ol' Good versus Evil frosting.

I know why people are kind of disappointed about this one calling it boring: they of course expected a lot more bullets and chases from the man behind the camera, Sir Ridley Scott. But I actually think this is his best movie ever. While some people may argue about the coolness factor behind his best-known masterpieces like Gladiator or Black Hawk Down, I think this movie is closer to Alien when it comes to applying all the explosive, over-the-top cool style of Mr Scott into a nerve-wracking, intense, subtle plotline with beautifully created atmospheres and a great sense of rythm and extraordinary acting.

Denzel and Russell deliver and, while I thought she was going to disappoint me because of the buzz behind her performance, Ruby Dee is actually really, really great. I fell in love with her in Do the right thing but this is definitely more memorable. How she is able to control each scene she's into (considering her screentime is almost nule) is simply mesmerizing.

The top moment? Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts are left all alone in the interrogation room, no lawyers, no microphones. That chat is one of the most extraordinary pieces of acting/directing of the year, and probably the decade. Simply cool to the bone.

Warning: this is not a movie for everyone. If you can't handle long, kind-of slow movies with great tense atmospheres then stay away from it.

My best friend (20 y-o, rich, mexican girl, Favorite Movies: The Lord of the Rings, The Notebook and The Phantom of the Opera) called it "The worst movie ever"...

Your choice.

"He turned down a blow job from his ex-girlfriend... mid-blowjob. You know how hard that is for a man? It's called blue balls. He's like Gandhi! But better - he likes puppets!"

I really want to write a fantastic review about this, so, I will take my time... but, damn! I have to start writing all these reviews already!

Jason Segel is by far one of the best actors I've had the pleasure to see. His whole body of work amazes me: between SLC: Punk!, Freaks & Geeks and this, he shows a fantastic range like no other Apatow Pack member yet.

:)

*Review coming soon*

"Can't you see? She's picking strawverries!"

Anna Magnani is a true delight!

*Review coming soon*

Marina: [Complaining in the car] "This is the most boring trip of my life!!"

Indeed.

I usually LOVE slow paced movies (Glue) and, specially, mexican slow paced independent movies (Two embraces, Turtle family, A thousand clouds of peace, Silent light) but this was just too much. The movie lacks charm, compelling characters (the leading girl was just annoying) and it feels like a Reygadas' rip-off all the way, including cameos by two of Reygadas' muses: Anapola Mushkadiz from Battle in Heaven and Magdalena Flores, the old lady in Japón. Carlos Reygadas has inspired many mexican filmmakers since his first film and the third one made him one of the most important and respected directors ever but, unlike Rubén Ímaz (Turtle family) or even Ernesto Contreras (Blue eyelids), Juan Patricio Riveroll is not capable of filtering his influences and, instead of paying homage to his master he creates a parody.

If there was a mexican version of Scary Movie, it would be called Not Another Reygadas Movie and it would be a lot like this.

Avoid like a Tijuana whore!

Picture this: I love slow movies to death... but this one bored me! Can you imagine that? It looks beautiful but that's it. Good cinematography in a mexican movie doesn't surprise us anymore.

And for a character to say this is the most boring trip she has ever had, it really must be a boring movie, huh?

Let's just say I'm not going to join the massive cult behind this movie.

Believe the buzz... just don't get TOO excited about it.

*Review coming soon*

For a boring Saturday morning, this is the best you can get. Marissa Jaret Winokur's humongous charm is undeniable and Fran Drescher as a stereotypical jewish mother is annoyingly adorable.

The whole art direction makes you feel inside a bad John Waters rip-off but the whole package is full of laughter, campy moments and bad transitions from scene to scene, so it's a really nice moment to relax, smile and enjoy.

Don't expect too much.

"I love it when they dance."

A painful experience.

An extraordinary movie but I couldn't take it. My hate towards Lars Von Trier's methods wasn't the one to blame but the aesthetics and cinematography that were interesting at first but then became annoying and exhausting.

Björk is definitely haunting and the whole supporting cast (including a brilliant appearance by Joel Grey) is simply amazing. The musical numbers are intense and rich. Consider for a second how much I loathe Björk and her "music" and then you'll see how breathtaking she is here: I'm her slave. Her performance is not only nerve-wracking but also charming, despite the tragic turn of the whole story.

The whole plot line was kind of melodramatic and I was prepared to see a soap-opera with Björk songs and Dogme95 camera-work, but if I have anything good to say about Lars Von Trier is that he managed to overcome the whole tearjerker, naive, mother-love-above-all main idea and deliver a study on the human soul and dignity, and, obviously (this is Von Trier we're talking about), a strong critique towards the American people (rednecks) and their trust and legal system is involved but there's nothing to worry about, it's subtle and it doesn't distract from the main plotline.

Deep, raw and completely emotional, this is a difficult experience that rewards the viewer for a couple of hours but in the last 20 minutes or so, it tears the soul appart and the joy of a tragic, well-done film is exchanged with the pain of a difficult movie to swallow, right until the not-so-shocking but definitely strong ending.

For me, this is not a movie I like but it's a movie I respect.

"Hubi, my love....Let's fly away. Maybe beyond the smoke and the fighting, there's a better place. Maybe there really is a paradise where we can just love each other. I don't know.

I wonder if we ever really had a chance. If, even for a moment we had a chance.... Lulu and Yali will probably give the papers a photo of the two of us. Maybe the one from the rave where we look all high and happy.

Maybe people will see how beautiful we look, and understand how stupid these wars are. No, they probably never will."

Heartbreaking and absolutely beautiful.

It gives all the shallow, self-centered gay movies a kick in the balls by dealing with a touchy, universal subject without losing its essence or alienating straight audiences.

Gorgeous!

*Review coming soon*

(By far, one of the greatest soundtracks I've ever listen)

Extraordinary!

*Review coming soon*

Charlie Bartlett: "This place sucks. But I just worry that one day we're gonna look back at high school and wish we'd done something different."

The greatest 97 minutes of my life...

I'm so related to the main character in so many ways that seeing this (for the third time now) with my mom getting pissed off everytime Hope Davis appeared on screen (because she KNOWS just how similar we are to them in real life) is both weird, unconfortable and extremely hilarious.

I'm absolutely madly in love with this movie.

*Review coming soon*

Is there ANYTHING in this God's flat Earth that Meryl Streep CAN'T actually do?

*Review coming soon*

Extremely hilarious satire of the soap opera world in Mexico (a country that treats soap operas like a religion) with amazingly effective and compelling performances and some amazing moments through the great screenplay.

The ending flops a little bit but the hilarity never drops.

Also, it has an awesome drinking game: drink every time you see Miguel Pizarro (a truly excellent actor in a hysterical role as a TV extra who does everything to become a true star) in some scenes in the background playing... an extra in the movie where he plays an extra! Genius, simpy genius.

A good experience that makes fun of itself and the audience, used to demand very little from entertainment.

One of the most hilarious comedies ever filmed in Mexico, compelling and lovely.

Amazing!

*Review coming soon*

One of the most painful, most beautiful, most gorgeous, funniest, sexiest love stories ever told on film.

Simply extraordinary!

*Review coming soon*

Simply, without any doubt in my mind, one of the must fucked up, hardcore, deliciously annoying, psychotic love story ever told on film.

Woody Harrelson's character is extraordinary and hypnotic, Juliette Lewis looks gorgeous, Robert Downey Jr sucks but is hilarious, Tommy Lee Jones goes WAY out of the box and delivers his best performance ever and whoever decided to cast Rodney Dangerfield in this was definitely on crack... and I want me some of that!

Whoever directed, wrote, performed or even watched this film deserves my entire respect for a life time.

Orgasmic!

Shot in a gorgeous b/w, this is by far the cutest, most compelling, most beautiful Tim Burton film ever.

Everything in it is simply unforgetable and lovely and the way Burton manages to pay homage to everything he loves (from old horror movies to dead dogs) is extraordinary. "Frankenweenie" has a soul more than most Burton films that only have charm and dexterity without the spark (no pun intended) this one shows through its wonderful 29 minutes.

I loved every single scene inspired by the original Frankestein plot, from the deliciously annoying angry mob to the last five minutes: a full charge homage to the original movie we all know, even if we haven't seen it. The angry mob carries flashlights instead of torches and Sparky (the Creature) runs into a windmill... inside a miniature golf! How wonderful adaptation! I appreciated that the whole Frankestein family's universe was so perfectly created that you are able to believe a dog comes back from the dead. Another delightful Burtonian suburb.

I was kind of sad when seeing it because I found out about Barrett Oliver's retirement from movies and I was disappointed because he did a tremendous job here. Every single casting choice is pitch-perfect-Burton and I have no idea why Daniel Stern is not a Burton-boy like Depp, Christopher Lee or Jeffrey Jones, as he is simply Burton-esque. Both him and Shelley Duvall are hilarious, specially in their 2 minute in-bed conversation, one of the best moments of the film.

Overall, the film is simply beautiful and I hope intelligent kids everywhere are able to see it because they will be rewarded with an awesome memory for a lifetime.

Slow-paced, dark, twisted, haunting and one of the most interesting characters in recent years captured on film are just some of the elements that shine in this spanish/mexican film.

It deals with Aro Tolbukhin's murders (he set several people on fire in the Guatemala jungle) and what people surrounding him think was behind that. Everyone has his or her own opinion about Aro but even if the real Aro has very little to say, he gives away valuable information behind the man, and by studying the man, we get behind the murder.

The fascinating thing about the movie (flawed but effective) is the way it is told. It's a documentary, told with real footage some french directors had gattered for a film about Aro and mixing that with current footage the new directors filmed for the new movie (mostly interviews with the nun Aro fell in love with while in Guatemala and his nanny back in Hungary) and, for the best part, a fictional work of beauty with actors playing the most mesmerizing moments in Aro's daily life. In this part, the dexterity of the directors comes to life when you realize how the chapters are filmed. We meet with Aro's recolections of his childhood and adolescence in Hungary (recolections no one believes at 100% because of the fantasy world Aro may have created around him) along with the reality behind his last years in Guatemala told by the nun (Sister Carmen) and some villagers who knew him as Hans, a German navy man.

I loved how both visions (Aro's memories of the past and Aro's reality put on film) have completely different styles in storytelling (realistic and raw, without a single bit of drama in his Guatemala days and more fictional, almost poetic in a beautiful b/w for his past), cinematography and music (the directors avoid the use of music for the adult Aro and use it in a dream-like fashion for the young Aro), even the performances and direction are different. There is the strongest spot in the movie: the performances. Some may think a completely breathtaking character like Aro Tolbukhin may give an actor the role of a lifetime, and they are probably right but I wasn't as surprised by the mostly silent Daniel Giménez Cacho/Zóltán Józan/Aram González trio of performances as I was by all the female characters, from Sister Carmen played beautifully by Carmen Beato and Aro's sister, Selma, played by Eva Fortea and Mariona Castillo. I think this happened (female being more amazing than male) because women were the most important element in Aro's mind. His entire life was changed constantly and intensely marked by women who abandoned him: his mother who died at birth, his sister who died tragically in a way Aro would NEVER forget (you'll see why) and sister Carmen, who he loved in many ways we discover through the film. The Aros were silent and their work was reduced to intense inner monologues we are seduced into translating and participate in. The man of the hour, Daniel Giménez Cacho, in an award-winning performance (Ariel 2003 along with Carmen Beato and a nomination for Eva Fortea), was, of course, extraordinary and enjoyed his character to the fullest, taking us to places we didn't want to go in a sensual, hypnotizing way. However, after waiting over 50 minutes to listen to him, he disappointed me by being unable to pull off the "Hungarian from a Bulgarian family impersonating a German speaking Spanish which he learned in Guatemala from a Catalan nun" accent I was expecting from him. Something as tiny but as important as an accent ruined the last part of his performance because he had a challenge to overcome: sharing screentime with the actual Aro Tolbukhin. Both Carmen Beato and Giménez Cacho were given the challenge of creating and performing these characters when seconds ago we were introduced to the real sister Carmen and Aro, and along the way we are sent back and forth from the real characters to the actors. Beato pulls it off perfectly but even if Giménez Cacho also manages to survive this battle, by the moment he speaks for the first time, everything falls appart. His performance is still among the greatest I've ever seen but it could've been in the top 3 if it weren't for that damn accent.

Another complaint: the language. Most mexican people complain about how some movies portray mexican characters speaking English ("The Alamo", "Frida" and some Golden Era movies about Zapata and Juárez come to mind) but we can't respect other people's languages? That's ironic. I thought, by the names of the young actors playing the Tolbukhin siblings, they were going to speak Hungarian but, if they were already using a lot of different languages to tell the story (the interviews are in Hungarian and Catalan), why do the kids speak perfect Spanish? Aren't there enough cute kids in Hungary? It's a useless, stupid complaint but I needed to get it out of my chest, sorry.

Overall, the movie is a outstanding work of research and beauty and even if the format may alienate some of the audience, you have nothing to fear: it never gets too slow or too quiet and there's always a piece of madness in the mind of one of the most wonderful man on film in the last decade.

At the end of the movie, you'll realize many things: not only the reason behind Aro commiting all those murders (and the way he did it) but also the answer to the question in every single character's minds: why did he confess some crimes he didn't do? The answer is right here, and it's one of the most compelling things I've ever put my eyes on. Aro was a murderer but the reasons behind every death in his life are logic and stunning. Wait and see.

Most people see Buñuel's films as strictly surreal and shocking as if that were the most important feature of his outstanding filmography. But, after seeing two of his best films ("Viridiana" and "Los Olvidados") I can asure you that the most interesting element in his style is his ability to be timeless: his movies, from the plot to the performances and, mostly, the direction and cinematography, could've been done back in the day or just a couple of years ago. His films won't get old as he touches universal themes.

I loved how he managed to create such a compelling female character as Viridiana (back in the day when Silvia Pinal wasn't a joke as she is nowadays) even with her huge flaws and issues. The pain she suffers is catapulted towards the audience in every single scene and, after being introduced to the horrible real world Buñuel shows us, we understand why she didn't want to have contact with it in the first place.

I usually hate social criticism in movies and art as I'm a really antisocial person (that's why I love indie filmmaking: it focuses on emotions and moments rather than society and politics) but I love the way Buñuel presents his opinions here and in "Los Olvidados" as a collage of metaphors rather than transforming a beautiful film into a pamphlet or some sort of political agenda. The most amazing metaphor here is the way Jorge, Viridiana's cousin, "saves" a dog from his owner who was making it run under the carriage at a tremendous speed, hurting it, by buying it. He thinks he is making something good for the world but when he turns his back from the road, another carriage comes into frame with another dog tied to its bottom, running and suffering as the first dog. That's only a tiny signal before the masterful final chapter when we learn that being a good person and winning a piece of Heaven for ourselves isn't always as easy or obvious as we think.

For a moment or two, we think Buñuel is trying to teach us that faith and a good heart are powerful weapons to fight reality but suddenly, he tells us that this world is so screwed up that there's no such thing as a good person and faith and God are kind of useless because the human being is the one in charge of making the right choices in life.

Breathtaking from start to finish.

For some weird, scary reason, I liked it. I mean, at least it was better than "Space Jam" (and believe me when I tell you I have seen "Space Jam" A LOT of times, as it was one of the first DVDs my parents bought back in the day) and it was kind of hilarious at some points and Brendan Fraiser is charming as an action hero (yes, I said it) and I think the best thing about the movie is all the in-jokes and acid remarks on movie business, along with the classic WB characters showing their true colors for the first time (Shaggy snapping at Matthew Lillard for his performance in "Scooby Doo"? Priceless) among other nice details. But Steve Martin doing his worst Mike Myers impersonation is simply painful to watch.

Nice for a Saturday morning but stay away from this if you appreciate your braincells.

Oh, Saturday mornings, you make us watch the worst movies ever created and enjoy them. I don't know if I love you, Saturday mornings, but you surely are fun.

Ok, here's the deal: the movie is silly, awfully silly, and that's a bad thing, of course. But I was extremely surprised to see just how great the visual effects were! They were awesome! Even in close-ups, the kangaroo looked great and when chasing him (in long shots and action scenes) it was simply exciting and amazing. I thought he was going to look like the awful CGI Scooby Doo or the pathetic CGI Dobby in the Harry Potter series but it looked REAL... yes, even when impersonating Dr Evil...

Unfortunately, that was the only good thing about this piece of silly crap because who in his right mind would ever dare to put Jerry O' Connell, Estella Warren and Anthony Anderson all in one single movie?! That's a crime, maybe even a deadly sin.

The fun thing is how weird it was to see Michael Shannon in this. Just as Sam Rockwell in "Charlie's Angels": a terrific actor doing a good job in a crappy movie. Weird, huh?

If it weren't for Shannon and the kangaroo, this movie would be unbearable. And that's a bad thing.

It just doesn't get old...

*Review coming soon*

Ji-tae Yu's performance as the "bad" guy is absolutely mesmerizing...

*Review coming soon*

A delightful experience!

*Review coming soon*

The power of movies relays on touching people's lives, souls and minds. Even in a trashy blockbuster you can be touched: your brains get touched with hyperkinetic movement and explosions and something inside you changes, even if it's just a tiny piece of heartstring. But sometimes movies are painful, emotional and hard to follow.

Peter Jackson's first "serious" film (his fourth one, after three gory, wicked masterpieces) may be great, owner of unforgettable performances, unforgettable moments, awesome talent and ability from a man who knows how to manipulate our minds with fantasy beyond our wildest dreams (and BELIEVE ME, I'm not talking just about the LOTR trilogy as I know most of his filmography besides those movies), but it is, after all, and maybe only for me, a painful experience.

Everything surrounding these girls' minds touched me in ways I don't want a movie to do so. Must of us (it's safe to say "everyone") has dreamed about getting rid of our parents, as there's always a moment in our lives (mostly everyday of our adolescence) when we just hate them with all our guts. I thought about it and so did you, but, will you murder your parents? Now, on the verge of getting into Film School and being 19, I just find the sole thought of it disgusting and disturbing in the full meaning of the word (not as a "weird" movie being "disturbing" but REAL disturbance, the one you can't get rid off at night) and I felt actual physical pain when the movie reached its last 20 minutes or so, it was just too much.

It's not only the murder per se (even if it is awfully long, sloppy, childish and maybe extremely well translated into film) but everything behind it: childhood obsession, loneliness, sick friendship, rejection, self-hate... in short, adolescence in its worst case scenario. That makes us (you know, us who went through that stage of life) capable of matricide at any moment, except, we chose not to murder our own mothers and cope with immature feelings like "hate" until we were old enough to realize everything our parents did was for our own good. So, what's the difference between murder and maturity? A choice. Maybe you disagree (because there are, after all, other elements to consider behind murder) but, for me, that is the truth behind Jackson's movie: everything in this life is a matter of choice and obsession along with a weak mind can blind our eyes to the right one.

Back with the movie, I loved how Kate Winslet's character was irritating and annoying yet she managed to create a cute background for her tantrums and weird personality. In the hands of other actress, the character would've been simply unbearable and the movie wouldn't have worked as it did, situtation which reminds me of Chloe Webb in the lead role of "Sid & Nancy".

Melanie Lynskey is definitely awesome but she gets eaten by her character and her co-star, which brings me to the best thing about "Heavenly Creatures": Peter Jackson's talent. The extraordinary thing about Peter Jackson's Big-Budget-Serious-Super-Movies (the ones beginning with and after this one) is how he manages to mix with amazing dexterity and knowledge of his craft (along with a gigantic imagination) the funny-cute-gore charm of his earlier films (which featured sadistic muppets, chubby aliens getting their brains blown off and, of course, a zombie mom) with more mainstream plots, actors, crews and audiences, resulting on a style we all love. That's why "The Two Towers" and "King Kong" wouldn't even exist if it isn't for "Bad Taste" and "Meet the Feebles". Same here: the fantasy sequences (and even some "reality" scenes) take a sheet out of this man's book and become true trips to somebody's mind. The delight of those bits and pieces (clay people, Mario Lanza being young and thin, Orson Welles haunting the girls) reaches levels and emotions words can't begin to describe and they get the best of the gore and imagination of the young Jackson with the maturity of his (back then) future work. Not to mention the insane character development through the film: we love the girls, we love their relationship and we relate to them in ways you shouldn't even dare to think about relating to a murderer, but yet, you do. All because of a solid screenplay that takes us far away into a lonely girl's mind.

So, after all my blabbering, let's just say "Heavenly Creatures" is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking... but I didn't enjoy the last 20 minutes because I found the thought of murdering my mom absolutely disturbing.

When I love a campy movie (because I usually hate them) is because they have soul, charm and become more than just a three-cents-budget movie with bad performances and a ton of hilarious unintentional comedy.

Unfortunately, this one doesn't belong to the list of trashy films that I love simply because it's only funny (in a bad way, of course) without delivering the goods. It's just bad, it's not bad-but-enjoyable. And so, I hated it.

A couple of great things about this movie: the title in spanish (Cannibal Sex!) and the fact that I watched it on TV and it was followed by "Rocky V"... priceless

So many people are forgetting this movie is, obviously, based on a comic book and they don't get tired of calling it "unrealistic" or "unbelievable" or "it defies the rules of Physics", c'mon! Give me a break!

After that display of subjectivity, I must say the movie does feel a little bit like "too much" at some moments but overall is one of those film experiences you usually forgive for being so flawed because all the good stuff is REALLY good ("Across the Universe", "Sin City" and the Jason Statham movies come to mind) and you leave the movie theatre happy, excited and begging for more.

Let's see: sexy Angelina? Checked! awesome lead character you never stop caring about? Checked! Explosions? Checked! Bullets? Checked! More explosions? Double checked! Kick-ass visual effects? Checked! Dizzy action sequences à la Bourne? *barf* Checked!

So, after we all agreed this is a great action flick, let's get down to business: I realized something watching this that may change the course of my life completely (specially regarding death threats from "serious" film lovers)... Ok, here it goes: this movie reminded me a lot of "Fight Club" and, maybe, even "The Matrix". And that's what I loved about it. The lead character (and here I will copy-paste Flixster's synopsis) is a frustrated office worker that learns that he is the son of a professional assassin. And here's the good part: the hypnotic, charming performance by James McAvoy, inspires. Yes, it inspires. It's the average Joe's hero, and what a hero he is! Everything from verbally abuse his obnoxious boss to kick his best friend's ass for fucking his girlfriend to, of course, making out with Angelina Jolie is pitch-perfect what the average Joe who copes with the 9-to-5 hell of being a loser wants in a movie, and the sudden discovery of a new life (a superhero kind of life) is as delicious to the senses and the heart as other loser-becomes-hero movies are. Maybe both Fincher's and the Wachowskis' movies were filled with philosophical juice and some life-changing dialogues/moments but they were, after all, simple: a loser, a less-than-average human being, almost like a machine, wakes up to life and discovers that, after all, he doesn't have to be like everybody else. Simple as that.

There lays the beauty of "Wanted", in its multiple meanings: loser's hero movie, action flick, explosions & bullets extravaganzza. You decide.

Because, after all,
WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE LATELY?

:)

Intense love letter to a psychotic friend, one of the most interesting documentaries out there for film lovers and filmmakers everywhere.

I specially loved the part where Herzog describes the Kinski's Spiral, an acting technique created by Kinski himself to walk into frame with a bang... I loved it so much that, three days after seeing this movie, a friend and I were doing a short film and we used it for one scene with awesome results. Cool, huh?

Only for all the hearts out there that still believe in true love, a mesmerizing love story for the ages. Ullmann's gorgeous voice over narrates the coincidences that happened so her parents could meet: a lot of love stories wrapped into one huge love letter to, well... love.

Beautiful animation, beautiful plot, beautiful voice over.

There are a lot of elements that deserve to be mentioned about "Ryan" but I think the best ones are how beautiful every character is created by expressing how dimmed, gloomy and vague the memory of the main characters about the other 3 are. And, of course, how the characters explode into a variety of emotions with visual eye-candies.

Visually stunning study on talent versus success/failure.

Extraordinary!!

I can't get enough of this film!

The songs are out of this fuckin world, the performances are great, the whole Paradise universe is something to remember for the rest of your life.

The movie (and the sounds) stay with you forever... watch with twice, thrice, four times, a thousand times more!

It is a RIDE!
It is a TRIP!
It's a whole EXPERIENCE!

Flawless!

*Review coming soon*

A completely hilarious and delightful romantic comedy, as somebody said earlier: custom made for Jason Biggs, who lets us see, for the first time in almost 10 years, that he is able to be compelling, cute and funny outside of the nerdy characters. For me, it's the first time he is actually funny, and Isla Fisher is extremely cute. Actually, the entire cast is pitch-perfect and sometimes they even outshadow the two leads. Margo Martindale, Edward Herrmann and Joe Pantoliano are awesome as the parents of both Biggs and Fisher, but the real deal is, of course, Michael Weston is simply fantastic as always thanks to his ability to make good use of little screen time and just perfect timing to be as hilarious as possible. The man is the next big thing.

It may not be a perfect movie (it is, after all, an unrealistic romantic comedy) but it's awesome for a rainy Sunday.

A joy!

The most beautiful movie of Italian neorealism manages to be deeply tragic and moving without being grotesque or manipulative like its Italian rip-offs like "Life is beautiful" or "Cinema Paradiso".

*Review coming soon*

It is THAT extraordinary.

Believe the buzz!!

*Review coming soon*

I insist, I know I say this a lot but this time I know I'm definitely right: this is one of the best movies I've seen in my entire life.

The bravest, rawest, cruelest, most realistic, most compelling piece of art I will ever see.

Spike Lee is a genius and he doesn't only adress touchy subjects, he does it with such objectivity it's scary.

Who's the man? He's the man!

*Review coming soon*

How do you manage to make a film that lasts more than 3 hours so exciting, thrilling, action packed, compelling, emotional, funny, tough, cruel, hopeful, cute and flawless?

For 3:20:00, this is the most unboring (yes, it is a word) movie I've ever seen!

*Review coming soon*

One of the most delicious experiences of my life!

*Review coming soon*

*Review coming soon*

One of the best movies you'll ever see.
Not your regular biopic.

*Review coming soon*

*Review coming soon*

I hope the remake bursts into flames and dies.
This is one of the scariest, most intelligent and most exciting movies ever made!!

*Review coming soon*