Barcelona

Rating:
Summary: torture
Review: I never knew a movie could be as painful as this one. The characters were spoiled and vapid. The only purpose of their inane dialogue in the first half of the movie(which only consisted of "Do you ever wonder if...?) was to set up the pathetic punch lines at the end of the film when everything they wondered happens to be true. These character if they were real are the type of substanceless self-centered jerks that would incite a pacifist to violence. Save your money. If you must see it, rent it. Or better yet, wait for the network premier.

Rating:
Summary: Great flick
Review: I saw this movie immediately after returning from my first trip to Barcelona. As a "travel" film it isn't much (it really plays down the Gaudi architecture for example, which probably would have been a distraction if they had shown how beautiful Barcelona really is), but I loved this movie. Extremely funny.

Rating:
Summary: A view from Barcelona
Review: I saw this movie when it was released and I remember as a person born and raised in Barcelona, I found that is an inaccurate portrayal of my city and its society. Like in most commercial US films, here we see that the world outside the US does not deserve a careful portrayal, just a romatized view is enough. In some parts, the film looks like a tourist brochure of the latter Francoist years: flamenco, wine, bulls and macho men. May be this is how Mr. Stillman sees us Catalans. My impression is that "Tha Last Days of Disco" is a much better movie.

Rating:
Summary: Spanish Chicks-- All Right
Review: I'm often dismayed by ideologues and their certainty. When Europeans complained about bully Americans during the Iraqi Liberation, or during the Cold War, they always said that the CIA or the Zionists blew up their own embassies or Twin Towers in a Macavelion plot to take over the world. Barcelona has the Spanish intelligencia parroting anti-American nonsense, but when two cousin's, different as night and day, chase Spanish chicks all over a disco city in the late 70's after the end of Franco, well, witty dialogue and self-depreciating comedy commences along side serious political violence. The Spanish girl's are bed-jumpers and unbelievably beautiful in this film, charming. The guys are preppy leftovers from Walt Stillman's "Metropolitan," the story of preppy school guys in Manhattan and the girls they get drunk. So preppy American guys meet sexually liberated Euro-Pinks and you get a mildly satisfying film. But Barcelona, the city is very, very, enticing, beautifully filmed.

Rating:
Summary: Spanish Chicks-- All Right
Review: I'm often dismayed by ideologues and their certainty. When Europeans complained about bully Americans during the Iraqi Liberation, or during the Cold War, they always said that the CIA or the Zionists blew up their own embassies or Twin Towers in a Macavelion plot to take over the world. Barcelona has the Spanish intelligencia parroting anti-American nonsense, but when two cousin's, different as night and day, chase Spanish chicks all over a disco city in the late 70's after the end of Franco, well, witty dialogue and self-depreciating comedy commences along side serious political violence. The Spanish girl's are bed-jumpers and unbelievably beautiful in this film, charming. The guys are preppy leftovers from Walt Stillman's "Metropolitan," the story of preppy school guys in Manhattan and the girls they get drunk. So preppy American guys meet sexually liberated Euro-Pinks and you get a mildly satisfying film. But Barcelona, the city is very, very, enticing, beautifully filmed.

Rating:
Summary: Eigeman is billant.
Review: If you liked Manhattan, Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy, Last Days of Disco then you have probably already seen this. But, you should rent it again. It is great. This is the second best of all the movies above. Kicking and Screaming is the best.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you Mr. Stillman...
Review: Let me begin by saying this: If you are looking for the same type of "humor" that is found in, say, "Dumb and Dumber," do not consider this film. This film, in its humorous parts that is, is a clever, witty type of humor, with subtlety often being the rule of thumb. If you can only laugh at idiots with digestive-gas disorders, please look elsewhere.

That being said, this film is absolutely a gem. The direction is impeccable, and the cinematography is equally beautiful. The "script" is perhaps the best feature. More precisely, nothing seems "scripted" in the literal sense. The interaction with all the actors seems so natural, so matter-of-fact. In that sense it's very voyeuristic because the viewer feels as if they are truly sitting in (or overhearing) someone else's conversation.
Beautiful, simply beautiful.

There are other moments in this film that are simply too funny. Those who have seen it, know what I'm talking about. For instance, near the very beginning of the film, one of our main characters is reading the bible and jitterbugging to big-band music. The other walks in and sees this and quips....well, I won't disclose too much. It's just priceless. It's that subtle type of humor, that makes this film what it is.

Definitely get this DVD. It's something that I'm almost certain you'll enjoy if you are not in the class I mentioned above. If sophistication and wittiness are your cup of tea, you will love this. And, at the very least--if you are so inclined--it will look good in your collection to "impress your friends."

Rating:
Summary: Funny and Real: A Rare Combination
Review: Taylor Nichols and Chris Eigeman are cousins living in Barcelona, Spain in the early 1980s. They still have issues with each other that date back to their childhood, but that is the least of their problems. Barcelona is becoming anti-American. It doesn't help that Eigeman is a navy attache and frequently in uniform. They do have the perk of pretty Spanish girls who seems to open up like flowers, but of course they'll open up for anyone.

Barcelona is what might be called a serious comedy. The characters are real people in real life situations and should appear boring, but their real life quirks make them even funnier than the typical comedy. It's all due to the virtuoso writer/director Whit Stillman, who spends far too little time writing and directing gems like this. You'll have to watch it more than once to really appreciate it, but the more you watch it, the more you'll see it's unique perspective on being an American. That goes for all of Stillman's films come to think of it.

Rating:
Summary: interesting, sometimes violent film
Review: Ted is an American sales rep living in Barcelona when his extroverted over-the-top cousin Fred arrives in town. Fred is a naval officer, and it is 1992, a time of rampant anti-Americanism in Spain due to the end of the Cold War.

The two American relatives meet some lovely Spanish women dressed ip to go clubbing in Marie Antoinette costumes (that in itself is interesting). Marta (Mira Sorvino) starts dating Fred while Ted starts dating Monserrat. Except Fred decides he likes Monserrat too.

Fred is a very funny character -- when his cousin Ted is dancing, he tells the women "See that odd expression on his face? It's because he likes to wear leather underwear and it is chafing him." (Ted is merely dancing with one of those weird expressions guys make while dancing.)

This is Barcelona before the Olympics, and the times and political climate come into play. It is interesting to watch this but be warned, the violence is graphic -- someone even gets shot in the face.

Rating:
Summary: a funny laid back romantic beautiful talk fest of a movie
Review: The comparisons to woody allen and kevin smith are valid, everyone likes to talk in this movie. Or at least the guys do. And that's the point. Two young, neurotic americans in laid back barcelona in the seventies. The spanish girls listen and nod and look at the guys like they're from another planet. This is a very sweet and very funny movie. Chris Eigeman has to be the most un-stereotypical military man ever presented in film. And Mira Sorvino never looked so beautiful. The scene where the guy spys on Mira and the other women learning a dance step is one of the most beautiful in all of film.