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3/10
Mostly a waste of your time
13 January 2020
My mom and I were bored, and she was curious about the movie, so we watched it to have a quick laugh, as Santiago Segura and Silvia Abril can be funny.

There's one or two jokes which land, the rest are on the level that you get reading Twitter zingers about the most commonly used comedy topics, which is sad for a movie that cost nearly 3M euros. It's 2020, and we have jokes about a little girl who can't pronounce right and is going to a logopedist?

One can agree with the social message that a movie conveys (the load of sharing children is not shared fairly across couples), but find it crude- laughs are gotten by having everyone in the movie be obnoxious, stupid or both. Takeshi Kitano hinted that the best comedy (and the "best violence") is unexpected; Almodóvar's is at his funniest when he puts his characters in bizarre situations, because jokes surprise you. This movie is exactly the opposite. It just tries to be relatable to the lowest common denominator Spaniard out there.

You could say that the movie has a few laughs in it and is good to watch if you are bored with nothing to do, but I say there's a massive number of good comedies that can keep you busy for ages, so please don't encourage more stuff like this.
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8/10
Excellent
17 October 2006
This documentary has an interesting subject- a documentary-friendly one, even, as he taped and recorded a good deal of his life- skillful narrative and style (which blends nicely into the title character's imagery and perception) and possibly even more objectivity that one would expect seeing how the picture seems to be made and feature people who seem to genuinely love Daniel Johnston.

If creative genius and madness is a subject that piques your interest, you should see this. If it does not, you should see it too to discover it. It doesn't matter if you find his music irritating (I personally prefer other people's covers of his song- I came across his work via Nina Persson's A Camp project, which featured Walking the Cow- a song that blew me mind)- this guy really should be in the movies.
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The Kovak Box (2006)
3/10
Unwatchable
9 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Daniel Monzón, whose "El Corazón del Guerrero" was an interesting fantasy flick, delves into thriller territory with "The Kovak Box", filmed in English with a combination of Spanish and English-speaking actors.

I'm not a native English speaker by any means, but the dialog made me cringe. Lucía Jimenez speaks with a thick Spanish accent even though her character is supposed (I believe) to be a native English speaker. The movie mixes Spanish and English in confusing ways, and some bits of dialog felt terribly awkward. This factor prevented me from enjoying the film, so probably a dubbed version will feel much better, though.

As for the rest, it felt like a cheap, unoriginal thrillers whose resources seem to be limited to things lifted from Hitchcock movies; the plot is a rehash of ideas we have all seen before with only some slightly original bits thrown in. David Kelly is one of the highlights of the film, as he seems to have the best dialog writing in the movie, as is Lucía Jiménez delightful anatomy, which is explored throughly in the movie.

Avoid.
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8/10
Good, bad? Disturbing (spoilers inside)
9 December 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Came home from Sitges film festival (the film director gave us a brief speech). We picked this movie because my mate likes zombie movies and we recently enjoyed Shaun of the Dead.

Well, I certainly can't tell if I liked Les Revenants or not. I can say, however, that it is one of the most disturbing films I've ever seen, period.

The film deals with a strange phenomena: the dead came back to life, but instead of moving slowly and trying to feed on other human beings, they try to get back to their previous life. But something's wrong.

The movie manages to be creepy, unsettling without playing too much tricks; the slow rhythm manages to get on your nerves and, while annoying, is one of the most effective cinematography techniques on display -you spend half of the time waiting for a climax, hoping you'll jump and release the tension built in a glass-shattering shriek. But (depending on your own tastes), maybe you won't.

I left the cinema very altered. Certainly, if a movie provokes such a big mood swing, it must be good? Well, I cannot tell. In any case, if you get a showing of The Revenants, be prepared. You will not forget seeing this movie.
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2/10
Yawn
25 July 2000
First things first. I love action movies. I love Die Hard, Highlander, The Hunt for Red October, ...

Second thing, I like most of John Woo's work... recently saw Face/Off and it was quite good. The Killer was awesome. Hard Target wasn't bad considering it had that awful Van Damme.

But then, I nearly fell asleep watching Mission Impossible II. It's just plain boring! I don't mind if it's not physically possible, but if you go that way, go all the way (The Matrix, the original MI's 'copter inside tunnel sequence, ...); there were no action scenes who moved me an inch. There is just the motorcycle chase scene (maybe the best in the movie) and the lab shootout, and they are too short and well, not too spectacular!

Were not for that, I could forget the laughable acting, I would enjoy seeing Miss Newton, who is quite beautiful. I would enjoy the Lalo Schiffrin theme. But it was SO boring!
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