This movie follows a kidnapping in Columbia.
If you want a look at Cartagena Columbia this movie has some value but as entertainment the movie has so many problems.
First the good which is related to the bad....there is lots of effort at creative and interesting camera work: angles surprises etc which is really fun and beautiful at times but things like the ratatatat sequences of images becomes rapidly irritating and are done too much. Also I found the symbolism heavy handed or actually funny as right before the cop and his car get demolished and you see buzzards circling. All the religious imagery is excessive and kind of a turn off it lowers the intellectual bar a lot.
The acting is so so at best...lots of pretty men and an ugly lead woman.
The flashbacks are irritating and excessive disrupting the story and any kind of rapport you might feel for the characters exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do. I laughed at the reviewer who said he expected to see a flashback of the soccer ball being manufactured. This flash back technique made the story very hard to follow. I didn't even realize it was the girlfriend who shot him I was so confused by the end of the movie. And when you can't follow you get bored fast.
This movie could have been saved by lots and lots of editing and cutting out the flashbacks as the way of telling the story.
I love Columbian movies for the scenery and the handsome actors but this one is a trial to get through.
Although insignificant compared to the above problems... the subtitles are translated with artistic license e.g. gente innocente (innocent people) becomes "people caught in the crossfire"...and every other explicative is maricon (fag) which is never translated as that but rather "stupid" "idiot" etc... Although this is an improvement.
'El Infierno' a Mexican social commentary dry comedy on this very same nightmare situation of social anarchy and killing from drug money is a far better movie. Watch it instead.
DO NOT RECOMMEND
If you want a look at Cartagena Columbia this movie has some value but as entertainment the movie has so many problems.
First the good which is related to the bad....there is lots of effort at creative and interesting camera work: angles surprises etc which is really fun and beautiful at times but things like the ratatatat sequences of images becomes rapidly irritating and are done too much. Also I found the symbolism heavy handed or actually funny as right before the cop and his car get demolished and you see buzzards circling. All the religious imagery is excessive and kind of a turn off it lowers the intellectual bar a lot.
The acting is so so at best...lots of pretty men and an ugly lead woman.
The flashbacks are irritating and excessive disrupting the story and any kind of rapport you might feel for the characters exactly the opposite of what it is supposed to do. I laughed at the reviewer who said he expected to see a flashback of the soccer ball being manufactured. This flash back technique made the story very hard to follow. I didn't even realize it was the girlfriend who shot him I was so confused by the end of the movie. And when you can't follow you get bored fast.
This movie could have been saved by lots and lots of editing and cutting out the flashbacks as the way of telling the story.
I love Columbian movies for the scenery and the handsome actors but this one is a trial to get through.
Although insignificant compared to the above problems... the subtitles are translated with artistic license e.g. gente innocente (innocent people) becomes "people caught in the crossfire"...and every other explicative is maricon (fag) which is never translated as that but rather "stupid" "idiot" etc... Although this is an improvement.
'El Infierno' a Mexican social commentary dry comedy on this very same nightmare situation of social anarchy and killing from drug money is a far better movie. Watch it instead.
DO NOT RECOMMEND