Movie Reviews
Okay, one would think that being in a non-english speaking country would limit our ability to see movies. The truth is much more serendipedous than that. Due do the explosion of bootlegging and ease of DVD production we are able to buy DVDs for about 2 dollars of movies that have recently been released, and we aren’t talking back of the theater with a camcorder, but actual studio copies (Spiderman 3 is avialable on the streets already). If they have been out for a while we can get the full DVD with all the special features. While these are of course available in the States, mainly through special websites, the ease and acceptence that they exist here is amazing. Legitimate businesses are selling these.
The man that we frequent is from Medellin, which apart from drug cartels, also makes the highest quality DVDs we have found. When we enter his store, he greets us warmly and gestures over to an oven which he opens and pulls out a stack of DVDs cases. We go through the cases (they also have movie covers with plot discriptions on the back) and translate them into English. We can also buy movies that we normally wouldn’t because they are cheaper than going to the theater. Two of these examples: Marie Antionette and Ghost Rider, both movies it prides us to say, that due to the wonder that is bootlegging we have not paid a dime to. These are two movies that you feel bad for the obvious waste of money and time that it took to create them. I thought that Ghost Rider was the greatest waste of time I have experienced in the movie watching game until I saw Marie Antionette. Marie Antionette shows what Sophia Coppola is like when she can’t get her father to hire Bill Murray. It is a movie of exquisete beauty that you don’t care about at all. You wonder what Sophia Copola said to get the money for it, what did she say she was going to produce? Because nothing was produced. It is like watching fractals. Actually that is not true, fractals at least have some unlying complexity, this movie was disturbingly bad. I feel shock to my very core.
The Departed (Los Infiltrados) is on the other hand one of the greatest movies we have seen in quite some time, this we know is not a new release but still it is wonderful. The Pan’s Labrynth (Labrynto del Fauno) is also wonderful see it.
Other movies:
Babel: Oscars are so cheap these days. If you cut out the Brad Pitt and Blanchett scenes the movie becomes good. I wish she would have died immediately to save us some horrible acting. See it if only for the beautiful scene at the mexican wedding.
Bomb the System: Don’t touch it lest it infect you with its badness.
Hannibal: Bought still haven’t watched it.
El buen Pastor (the Good Shepard): Blair liked it a lot, but Colette felt that it dragged.
Sonar no cuesta nada (to dream doesn’t cost anything): A colombian film that wasn´t bad. It is about a true story of soldiers finding millions of dollars that Farc had stashed and deciding to keep it as opposed to turn it in. Trouble ensues.
Ciencia de suenos (the science of sleep): Gael Garcia Bernal (the hottie) gets all modernist in this french film. Good, but hard to follow at times. The manager of our hostel has taken this from us and watches it daily.
La Pequena Miss Sunshine (obvious): Who hasn’t seen this yet?
The Contract: Horrifyingly Bad.
Los Tres Cientos (300): Blair liked and Colette hasn´t seen it yet. If you liked Sin City or graphic violence in general you will like it. Blair would like point out that is it estimated that there were more Arcadians that Spartans at Thermopolae, something the movie leaves out.
Many more to follow