Reviews

since all the comments here about this movie are so overwhelmingly positive I thought I should write something since I didn't think the movie was anything special

the whole movie suffers from a problem that affects many talented people: they have a good idea so they put it on the movie even if it doesn't make sense logistically

the biggest example of this is the killer's letters to his mother, no one will ever make numerous references to something on letters directed to one particular person if that person doesn't understand what the references mean, for example I love videogames but I wouldn't write a letter to my mother saying things like "I feel like Lara Croft on a ledge" or "he was a tough as Solid Snake", she would have no idea what I'm talking about, also on ALL the letters they found there were references to Racing? come on

that's the point: the idea to get the guy through something he can't let go off while hiding is sound but the Racing Club thing makes no sense, for the letter issue that I mentioned and for the almost impossible chance to find him on the stadium among the crowd even if they went to 50 games, they wanted to use the "passion" angle but they didn't care to find a plausible way to implement it, it was done much better on the ending of Point Break where they found bad guy surfing

also the interrogation scene seemed like something out of a Perry Mason parody or The Simpsons, actually it reminded me a lot of that Simpsons episode where Bart and Lisa and trying to prove Sideshow Bob cheated on the election, so they say in court "I don't think you're smart enough to pull this off", so the guy breaks and confesses (I did it, I did it all!!), it's the same thing but played for real, not for laughs, they had nothing on the guy he could've just kept quiet and get away with it

also some of the performances were weak, in particular Pablo Rago, who seemed all wrong for such an intense part and he completely ruined the ending, what could've been a powerful scene was made almost moot because he gives the audience nothing there, I thought Francella was great but I found Darin a little on autopilot, he was good because he's a great actor but I felt his performance was a little phoned in, too much relying on his natural appeal and regular guy persona, he was a lot better on El Aura, a much superior film

the last thing I want to mention is all the swearing, which was childish at best and stupid at worst, for example the scene where Darin confronts the guy who beat up the roof workers for a confession, he tells him that he's going report him, so the other guys says "I'll wipe my ass with your report" so Darin replies "I'll shove it up your ass first", that just meaningless high school kids banter, all they're saying means nothing, Campanella should know better

anyway, good and solid, far from great

edit: well, about some of the comments of my review, first it is true that the chances of finding the killer among the crowd are increased if they're only looking on the visitor's area, but still it is a slim possibility, furthermore they didn't even know for sure that the guy was a regular on stadiums, it was just a guess, the fact that you are a fan of a soccer club and its old stars doesn't mean that you're still going to see them every week, and sometimes it can mean quite the opposite (I went to see River every week when Francescoli and Salas played but I would never go now)

and again on the original text I didn't even mention the biggest problem with the plot, the only reason why the focused the investigation on the right guy was because they found a picture of a group of people where he was looking at the victim, if it wasn't for that picture they would've never known about him, and the fact that he's looking at her on the picture means NOTHING (that's a pure example of wanting to go from A to C without giving a crap that your B is no good, George Lucas is the master of that)

and about the wearing, the problem is not the curse words or how offensive they are, it's how meaningless they're used, on the example that I mentioned they're talking about a piece of paper, they're not threating each other or insulting each other in any way, that's the problem

the movie suffers from lack of self discipline, they were going to use the "catch the killer by his passions" angle no matter what, because it's a great idea, but to use it first you have to find a way to make it work on the story, not just shove in there and hope that people won't notice how they get from A to C

American gangster will win best picture, even if zodiac and ratatouille are better films, this one has Oscar written all over it

I was surprised that I liked Russell crowe performance more than denzel, who was very good but a little on autopilot, crowe seemed more committed

the direction is perfect, almost never calling attention to itself, Scott really nails it this time, he's not showing off like in black hawk down or relying too much on cinematography to impress like in Hannibal

even though the movie is frank Lucas "the gangster" story, and the Ritchie Roberts "the honest cop" story seems to butt in for the first 45 minutes or so, in the end is about Russell Crowe's character and how his years old investigation finally produces results

when he takes frank down becomes a moment of great, hard earned victory, and a great scene on the steps of a church

one minor complain, midway through the movie Scott uses the song "across the 151th street" over a drug business montage to great effect, but then he uses a generic hip hop tune on the final scene that keeps playing over the end credits and feels like a false note, the other song would've been much better there, even if Tarantino already used that song at the end of Jackie brown

if hard not to be reminded of The Departed while watching this movie, both films have two superstars and a big name director, both have awards buzz, both are about gangsters and cops, both are about drug traffic and more importantly both movies have two completely separate story lines that come together near the end, where the two lead actors have only a couple of scenes together

and they are both modern classics