Comedy > Spanish Comedy

A Mexican love affair

Advantages: Intriguing, beautiful to watch
Disadvantages: (For me) it's an unrealistic love story

...solution, but I still didn't like it and I just couldn't find myself warming to Pedro during the course of the film. I would much rather Tita had ended up with the man who wanted to marry her, who, although not as handsome, was an awful lot more pleasant. Leonardi left me cold, which I'm sure was not the aim of the director. The other actors are good. There is a wonderful second sister, called Gertrudis, who, as a result of Tita's quail in rose petal ...
...been piqued and I would like to read the book on which the film is based. I wasn't really sure how the film was going to end, mainly because there was enough going on in the film to keep my interest from wandering. However, the ending was quite a surprise and a very good way to finish the film. The story of Tita and Pedro is also bookended by Tita's Great Niece, another food lover, who is clearly deeply proud of Aunt Tita. She starts the story by ...

sunmeilan 31.10.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Like Water For Chocolate (Subtitled) (DVD)

Amores Perros!

Advantages: Good Latin American film
Disadvantages: Subtitles

Coco (Juan Villegas) is a kindly and humble middle-aged balding Argentina guy who just wants to get back to work, plenty of time on his hands to stew. Laid off as a garage mechanic after 30 years of loyal service on the rural arterial highways, linking the small pueblos of Argentina on the Pampas where he and his family grew up, prospects don’t look good for Coco. He’s keeping busy by making knives, trying to sell them for a few pesos on his travels ...
...Coco is not a lucky man in life because he doesn’t seek it, just subservient to his surroundings and gifts God has given him. But today is his lucky day and after fixing a strangers car in the middle of nowhere she returns the favour by paying him in kind by giving him a big dog, a pedigree too. Reticent at first to take the aggressive looking mutt back home to his impoverished young daughter’s family where he is living, it soon becomes apparent ...

thedevilinme 14.11.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bombon El Perro (Subtitled) (DVD)

Hamming it up in Spain

Advantages: Entertaining, amusing
Disadvantages: Some won't see the point

Silvia, the daughter of the local whore, works in a factory making shorts, but hopes to improve her living standards (and shoe collection) by marrying the son of the factory's owner, Jose Luis. When she finds herself pregnant, Jose Luis does indeed ask her to marry him...the only problem is his parents, who disapprove. His mother hires a part-time model, Raul, to get to know Silvia and steal her away from Jose Luis. But then both Silvia and Jose ...
...good for any of them. Who will win the battle for Raul? And what will happen to Jose Luis and his unborn child? I have wanted to see this film for quite some time; not because I have any particular affiliation to Spain, but because the film sounded interesting and a bit different. Directed by Bigas Luna, it takes a look at a slice of Spanish life in a backwater town where anything seems to go. I was not disappointed by this film. It will not be everyone's ...

sunmeilan 14.05.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Jamon Jamon (DVD)

Almodovar at his most controversial?

Advantages: Colourful, quirky
Disadvantages: Sexually controversial, sometimes anti-women

Pepi is visited by a police officer who lives opposite and has noticed that she is growing pot on her window-ledge. In return for his silence, she offers sex, which he takes rather too literally, forcing himself upon her. Pepi vows revenge, but her first attempt - asking friends to beat him up - fails when it turns out it is the police officer's twin brother. She then seeks revenge in another way - persuading his wife, Luci, to leave him for the ...
...Bom, Luci is finally able to fulfill her sexual fantasies...or so it seems. Will Luci stay with Bom or return to her husband? And will Pepi ever be content with her revenge? Carmen Maura plays Pepi in what is Almodovar's first commercial success made back in 1980. Maura is an Almodovar favourite, and I have already seen her in a couple of his films. Here, she looks incredibly young, and it is good to see her like this. At the beginning of the film, ...

sunmeilan 14.09.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Pepi, Luci, Bom (DVD)

Krampack - Ordinary

Advantages: Coming of age ,gay, teen drama.
Disadvantages: Nothing really special.

The story of two young friends in Spain. The one just wants to lose his virginity while the other seems to like his friend a lot more than he lets on... This film, I felt, came and went without causing much of an impact. The characters were likable and believable however, when the final credits rolled, I could easily forget about them The battling feelings of being gay and young love are dealt with in a good way and yet I couldn't help but think ...

RomanD 12.03.2007 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Krampack (DVD)