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Amores Perros

Amores Perros

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 4.5, Excellent Movie
Review: I've recently gone on a foreign language film binge, and this one settles with the cream, near the very top. Plot wise, there are three stories that interconnect on the basis of a big car accident, and each revolves around dogs and their owners. The first piece is about a guy who lusts after his older brother's wife while also making big money in dog fights. The older brother gets more and more angry while at the same time the younger brother has made an enemy at his side job. The second story is about a middle aged man in the magazine industry who leaves his family and moves in with a beautiful model. Things get hectic when her lovable ball of fluff disappears beneath a hole in the floor and won't come out. The final tale is about an ex-professor turned radical turned nearly pennyless hitman who wanders the streets with his group of trustworthy dogs. Things change for him when he unknowgly nurses a very dangerous mutt back to health. Now, these stories may not sound intrigiuing at first, but the strengths lie in the tone, cinematography, acting, and atmosphere. Give it a chance, and I think everyone can take something positive from the experience. Of course, this takes us to the WARNING: THIS FILM CONTAINS BLOODY IMAGES OF DOG FIGHTING. The question is, can you handle this sort of thing? I was prepared, and it wasn't as bad as I thought, but if you go in expecting Fido and Lassie frolicking in the hills at sunset, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise. In the form of mauled carcasses. Yep, quite nasty. But consider the fact that the animals were trained and not harmed, and that the rest of the movie is excellent, and you should be able to bear it. Also, this film has many levels, and warrants repeated viewing, thus making it a quality purchase. BUT--because of the dog fights, I can't just flat out recommend that everyone buys it on a whim. If you're not sure, RENT IT FIRST. Otherwise, it's a guranteed positive experience.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Masterful
Review: I bought this movie after hearing that it was a great movie. I sat down to watch it and was simply amazed. It does move a little slow at first, but after the start the story unfolds in a brilliant manner. The focal point is a car crash that changes three peoples lives. The last third of the movie is pure emotion and I was swept away by it. Highly recomended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE Movie
Review: buy the DV, and then you will see.
As Director Alejandro Iñarritu once said, "visceral"
The film consisted of action, passion, and unlike anything Hollywood can create, IT WAS REALISTIC!!!
with the exception of the doggy fights ofcourse.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Well Produced
Review: This movie is really 3 separate stories linked together by a major car accident at which main characters in all 3 stories are present. This film was well thought-out and very well produced, the actors were all good, and I was very impressed with this film (which is strange, because this is the ONLY Mexican film I have ever enjoyed). I recommend this film to anyone who has seen an enjoyed Memento, Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run), or Fight Club.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Genuinely Imaginative
Review: In this Mexican film that tells three interlocking stories of violence, crime, and coincidence, a la PULP FICTION, director Alejandro Inarritu seems to have Quentin Terantino's sense of furtiveness--however, he's hardly as wildly funny. The tales are all fun, campfire-style yarns; the whole thing is a shaggy-dog movie with real dogs. Inarritu deals with a variety of subjects and themes, and they feel unpreachy and free-spirited. He realizes that a lot of it is cliché, and treats it with an off-the-cuff, comic-book informality. The film still feels about a half-hour too long, though, and the pacing is labored at times. The best story is about a beautiful model disfigured in a car accident; it's completely bizarre, and totally suspenseful. We feel tremendously uneasy as the tension mounts. It's a miniature masterpiece, and the best thing about the film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love's a Dog
Review: Unbelievable that such a outrageous and enticing and exciting rollercoaster ride came from Mexico!

Recommended to all those who seek not leaving the seat at the movies, turning off the phones and kicking loud people of the room. Put on the surround sound and darken the vicinity!

This movie is riveting and engrossing! I loved it and bought it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Trailer and Credits To Director
Review: On the Main Menu, go to the Lions Gate logo click on it and you will get the "Amores Perros" trailer plus credits about the director.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love and Dogs
Review: the story of a street smart working class boy who falls in love with his brother's wife, a successful fashion model who's having an affair with a married businessman, and a lonely vagrant who wants to contact a daughter he hasn't seen in years. These three characters never interact with each other and their stories are only connected through a terrible car crash that changes their lives for ever. The only thing these people have in common is that they own dogs, and their relationships with their pets are as telling as their relationships with other humans. The film moves from the luxury flats to the slums of Mexico City, demonstrating that human passions have little to do with social and economic circumstances. This is an extremely disturbing and violent film, but it never feels excessive or exploitative. Violence is depicted as ugly and pointless, sometimes fortuitous but never cool or glamorous, and it makes people and animals suffer unnecessarily.

Alejandro González Iñárritu's film is destined to become a classic, it does for contemporary Mexico City (or any other large Latin American city) what Taxi Driver did for mid 70's New York. A solid script, inventive and hyper realistic direction, perfectly timed editing and brilliant performances make Love's a Bitch and extraordinary film, a perfect example of how visceral and moving cinema can really be. This is an intelligent and thought provoking movie that will surely be appreciated by anyone who has grown tired of the seemingly endless flow of escapist offerings released every week.

Finally, dog lovers like myself will be reassured to know that this DVD features a short on how the dog actors were trained and looked after and didn't get hurt or mistreated in any way.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Magnificent Achievement
Review: This movie really blew me away. It's the best film I've seen in many, many years. Deep, thought-provoking, gritty, sad and hopeful, it is an incredible film that comes around once every generation or so and captures the frailty and beauty of life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Latinamerica?s troubles potrayed in a very entertaining way
Review: "Amores Perros" is a movie that manages to say some very deep truths about Latinamerica, potraying it in its myriad forms through characters from the top to the very bottom of the social ladder while at the same time being entertaining. Though the movie is quite long, rarely was I aware of this; I was never bored. And in the midst of all the violence and gritty reality of Mexico City that the movie shows with hardly any compromise, there were still many humorous episodes and dialogues that stood out like gems. Specially in the latter part of the movie, the one that deals with 'Chivo', the guerrillero-turned-hitman.

But as the movie ends, with Chivo and his dog walking away in the midst of an unforgiving wasteland like some pathetic John Wayne, it was hard to forget the terrible reality and oppressive lives potrayed in the first two stories (the movie is roughly made of three parts, based around four different people, whose paths sometimes cross). The wasteland reminds me of a photo I saw once in a review about books about latinamerica's social and political problems: a wide angle shot of a parched plain and a blue sky, with nothing in the foreground but a burial cross. A cross just like the many that lay next to roads all across the continent. Indeed, latinamerican reality is a wasteland, with just a few oases here and there.

To me "Amores Perros" marks Latinamerica's (for now, maybe just Mexico's) entrance into the mainstream of world cinema. Before it, attempts to potray the continent's troubles ended in pretentious 'auteur' (read: a m a t e u r) cinema with low production values and ideological or artistical heavy-handedness, the kind that only wins you awards in obscure film festivals and often serves as filler for Cannes and the rest of the European festival circuit. I hope Latinamerican directors get rid of their back issues of Cahiers du Cinema and follow's director Gonzalez Iñárritu's example. Sigue dandole wey!


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