Rating: 
Summary: A real taste for death
Review: The thing that's interesting is the word thesis. It can also mean a theme. Well, Alejandro Amenabar's theme and Angela's thesis are one and the same, examining people's morbidity over images of violent death. The theme can be summarized in the opening scene, involving a man who has thrown himself in front of the train and the people straining to see.Angela Marques is a student at the School of Mass Communications in Madrid. She asks the kindly Professor Figueroa, who's directing her thesis, if he could get access to the video archives, which has some very violent images. He picks a video out and watches it in the screening room. The next day, Angela finds him dead from an asthma attack, but the look in his face is one of fear. She pockets the video he was watching and enlists the aid of Chema, a classmate who has a taste for violent and pornographic videos. To her shock and surprise of Chema, it is a snuff film of a young girl being tortured, beaten, killed, and then cut to pieces with a chainsaw. Chema recognizes her as Vanessa, a student who had disappeared two years ago. However, is Chema telling her everything he knows? Angela then runs into Bosco, a real lady's man who knew Vanessa. He charms his way into her family, even flirting with Sena, Angela's younger and bratty sister. Bosco is a bit of a cad, as he treats his girlfriend Yolanda callously. It turns out that Vanessa had run away with a boy and wrote a letter, but is that true? Things heat up when Jorge Castro, the cinema professor assigned to take over Figueroa's classes and hence directing her thesis, seems to be involved. There's more, but I won't spoil it here. Castro effectively characterizes the business side of cinema, that it is an industry, and in order for it to succeed, it has to pander to what the public wants. His view contrasts the moral side represented by Angela, who while sickened by violent images, is fascinated by them only in an objective, scholarly way, and believes the director has responsibilities in what he/she presents. Eduardo Noriega, who later starred as Cesar in Amenabar's smashing Abre Los Ojos, is perfectly cast as Bosco. He looks more like a retired member of Menudo, a real pretty boy. However, he is topped by Fele Martinez as Chema. With spectacles, long hair, mustache, goatee, and black clothing, Chema is a real contrast to Abre Los Ojos's Pelayo. There is one in-joke. When Angela accesses the database of customers buying a certain video camera, a familiar name is seen. Hint, the initials are A.A. This is a gripping thriller that builds up quicker than Abre Los Ojos and leaves the audience guessing. The gruesome scenes are kept to a minimum. Occasionally, the video switches to the POV of a B&W movie camera, reminding the viewer that we are the audience, the market for people targeted by Jorge Castro, and that the camera is a window to the soul, as someone once said. And by the way, don't be thrown by the plot summary on the back of the video. It's written in Spanish but the movie's subtitled, so nothing to worry about.
Rating:
Summary: Prepare to be Shocked
Review: The things that make this movie really enjoyable are the unexpected twists and turns the plot takes. It is one of the most suspenseful movies I have seen in a long time, and the subtitles don't detract from that. So the movie itself is great (but if you are not yet desensitized to brutal acts of violence, you will probably be horrified). But there are some things the DVD version doesn't have that it should have. For example, you can't turn off the subtitles like you can with most DVDs. So even if you speak Spanish and don't need subtitles, you have to see the English words at the bottom. Also, there aren't very many extras that come with this DVD; at least as DVDs go. But the film is gripping and suspenseful, and if you're a collector of good foreign films, this would be a great one to have.
Rating:
Summary: A Smart, Macabre, and Distressing Cinematic Experience
Review: Thesis is a cinematic journey into the darkness of our own personality where we should be questioning why we want to see violence. The film student Ángela Márquez (Ana Torrent) is establishing her own thesis with the same notion, and she is on a quest for some very violent films for her thesis. She asks her professor, who is supervising her project, if he could help her find some very violent films. She is also asking for help from a fellow film student at her university who is known to have a large collection of violent and brutal films. Her professor finds what she is looking for, but dies from--what it looks like to be--a heart attack from unusual circumstances. Ángela finds the tape that her professor was watching when he suffered from the heart attack, but she cannot bear to watch it, she only listens to the agonizing screams of someone who is being tortured and then murdered. The story is highly suspenseful and keeps the audience on alert from the beginning to the end. In addition, Thesis is a smart, macabre, and distressing cinematic experience that provides an opportunity to contemplate over why violence has an attraction value to the audience.
Rating: 
Summary: My name is Angela, I'm going to die.
Review: Thesis is one of the fastest and most thrilling movies that I've seen in years! Angela is writing her Thesis on audivisual violence. She has enlisted the help of her professor and her reclusive new friend Chema. Her professor has a heart attack while watching a snuff film found in the school's archives. Angela steals the tape before anyone else can get to it and she and Chema watch it. The film stars a missing co-ed and Chema believes they can find the film's origin by locating the unique camera that was used. Are they looking for the filmmaker, or is the filmmaker looking for them? Is there more to Chema than he lets on? What kind of person is the mysterious and charming Bosco? Alejandro Amenabar is BRILLIANT! This is a average story made extrodinary by it's brilliant director and wonderful actors. Fele Martinez is hysterical and poignant at the same time as Chema. Eduardo Noriega is mesmerizing as Bosco (I found myself wanting to stand and cheer every time he was on the screen). This is definitely a must see! It's 100% American in it's action, it's just spoken in a different language (you won't mind reading the sub-titles). If you love movies, give this one a chance. It will blow you away.
Rating:
Summary: Thesis
Review: Thesis is one of the greatest thrillers I have seen. It involves you, it makes you a part of it. The director made great use of the german cinema, as in FUNNY GAMES. Thesis is bold and groundbreaking. It will make your stomach churn and your mind turn.
Rating:
Summary: Great and original movie
Review: Thesis is one of this movies that gets you breathless since the begining to the end. Strong thriller. Wonderfull acting performances by Eduardo Noriega and Fele Martinez.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Amenabar
Review: This is an absolutely fantastic film. Whether with or without subtitles the images are intense and breathtaking and the plot so cleverly created that it is impossible not to be absolutely gripped by this wonderful piece of cinematography. The violence in it, although relatively rare, is extreme and graphic, and many may find it disturbing. However, the audacious and stylish way in which Amenabar criticises the whole "snuff" movie genre by using these horrific images cannot go unrecognised. Buy this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing
Review: This is an intriguing, well made movie on a horrible subject, "snuff movies". The movie contains some violent, very real scenes that kept me awake afterwards (should have turned down the volume). "Thesis" very well illustrates the fact that there are (a lot of?) disturbed, crazy, dangerous people out there, and I don't always enjoy to be reminded of that.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent movie!!
Review: This is, by far, the most suspenseful movie I've seen in the longest time, definitely better than a lot of recent American thrillers. "Thesis" is not only well-performed, well-directed, and well-produced. It is also well-written. Plus, there's also a wonderful musical score to back it up. The fact that it's a whodunnit thriller makes it even more of a treat to watch. Highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best thrillers I've seen
Review: This movie left me completely shocked after watching it. It grabs you and it doesn't let you go until the end--and then it leaves you speechless. Great film.
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