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Nico and Dani

Nico and Dani

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $26.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: No subtitles, and my high school spanish is rusty!!
Review: The boys are beautiful, but my spanish is very rusty. The box says "Subtitles in English," but not on the DVD that was included. I went to the languages submenu of the DVD. It showed english as selected. I hit select, but when I returned to watching the movie, there were no subtitles. It made watching this movie very difficult for me.

I only give it one star, because as I previously stated, "The boys are beautiful."

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not completely bad but not really any good
Review: The two leads are effective, but this is a teen film and not a good one.
However, the relationship between the two leads is worth seeing because of the not so clear feelings that arise. But the film does not delve into the questions it raises about how male teen sexuality is a confusing place even for those who know exactly where they stand on the gay/straight divide.
RENT it and be prepared to sit through quite a bit of ... to get to the so-so stuff.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: thoroughly enjoyable
Review: there's nothing bad about this movie. the actors are adorable, and they bring an honest feel to their characters. the plot's not much, but the emotions are genuine. there are moments for every imaginable reaction. i laughed, smiled, and teared-up. i believe that the most fulfilling thing about this film is reaffirming that american teenagers don't set the standard for teenagers everywhere (thank god - i AM an american teenager, and even i don't like us), and american movies don't set the standard for movies everywhere. if you can find this movie, see it. otherwise, rent it. or buy it. whichever you prefer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Film about young teens
Review: This film is about what two 15/16 year old males do when left to their own devices. This takes place in Spain and the twist is one of the boys begins to fall for the other. I could see an American version of this turning into American Pie 3 but not in this Spanish version. All aspects of the film are handled in a sensitive and realistic way. The natural awkwardness and shyness of the boys combined with their very childlike excitement of being on their own comes across as very natural. The young actors did a great job. This is a great buddy film and if you liked Wild reeds or Beautiful Thing you will like this film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Coming of Age.
Review: This is a great movie (...), and discovery. Nice to be set in Spain. Spain is one of my favorite countries. Spain believes in (...) Marriage now. This is a great paced flick. Wish movies like this one were around in the mid '70s when I was of that age. It does do alot to keep more true to character behavior of most young adults. This was the kind of flick that Bravo Networks would have played before NBC bought, and junked it up with crap.
BUY THE MOVIE!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the very best coming of age films...
Review: This is a wonderful film about two teenage friends (one gay, one straight) during summer vacation on the coast of Barcelona. I'd place this film on the same level as Wild Reeds (in other words at the very top) as far as coming of age films go. It even features a somewhat similar inconclusive ending that purposely does not wrap up the main characters situation with a neat and tidy dramatic conclusion. There is a low-key charm and naturalism to the whole enterprise and the makers resist conjuring up melodramatic plot contrivances or even comic set pieces, opting instead for an atmospheric slice of life of the two teens and their seaside town. The scenery is gorgeous and rather prompts one to start planning an itinerary to Spain and while it's true that one of the boys is somewhat homely the blonde fellow has the charisma and looks of a future 'name' star. Lastly, after seeing so many gay themed films that seem to feel the need to resort to violence to "pump up" their drama, whether Urbania, Lola and Billy The Kid, Steam, The Delta, Edge of The City, Angel, etc. etc. it's nice to see a work where no one ends up dead by the end. Bravo to all involved with this film!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A very good but too brief movie
Review: This is another film that has been touted as the next "Beautiful Thing," but it was not the director's intention to make a love story like that. Rather, this is a series of snapshots of a few days in the lives of two Spanish boys who are heading down different forks in the road. Though clocked at 90 minutes the movie speeds by in seemingly half that time.

Nico is coming to visit Dani at the coast while Dani's parents are away; he is intending to do the same thing he would do if he stayed home in Barcelona, went to Rome, or, for that matter, orbited in the Space Shuttle: chase skirts. Dani has begun to hear the tapping of a different drummer and has apparently had a lot of time to plan all the ways he wants to share his new interests with his long time pal. Clearly these two have been very close. Krammpack (mutual masturbation), the original title of the play, is not just something they've read about in magazines.

The movie is a series of fast moving vignettes of the two boys and the two girls they meet and interact with. They move from incident to incident quickly, not lingering long nor introspecting much about what has happened. Though the age of the two is not clear (I've read as young as 15, as old as 17) it is made clear they are both virgins and minors (in much of Europe, 16 is the age of consent).

There are some unsettling undertones as Dani experiments with sexuality, mas or menos, oblivious for some time to the fact Nico is increasingly uncomfortable with the moves he is putting on him. There is a very unsettling, for me, date rape scene, involving the hoary old concoction Spanish Fly, not the modern date rape drug DHA. The movie remains non-judgemental. Director Cesc Gay keeps things from getting too heavy both by not lingering on any one incident and with musical punctuation and title cards reminscent of silent films that foreshadow upcoming scenes. The music in the film is excellent.

Nico is played by Jordi Villachi and he is a real charmer. Though not blessed with extraordinary good looks, it is nevertheless easy to see why Dani and Elena and Berta are drawn to him. Dani is a very handsome young man, played by Fernando Ramalla with an intensity that is at times eerie. He is struggling with more difficult issues than Nico, of course, and has anticipated that he is facing almost certain frustration of his desires.

When the two go their separate ways one evening Dani, in a lover's snit, tries tarting an older man, which is a cake walk for him, but the better angels of his nature prevail.

The movie ends positively; the two's friendship survives the stresses. Nobody is thrown into therapy nor denounced from the pulpit for their misdeeds. Nico hasn't given up on chasing skirts and Dani has learned a lot about what he wants, as well as what he doesn't want. The worst that Nico can bring himself to say of his friend is that he is selfish.

I gave the movie four stars but if the system would have let me, I would have given it another 1/4 or 1/2 star, and if it continues to wear well with repeated viewing, as I think it will, I'll be upgrading my rating in a few months. Nico and Dani is not "Romeo and Julian," nor is it even "Jaime and Ste," but it's a lot closer to them that it is to American Pie, and it's a very good movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Two boys play; one's gay, one's not?
Review: This movie is about two best friends that spend the summer of their 16th year together at a beach house. Dani has realized that he has gay feelings, and this is the summer he will sort out his orientation. Nico is quite happy to play along with Dani. The "Krámpak" in the title is Spanish for mutual masturbation.

But their adolescent fumbling has different meanings for each boy. Dani has much deeper feelings for his pal than Nico seems to reciprocate. Dani knows he's gay, but is Nico gay?

This dichotomy is classic for boys at that age. Many boys engage in play with another boy, some discard it after a while, and others decide that this is their life choice.

The acting is a little wooden in this movie. However given the controversial theme of the script this is not hard to forgive. Both boys are good actors playing your typical adolescents with a sexual twist.

There is no heavy trauma in this movie. The ending will surprise the viewer. Not too many movies have treated adolescent gay sex in so positive a light. Three cheers for that! It is now the start of the new millennium - it's OK for boys to be gay. Yet in being gay there are still the difficulties in any relationship that all teenagers have to grapple with. And the real strength of this movie shows that even when two boys are ready to play, the course of true love is not easy.


Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great Coming of Age Film!
Review: This was a fun, simple flick about two teenage friends spending the summer together, doing what boys do. The film focuses on the decisions they make, their responses to hormones, the future, girls, drugs, each other...

The acting is great, the characters likeable, and well-developed. If you enjoyed Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN then you should have no trouble getting into this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Superb! The best coming of age story in years!
Review: Though teenagers' coming of age/coming to grips with sexuality has been an overworked theme of late, NICO & DANI ("Krampack") is a film which merits viewing no matter how tired you think you are of the genre. It has been a hit at film festivals worldwide, the film's frank and uniquely natural handling of the topic consistently praised.

See it now. This is one European hit you will never see as an American remake (in our lifetime anyway). You will see why. And you will be treated to a warm and special film.


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