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El crimen del padre Amaro (2002)
Lacking but still poignant.
First off I must say that there were some cultural references/styles/etc... that I didn't understand in this movie. I probably would have gotten more out of it if I knew the first thing about Mexican culture.
On the whole I think the film was very decent. It's nice to see something that isn't black and white, cookie cutter, happily ever after Hollywood BS. Despite that I did find some faults with the film. Despite being almost 2 hours long I felt the motivations behind a lot of what the characters committed were left to the viewer to contemplate. There should have been much more introspection and interaction amoung the characters about their conflicts. As is; when a character is proposed with a conflict they pretty much approach it by acting, merely choosing in a short amount of time. Not to say that their choices are questionable, but it takes some personal reflection on the movie and the characters afterwards to fully understand why they did some of the things they did. This lead to a movie that feels like it kind of stumbles through conflicts.
That being said, I must admit that this is a movie that will make you truly think. The ending scene was priceless IMO, it showed that sometimes bad and good aren't exactly what you might think they are. The film dealt with troubles in a true human manner as opposed to white-washing everything for your convenience. I rated it an 8.
Shadow Warriors II: Hunt for the Death Merchant (1999)
One of the best movies to watch with friends!
My friends and I just love to rent "bad" movies (good "bad" movies mind you) and watch them a'la MST3K. This is by far one of the best ones on Earth. If you rent this for anything other than a laugh you are a complete idiot. It has crappy plot, the action is just stupid (it's a chuck norris type of running in with a gun and killing a million people) and the acting...well let me just say "Hulk" and "good acting" should never be in the same sentence, nay the same PARAGRAPH.
If you have some quick witted friends and want to make fun of a movie you can not go wrong with this movie. I loved how it started out for pure BEATING (a word we used quite often to refer to mr. Hulk) value. They were on a mission to get a girl, Hulk beat some stuff, some guys shot at them, Shannon Tweed (we used the word "softcore" a lot when referring to her) got in a badly choreographed cat fight (note: I loved the scene where she was choking and she had no expression on her face...I'm sure they got her for her acting ability really).
This movie ranks up there with Ninja Vs. Mafia (although Ninja Vs. Mafia is still THE BEST.