Rating: Summary: SO much better than Undercover Brother Review: YTMT does what all great films do--it's got a pleasurable surface, depth beneath to merit multiple viewings, and it's got that movie magic quality that lets you brain jump effortlessly from level to level.It also pulls off a neat trick with that most unfairly maligned of screenwriting devices, the voice-over. Instead of boring explication, the narration expands the context of what we're seeing without betraying the central idea that drives the film--the difference in the meaning of the trip to the woman and the boys. The narration is distinctively spare, beautifully intercut with character dialogue and shots of Mexican landscapes, and it ranks with Trainspotting, Drugstore Cowboy, Flirting, 24-Hour Party People and Wings of Desire as the best voice-over work of the last 20 years. Great Flick. Buy it.
Rating: Summary: censors! Review: Here's a letter I wrote to MGM (moral of the story: don't get the r-rated version!) Dear MGM, I think it is quite disgusting that you released a cut version of Y Tu Mama Tambien onto DVD. I accidentally purchased this abomination! The director chose a vision and cut and edited his own movie, and simply by your own skewed morality, you decide to edit out scenes that may be "questionable" to certain people. Let me suggest this: if something is "questionable" people can choose to rent it. It's called America! You mention that you have it in "widescreen" because of the director's vision. What about cutting parts of the movie because of your own hysterical censorship? On the back of the box, you highlight a prominent blurb from the new york times that states "Fast, funny, unafraid of sexuality." If only that could be applied to MGM! This movie is a wonderful story about coming of age in Mexico, and I for one believe it's awful that you edited to suit your own diluted tastes.
Rating: Summary: Commentary in Spanish Only! Review: Please, please, if you love this movie like I do, note the fine print about the DVD extras. This movie alone I would have given 5 stars. BUT the DVD contains "Commentary by cast members (in Spanish)." There is no commentary subtitle in English, so if you don't know Spanish you can't know the commentary. This is too bad, and unnecessary. They could have subtitled the commentary. For example, the movie "Crime of Father Amaro" was shot in Spanish, as was the commentary, but both the commentary and movie on the DVD were subtitled so that English audiences can enjoy them. Furthermore, on the Y Tu Mama DVD, the "making of" featurette is in Spanish with English subtitles, so it is clear this DVD was not designed only for Spanish speakers. Without the English subtitles on the commentary, I can only give the DVD 4 stars. I was so disappointed when I tried to listen to the commentary.
Rating: Summary: One of the most enticing foreign language films this decade Review: I bought this movie without even having seen in first, purely due to the pile of positive reviews it had received. The only thing I knew about it was that it was very sexually explicit. Both the reviews and its mild notireity proved to be true - it's extremely good and the sex scenes are some of the more daring you'll find in a movie release. The plot is basic enough, setting up best friends Julio and Tenoche on a road trip with older woman Luisa, who has just left her husband. They tell her they're taking her to a beach called Heaven's Mouth, a place that doesn't even exist, and the rest really gives way to character development. Above all director Cuaron (who's last movie, the underrated modern adaptation of Great Expectations showed a similar verve) seems to favour passion, with a sun-soaked camera lens and racy, explicit sex scenes that manage to capture all the awkward fumbling, lust and longing for true love that is apparent in his two gangly heroes. They speak of sex and girls as if they're men, but as Luisa is quick to point out (and the script quick to show), they're still just boys. This kind of sensitivity towards what would otherwise just be gratuitous nudity lifts the movie above films such as American Pie, to which Y Tu Mama Tambien is often compared to. Whilst American Pie was impressive for its faintly feminist view on teen lust, it cannot approach the moral complexity that Cuaron's movie shows. For example, is Luisa liberating Julio and Tenoche or entrapping them? The acting is sublime, especially the two leads, although the naturalistic performances from everyone involved complement the handheld camera work well. Yet what is most praise-worthy about the movie is the depressed feeling that it gives you at the end as each character is stripped bare (literally and figuaratively) of their pretences and masks that they show each other. The use of an omniscient narrator that invests each place, each supporting player (including at one point a group of pigs) with a future and a past outside of the script means that this is a movie that reaches beyond the camera to gently touch its audience. Whilst its sex scenes may grab you immediately, the movie as a whole will have a much more lasting impression on you.
Rating: Summary: second rate quasi-porn trying to be art... yawn Review: Y Tu Mama Tambien has to be one of the most overrated films ever made. The fact that this movie was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay is utterly ridiculous. I saw the unrated version, and therefore was able to experience the director's full artistic vision (if you can call it that); how a watered-down R-rated version could make the movie any worse is beyond me. The plot is virtually nonexistent, the characters are unbelievable, and the movie is ultimately a mess. Perhaps the worse thing about Y Tu Mama is that it makes the pretense of being a serious work of art. Inane teenage sex comedies are obnoxious enough, but at least they don't typically market themselves as anything other than crap. Y Tu Mama Tambien is what would happen if Porky's 3 tried to be The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie... it's that bad. I suppose the key to this movie's critical success is its controversial sexual content. The film's eroticism, in spite of being fairly graphic, always seems puerile, silly, and totally inappropriate to whatever mood or message the director is trying to create. A film like Pedro Almodovar's Hable con Ella, which is equally sensual, and much more morally confounding, uses sexuality effectively to create complex characters and a challenging plot. The sexuality of this movie, however, is evocative of Beavis and Butthead reruns and crude-but-naïve junior high humor. Just because a movie has subtitles, shaky cinematography, and bawdy sexual references does not make it a work of art. Y Tu Mama Tambien makes this painfully apparent.
Rating: Summary: Error in Product Details Review: The blurb under DVD Features shows "Three deleted scenes" and this is not correct as it applies to the R-rated version, not the unrated one. Very good film, but the dialog is very fast, although the English subtitles are quite accurate. Good story and enjoyable eroticism--it feels more like a docudrama than a film. There's much more to this picture than the sex. I recommend it!
Rating: Summary: Great Movie, Great DVD Review: Diego Luna "Tenoch" and Gael garcia Bernal "Julio" are amazing. I think that they are so hot and they did a great job together. Great story, acting, scenes, I can't say enough for this outstanding movie.
Rating: Summary: Preach on, Brother Cuaron Review: Alfonso Cuaron is one of the four "Mexican Powers-that-be" in Hollywood. He and his buddies Gonzalez Iñarritu, Rodiguez, and Mandoki have a "mafia-style" business agreement in which they decide who can work in their films, and mostly block other Mexicans from their projects. Regardless, this movie is too preachy, too sleek, and too much of a copy of road movies of yore. It's bland and has no real storyline except teenage sex (poorly acted). The only redeeming factor is the photography and the resemblance to "Run Lola, Run."
Rating: Summary: Stick to the unrated version. Review: I accidentally rented the "R rated" version of the movie this weekend after having seen the uncut movie in the theatres. I wasn't surprised that some of the scenes and dialogue were tamed down (though I was disappointed in whatwill and will not fit into an "R" rating these days), but Iwas outraged to find that the movie's most pivotal scene was essentially cut, changing the overall meaning and (to me) main point of the film. Don't waste your time, stick to the unrated version. Not because you're sex-obsessed but because you want the story, characters, and themes that were intended, not that one that met the censors' standards. (PS, the unrated version also has better bonus features).
Rating: Summary: Great ending Review: This is a Mexcian film with a surprising degree of depth. Definitely get the unrated version; the ending feels totally different with certain scenes uncut, unlike the R-rated version. These scenes add a good deal to the film's message, one that's delivered with mastery and sincerety. It's a coming-of-age story that you won't forget. I don't find the actress attractive, but she puts up some terrific performance once the trip part of the movie starts. The two actors are excellent as teenage boys from different family backgrounds. One of them sure reminds me of a college dormmate I had and hated... :) A worthy movie for the mature audience.
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