elderesek Reviews

Bolivar soy yo (2002)

Mediocre

[4/10 · 27 June 2012]

This is the prime example of a great idea executed by a moron. The story is pretty cool but photography, art and even casting is awful... I mean, why is the director's girlfriend playing two different roles anyway, if she's such a bad actress? She even looks to the camera at one point! Having near impossible locations, this foolish attempt of film wastes them. For example, a special permission was granted to film inside the Casa de Bolívar (Colombia President's quarters) but it was wasted in shot from 50 feet away. The Quinta de Bolívar (Bolívar's favorite house, now a museum) is one of the most emblematic colonial buildings in Bogotá, but shot in the night with a terrible photography looks like crap. Amparo Grisales is terrible in a double-sided role, since she's far from a good actress. Art is average, since they ask the audience to believe in a world without detail.

In fewer words, although the screenplay is a masterpiece, the overall film in near enjoyable due lack of talent in the directing department.

Love & Pop (1998)

If you love Requiem for a Dream, you need to watch this film

[8/10 · 23 January 2010]

This is one of those films that you need to watch very carefully. The surface is a very disturbing film, but deep enough, this film is a full essay on teenage prostitution in Japan... in the 90's. Now a reality around the globe. That makes this film twice disturbing...

The film is shot in a lot of unorthodox techniques that can be confusing for a western audience, but you need to remember Hideaki Anno is the creator of such mind-blowing works as Neon Genesis Evangelion, and in the same same vein, we can contemplate how deep can a teenager go in her despair to be something she is not supposed to be. Requiem for a Dream is the nearest thing you'll ever see to "Love & Pop".

Watch it. Just watch it.

Ever Re-Take (2008 Video)

This is really awful...

[1/10 · 30 October 2009]

When I first heard there was a Japanese fan-film on Evangelion, I thought it could be at least something worth to watch...

I was wrong...

This is based on the infamous douhinshi "EVA RE-TAKE", which shows an alternate ending to Evangelion but adding all the hentai scenes a pervert would have liked in the original Evangelion. According to a lot of people, NOT including me, the argument on RE-TAKE is really good, but in this fan-film adaptation is really awful on story arcs, acting skill (if any), special effects that are worth of a penny and, of course, the fact that this is just cheap porn - cosplay porn.

Don't waste your time watching this Ed Wood's version of Evangelion.

The Vampires of Poverty (1978)

Reality on Colombian cinema even today

[10/10 · 29 August 2008]

This short film reflects a satirical vision on how the so-called master film-makers in Colombia are just a bunch on fools whose ambition goes beyond a real narrative but leading to black propaganda of the country.

Desperated looking for poverty where there's not too much, a couple of film directors try to make a documentary on homeless, ignorant, mindless people, giving themselves to the extreme option of contracting actors to make a fake poor family when failed to capture that inexistent reality.

It's curious to note that even today the same tendency is still alive on some Colombian directors (but today on themes such as guerrilla, violence, kidnapping, etcetera), giving this masterpiece a renewal concept.

Garras de oro (1927)

The First Anti-Imperialist Film in Latino-American History

[10/10 · 30 July 2008]

This film deals with a obscure chapter in Colombian history, when Pres. Roosvelt bought Panamá to the Latin-American country in 1914.

The synopsis deals with a "yanqui" character who lives in the then-Colombian region of Panamá, who witnesses how his mother land is executing a conspiracy plan to "steal" that part of the country to Colombia, by faking railroad contracts and supporting with militia a independence rising in the region.

By a colorful and symbolic language, the film depicts a conspiracy by USA Government to economically conquer the continent, by having such images as the Uncle Sam unbalancing the Justice with money bags or literally wiping out of the map the Panamá region and putting it in his pocket.

This is a must-seen movie in my opinion.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007)

Religious Sci-Fi beyond Anime

[9/10 · 29 July 2008]

I've been a fan to Evangelion saga since 2002, when I watched "The End of Evangelion" the first time. My first thought about the entire anime series and the following movies is that, despise the bad drawings at some points, Evangelion is a masterpiece of Sci-Fi, and this Rebuilt demonstrates it.

The improvement on the animation is more than noticeable, making this version what fans have imagined for years. But more important, the argument itself is quite different (What did Misato meant by showing Lilith to Shinji? What the heck does the Kaworu appearance mean? Are all the angels in this version only different in the graphics or also in demeanor, as Ramiel?), giving the viewer two viewpoints to decide what really the "Rebuilt" means: (1) It's a better-than-the-original revisited version of the best anime ever, or (2) a weird "sequel" to the entire saga (listen very carefully the SEELE scene with Gendou Ikari and the "Epilogue" dialogs).

Giant machine-like clones employed to fight against supernatural creatures, biblical symbolism everywhere, proverbial existentialism and, of course, action scenes so massive that most of American viewers wouldn't believe in a cartoon. What else do you want?