Cronos

Rating:
Summary: beautiful and inteligent
Review: The only thing I can only say is that this movie is one of the best things that could ever had happened to the mexican movie society(I rather call it that, cause there is no such a thing like a movie industry in Mexico), and to the world horror movies.
The script is brilliant, inteligent, and the characters are like normal people, they arent stereotypes(something very intelligent and brave)the gag of perlman wanting to fix his nose its an example of that, that helps the movie a lot to achieve that scary mood.
What is better is that Guillermo dignifies the horror genre, he gives also a quality to the film, that even the so called intellectual people must accept that this is a great movie.
The movie moves forward thanks to the story, and uses sfx only when is needed, doesnt need to rely on sfx to be scary, like many recent horror pictures,that cant even do that.
The movie is full of metaphores, and retoric forms for those who like the stylish movies, actually most of the images are poems in themselves.

To finish, if you are a adult with a young spirit you would like it, and if you are a so called intellectual or sofisticated person you would like it as well.

Congratulations Guillermo, you make us Proud!!!!

Rating:
Summary: A quiet but powerful tale of the supernatural!
Review: This is perhaps the most original film in the fantasy genre this decade, coming from an extraordinarily gifted director. In the mid-90s, a spate of independent films from Mexico in the genre of Magical Realism like "Like Water For Chocolate" and "El Mariachi" came to the notice of American art house cinema. Given that, this was still quite an unexpected surprise. Like another brilliant film of the previous decade, Near Dark (1987, director: Kathryn Bigelow), the "v" word is never mentioned and never needs to be. This film trusts the audience's intelligence and rewards it with an understated tale of a humble antique dealer and his granddaughter when they accidentally stumble upon a mysterious artifact that grants its user immortality at a price. The acting is superb and you feel with the characters as they battle those who seek possession of the device at any cost.

Rating:
Summary: Genius!!
Review: This is the best vampire tale ever told. A simple, older man that is cursed. No castles or nobility titles to make his blood sucking any easy. A truly fantastic idea. And the acting? Well, don't let me start talking about Federico Luppi cuz I could go on for days. So, lemme just say that HES THE BEST ACTOR EVER. Period.

Rating:
Summary: A different kind of vampire
Review: This is without question one of the best vampire films of the 1990s, and definitely one of the most unusual vampire films of any time. Directed by Mexican Guillermo del Torro (no relation to Benecio), it's set in Mexico City where artifacts are plentiful. And in fact, the opening setting is an antique shop run by an older man, played well by Federico Luppi (he also starred in John Sayles' masterful Men With Guns).

Stumbling upon a bizarre thingamajig--the Cronos Device--he accidentally pricks himself with its "legs" (it resembles a huge golden beetle) that spring out from its squat body and plunge into the palm of his hand. Eventually, he extricates the thing, but it's difficult. Realizing this is no ordinary item, he wraps it up and takes it home, accompanied all this time by his granddaughter, to whom he's devoted.

The effect of the device, as it happens, is addictive. And, as they say, therein lies the rub. The sole non-Hispanic actor in the film, Ron Perlman, does a great job of portraying the crude, nasty nephew of a wealthy man as old as the antique dealer who must have this device no matter what the cost.

The transformation of the antique dealer is much more fascinating than frightening. Del Torro captures perfectly the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle moods induced by the man's strange metamorphosis; his behavior follows these physical changes so closely that the sequence of events seems all too plausible.

The ending is truly bizarre, one of the most compelling images ever seen in a vampire film. The plot, pacing, script, and performances lift this well above the run-of-the-mill horror flick. Rather than spend money on tripe like Scream or Who Cares What You Did Last Summer?, take a look at this one.

It's brilliant.

Rating:
Summary: Good? Yes. Excellent? No.
Review: This movie is well-filmed, well-written, has some excellent acting, and the interactions between the kindly antique dealer and his concerned granddaughter are very well done. However, it just does not work as a horror movie. Chronos is actually more like an unrealistic anti-drug movie.

The Chronos device is a mechanical bug created by an alchemist in order to give himself immortality. After he is killed in an accident, the device winds up in the possession of an antique dealer who becomes infected by it and as a result he becomes younger. He also gets a slight craving for blood, but his morals prevent him from doing anything wrong in order to get blood. Meanwhile, a mega-rich man with a Howard-Hughes style fear of germs sends Ron Perlman to obtain the Chronos device from the dealer.

Despite the physical changes to the antiques dealer, he never becomes a monster or kills anyone. The movie is mostly about him trying to deal with his new addiction. Furthermore, Perlman could just as easily be after the antique dealer to collect drug money or a missing briefcase of drugs as he is after a device for immortality. The movie barely even gets into the concepts of death or immortality (after all, nobody in the movie has lived beyond their normal lifespan). Thus except for its setup, Chronos could have been just another movie about coccaine or heroin addiction.

With that in mind, it is a half-decent movie about addiction, but not good enough to deserve the awards it won from Cannes. It is mostly just impressive for how good it looks for a cheap Mexican production.

The director, Guillermo del Toro has gone on to direct Blade II, so some people may be curious to see one of his older films, but don't be fooled: the two are NOTHING alike.

Rating:
Summary: Del Toro's Gothic Tale of Love, Compassion and Vampirism!!!
Review: When I first watch Cronos, I was sitting in my comfortable chair placed exactly in front of my TV set surrounded by that security feeling only my house can bring me. That feeling disappeared soon. I couldn't believe what I was being witness of.

I'll have to tell you the context I was in when I watched it, for you to understand. I'm Mexican. When I watched this movie I was 15 yrs. old and the Mexican movie "industry" (if you can call it that way) hadn't a reputation for its excellent horror movies.

Cronos is a movie that was released back in a time in which mexican movies were usually flops because of the lack of support from producers, distributors and audiences alike. The movie was released in 10 movie theaters only and only in Mexico City and it was retired because movie owners considered it a failure!!! (How couldn't it be a failure with only 10 theaters showing it? Hello?)

When the movie went to Cannes and won the Critics Week Award, this event didn't change a lot the movie's fortune. I, being an avid film fan and being from a small town called Coatzacoalcos (I dare you to spell it right!)and having read a lot from it in magazines and newspapers had to wait until it's release on VHS to rent it.

It instantly became one of my all time favorites.

You have to understand... Our mexican HORROR movies were of the likes of Ed Wood movies, until Cronos arrived. Ok, I have to admit that there were three other HORROR movies on the seventies ("Even the Wind is Frightened", "The Stone Book" and "As Black as Night" all from the same director, named Carlos Enrique Taboada), but if you watch them today they have lost their FRIGHT FACTOR.

So in a Mexico with a lot of legends and folklore, the complete abssence of HOORROR movies was a curse broken by Guillermo Del Toro a young, fat man from Guadalajara that was an avid comic reader and makeup artist.

If you could read the script (which you can buy here in Mexico), you could read the pretty images that become poetic and that Guillermo handles in a way no one else can.

Poetry and horror mixed? It may sound odd, but it works...

There's a part in which the lead character looks his reflection in the mirror and asks: How do I look? And the writer (Del Toro) answers him:
Horribly.

A great literary scene that you can only appreciate by reading it and then watching the movie again. I swear you can almost hear the writer answering him on film!

The story follows the life of a Jesús Gris (Translated as Gray Jesus... nice game of words, ain't it?) and his discovering of an odd goldlike aparatus. How will it affect his life? Will it bring joy or misfortune? That is for you to find out.

Now... Let me explain something... A lot of people know Del Toro for movies like "Mimic" and "Blade", which I think he directed brilliantly, and I read that an Amazon client complained because on the DVD case of "The Devil's Backbone" (Another Guillermo Del Toro's preciosist film, just number two after Cronos of course, in my list of his movies)there's written:

"Vastly more stylish and frightening than "The Others""

So, he bought it and was dissapointed, because the movie didn't frighten him as much as "The Others" did!!!

Let me say this:

The HORROR genre is not necessarily a genre that will frighten you. You mean HORROR when a film has something, anything involving the paranormal... So, under this parameter, Ghost is a HORROR film. It doesn't scare you but its main premise touches the paranormal aspect. Get it?

So... All this being said...
Buy it! Sit back! And Enjoy!

Feel the security of yous house being torn to shreds...