Kodijkack Reviews

Harodim (2012)

Very enjoyable, if only seen as a movie

[8/10 · 30 August 2014]

I had a bad feeling about watching this (according to this awful rating) but I also thought this could be one of these few cases of raging viewers down-voting a good movie because of very personal reasons. And this seems to be the case.

To be clear: My voting of 8/10 is based ONLY on the premise of viewing this as a total work of fiction loosely based on some facts. I understand that watching this movie as a person who was directly and personally affected by 9/11 probably makes said person quite angry. This movie could easily been seen as cheap propaganda, but i guess this was not really the intention.

Long story short: This movie is very enjoyable if you like stage-play-like films where dialog is the main ingredient. Basically there is just a handful actors in one cheap location. But who cares if said dialog manages to keep you listening for the whole time? If you're open minded and like thought provoking films (even if they may be just propaganda): Watch it! You won't regret it.

BTW I seldom review movies, only if i feel that a movie deserves it.

The Precocious and Brief Life of Sabina Rivas (2012)

Damn good, but sad and even disturbing

[8/10 · 7 February 2014]

According to the cover I did not expect a serious movie, but the overall good rating made me curious. I was not disappointed.

What really shines bright above all good things in this movie is its main lead: Greisy Mena. She did a fantastic job and her character was very believable. I was really touched by her performance.

I really disliked her nudity-scenes though. These didn't add anything and were just there to keep males watching :-) Totally misplaced in my eyes.

A slight problem one could have with this movie is that if you're not from that area or you're not having a slight insight you may have a hard time believing the things that happens in this movie. You may think the portrayed MS were just a small bunch of lowlifes or there were only a handful of corrupt policemen. You may really end up asking yourself what all this fuss is about. Call the "real" cops and the job's done. Sure, to all around that area this might be nothing new and totally obvious, but all foreigners may have a harder time believing it.

The title in Germany is "Sine Nombre - Life without hope" and it pretty fits. No hope everywhere you look at, but still Sabina always maintains an inch of hope and optimism, smiling at the smallest things that are not thaaaaaat bad. The more she does that, the more you want to punch everyone else on the screen in the face. Repeatedly.

Long story short: If you can "enjoy" a movie where things are not perfect-world-harmony-happiness then you're in for a ride. Go watch this! It's of the same technical quality as "Tropa de elite" but with less focus on action and more focus on feelings and the message of keeping hope in a hopeless world. Optimism.

It's a real shame one has to look for movies like that like the needle in the haystack. I just stumbled over it by accident. And it even had the same name ("Sine Nombre") as another movie I've already seen that was also about the Maras. Nearly skipped it because of that.