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Our Lady of the Assassins

Our Lady of the Assassins

List Price: $29.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic
Review: For some reason this film will not let me go. I come back to it again and again. It is starting to become my favorite film, period.

So much is said in these other reviews that I do not need to add more, so let this review simply state that this film shall long stand out as Barbet's best (even better than Barfly and Reversal of Fortune, and certainly superior to Single White Female,) and one of the best examples of guerrilla film making. My only complaint with the DVD is that there are no special features. But perhaps that is a shallow complaint. The film is perfect and needs no accompaniment. Standing alone, it shines as pure magic and everything that cinema should be.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it !
Review: "Our Lady" deserves the accolades for its direction and story.
An offbeat, violent story with excellent camera work and characters. Fernando's irreverant humor and wit in the story is great. His two young lovers were well cast and handsome young men. I loved it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I think it's a great movie.
Review: I was moved by this love story and amazed by this way of life.It's the only one film I saw that came from Colombia.I doesn't know their language or their culture,but I treat everyone want to survive.In the <gladiator>,the king said:It's a dream,a frightful dream,life is.---Maybe it's real in that city.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A memorable film
Review: The film is realistic and thought-provoking. As for some negative reviews that labeled it "unrealistic" and characters "unlikeable" - life is definitely that bad in certain countries. And if you are deprived of food and necessities and face death every day, you'd definitely feel more attached to "a girl or somebody younger" instead of less attractive, richer and quite easy-to-get-along-with Fernando. People under such circumstances (like Fernando or his young "friends") generally tend to live one-day lives and not to have far-reaching plans, as far too many things in their lives are beyond their individual control. Creators of the film conveyed the idea of such "crazy life" very successfully. Yet,as the film hints, people there are still able to feel deeply, think and fall in love, and there is definitely more than just "urban" life to show from Columbia.
The film is quite thought-provoking. One of the most memorable parts is the one in which Fernando realizes his mistake of "drifting with the current" of the surrounding crazy life and not giving enough support to Alexis' idea to leave Columbia for some better place. He proposes this to his next lover, Alexis' murderer(who seems to be much less loving and caring than Alexis was), but the boy gets killed too, or, according to the previous Fernando's life philosophy, "a murderer gets revenged by blind chance". To sum up, death is definitely the main theme in the film (and, according to the film's philosophy, the main theme in life as well). This, as well as substantial depth and subtlety of the characters and dialogues, might not be easily understood by many viewers in certain countries who are more used to watch visual effects and happy-end stories than questioning morale and life films.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Actors Make Up For A Crazy Story
Review: This movie is unreal, being a guy I think of why would all of these young boys go and sleep with a guy like "Fernando" German Jaramillo? To get his money, quality time together? Come on. Anderson Ballesteros "Alexis" and Juan David Restrepo "Wilmar" are a bunch of young hot guys. Go get a girl, or younger guy. Nothing against the actor playing Fernando, he shold be with someone his own age. What is it with all these movies and the young guy falling for the older man? This movie is tragic and filmed like a home movie. I only liked it because I got to see Anderson and Juan.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Our Lady of the Assassins
Review: Although I was put off by the camcorder film quality, this film offers a very dark glimpse into urban life in Colombia. At first, I was rather unimpressed with what seemed like unnecessary plot threads and one or two lackluster performances...but this is a film that will stick with you and change the way you think about daily life in some of South America's more violent corners.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: When all the critics love it, beware!
Review: This film is a big disappointment, in spite of a gifted director and an important and compelling subject. It is virtually plotless, clumsily put together and I'm sorry to say just plain tedious-something it should never have been. The acting is nothing to write home about, mainly because the script is so feeble. The characters are poorly drawn and basically unlikeable.I could hardly believe this was the same film the critics had been praising so effusively. I found it hard to sit through, in fact, I nearly walked out, but instead hung on till the better end hoping for a glimpse of the masterpiece the critics had discerned.At the end, I remained distinctly underwhelmed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Real!!!
Review: This movie is so..... real. I really cant discribe it any other way. The people who wrote bad review just couldnt handle the movie. Whilst i am part colombian i have never been to colombia so cant say whether or not that is what its like today. I have been told however that its worse right know. I love the way they used the camera to shot this film as it really makes it feel like you are there. The only thing this movie could have improved on was the love scenes. It just seemed so un-romatic, but regardless this movie was great!!! So if you speak enlgish or spanish you should see it!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Dreadfully unpleasant hack film
Review: There is nothing in this film of redeeming value. There are no genuine relationships. There is no personal growth. There is no social worth -- indeed, no real community or society at all. One reviewer referred to this film as a depiction of the purgatory we are all headed for. I think it is more a depiction of the hell some are choosing. I choose otherwise. The film is sloppily made with unconvincing depictions of assassinations. The only characters I really liked were the taxi drivers. Don't waste your time or your money. This film is NOT art. I gave this film zero stars -- not an option on the rating menu, but it should be.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love & Death in Medellin
Review: This is a love story between a lanky youth and 50-something writer whose hometown has gone to seed. Medellin for all practical purposes is a war zone, packed with moped assassins, battling gangs, graffiti, and decadence. Their bond proceeds from a hustler-john relationship to a love affair. Fernando provides the apartment and mullah; Alexis, all the charms of youth. Music is used to illustrate the generation gap: Fernando favors the mellifluous arias of Maria Callas, and Alexis prefers the kind of grinding punk that sounds like someone dropped screws into a blender & hit "puree."

The camera doesn't shy away from their bedroom. The two sleep together, and in one potently sensual scene, Alexis takes a swig of tequilla and drools it into the man's mouth. Strolling through the city, Fernando reminisces about how it once was: his old house, the church, the bodegas, the cantinas. He walks down memory lane in the presence of a younger man as James Whale did in "Gods and Monsters" (1998) with Clayton Boone.

But the anarchy of Medellin (Colombia) begins to target Alexis. In this world, the grudges multiply exponentially as someone keeps avenging the death of a friend, relative, or fellow gang member. Corpses pile on a hill; the violence of the gangs & drug cartels is eating the city alive.

Our Lady conflates the violence and sexuality of Alexis' life into one gorgeous image: fireworks popping overhead, which could be a perfect backdrop for a romantic night at Fernando's, if Alexis didn't know it's also a celebration that a shipment of cocaine got through to America. Throughout the film, the boy is stalked by his fate.

Before death intrudes and Fernando cradles the cold limp Alexis like a Pieta, nostalgic memories, witty banter, black humor, & unabashed sexuality made their bond very compelling to watch.
Too bad we feel more threatened by sex than by aggression. Alexis at heart is a lover not a fighter. The early moment in which he undresses before Fernando in the "Butterfly Room," scrawny and vulnerable but swarthy and beautiful, we know this. But undressing makes his gun fall with a hard clack to the floor. He is the boy of doom. They must make the most of their time.


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