La Fortuna (TV Series 2021) Poster

(2021)

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8/10
A nice series packed with adventures , thriller , humor and modern pirates
ma-cortes2 October 2021
La Fortuna is an international co-production inspired by the comic book by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral and which , in turn , was based on real events and while capturing very well the aroma and spirit of adventure . A magnificent series that brings taste for adventure , thriller and action , as well as dealing with the recovery of Spanish heritage . La Fortuna is the title that gives its name to the series and the ship . The story tells how a young and inexperienced diplomat inadvertently becomes the leader of a mission that will test all of his convictions and along with an obstinate state official : Ana Polvorosa set out to recover the heritage stolen by a treasure hunter from the wreck of a Spanish frigate sunk in the Strait of Gibraltar by English ships . While Stanley Tucci plays an adventurer named Frank Wild who travels all around the world looting the heritage of the sea deep . He believes that if it were not he who rescued everything of value from the found wrecks from oblivion , no one else would carry out such a hard undertaking . He likes to think that the real treasure is not money, but to fulfill a dream. The dream of those who lost their lives along with the valuable cargo.

A series packed with adventures about an unique treasure and a pirate story , too , in which a young diplomat attempts to recover the undersea treasure stolen by adventurer . And being paced from the point of view of two realities : the Latin or Mediterranean and the American . An unreal, but true story at the same time, in which the brave starring will have to face harsh and complex obstacles , including a real critique to Spanish bureaucracy, . There are the twisted obstacles that they put from the treasure hunting company that has taken the treasure , and then, the administration's own obstacles , lack of infrastructure , lack of budget , lack of investigation and no coordination . As Amenabar depicts the Spanish reality , and the Spanish bureaucratic reality, and those of us who have suffered it , developing the events with a certain humor and it results to be well shown . Amenabar often to be guided by the genres and in this case it was an adventure thriller with a lot of humor , but as usual he has to make a particular transformation about it . And outstanding the adventure component that always fascinates Amenábar. But here the antiheroes or pirates do not wear a patch or peg leg , that's why the modern, hypertechnological pirates are nowadays dedicated to looting with machines that can reach tremendous depths . And then, the new heroes are not swordsmen , as they turn out to be officials of the Ministry of Culture that have to recover a robbed treasure , though its is anything else a treasure, in fact, it is culture itself , it is cultural heritage and along the way describing the Spanish reality and the Spanish bureaucratic ways .

An adventure thriller with a moving and exciting score by Roque Baños, being stunningly played by a great cast of the most diverse actors as national as international . Among the Spanish people we find the newcomer Álvaro Mel as the stubborn young diplomat , Ana Polvorosa as the wayward , determined state official , Manolo Solo , Blanca Portillo, Pedro Casablanc , Juan Carlos Vellido and Karra Elejalde as a peculiar Minister . And from the international level , the famed director hired famous faces of North American cinema such as Stanley Tucci, T'Nia Miller and Clarke Peters as a prestigious advocate at law , all of them integrated perfectly and gave themselves to the team with an extraordinary willingness to understand each other. The series, although it takes place in the United States and Spain, has been filmed almost entirely in Spain. Colorfully photographed by cameraman Alex Catalán on location in Ferrol, A Coruña, Galicia, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, La Línea de la Concepción,Rota, Cádiz, Andalucía, Pasaia, Gipuzkoa, Bay of Biscay, Basque Country, Zaragoza, Aragón, Moncloa, Madrid.

Today, Alejandro Amenábar carries out a recent great production , but not as a new film, but with the first series that has compellingly made, plenty of enthusiasm , intelligence and exuding an optimistic air . Presented at the San Sebastián Film Festival, it is the perfect show to engage and greatly entertain the viewer. This great adventure series in six episodes was competently directed by Alejandro Amenabar . As the cinema broke into his life when he was just a child and he played to tell stories to which he later added his own music. Now, a few years later, he holds nine Goya awards and an Academy Award , among many others.
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8/10
Don't read the reviews, watch it for yourself!
npvarley23 January 2022
Well, some of the reviews for this are laughable and borderline racist. The Brits and the Yanks decry it as a pathetic pack of lies, insulting their national pride, while the rest see it as a decent bit of entertainment, based on a comic book.

The facts of the period are indisputable: the British, as they had been for 300 years, treated the oceans as their own private kingdom, seizing ships or sinking them on their whim. This is historical FACT, whether the Brits like it or not.

What is also historical fact is that a number of modern-day US 'pirates' roam the oceans looking for such buried treasure and then a way to keep it for their own enrichment, ignoring the history and nationality of the treasure concerned.

This series sets up a nice battle between the good (the Spanish) and the bad (the Yanks/Brits). It's quite entertaining and the production is good, especially the historical scenes when we see how La Fortuna was sunk.

Make up your own mind and ignore the screaming reviews.
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7/10
Pretty good. Better than the bad reviews, but not as good as the good reviews.
bbosma-244034 January 2022
La Fortuna is clearly based on the story of the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes and the battle by Spain to reclaim the treasure uncovered by the American salvage company Odyssy, and it mainly follows that fairly closely. Of course it's full of fictional characters, relationships and love affairs, and they manage to throw in some silly and totally unlikely things in the final couple episodes, but it was still worth watching. Oh, and of course it's hugely biased toward Spain and very anti-American, that probably goes with the territory. And I still can't see why the salvage companies don't get to keep treasure that, without their hard work, would never be uncovered.
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7/10
Treasure Adventure and a great Court room drama it's all here .
tm-sheehan21 February 2022
My Review - La Fortuna Streaming on SBS on Demand My Rating 7.5 /10

I really enjoyed La Fortuna a Spanish/American 6 part series written and Directed by Alejandro Amenábar who also has directed or written movies like Vanilla Sky the Sea Inside and The Others which I also enjoyed .

Produced by Movistar+ in Europe, La Fortuna is a contemporary adventure Pirate and treasure hunt tale with film locations in Spain in near Madrid and Atlanta in the U. S. A.

One of the only 2 actors who were familiar to me in this series was Stanley Tucci who always delivers and is terrific in the role of Frank Wild an underwater salvage millionaire who discovers the long lost wreck of a Spanish Ship La Fortuna off the coast of Spain near Gibraltar that was sunk by The British in 1805 .

Frank Wild and his team plunder the treasure and disturb the remains of the La Fortuna wreck to recover it's valuable bounty of thousands of Spanish gold coins and artefacts .

They of course claim ownership for Frank Wild's company Atlantis and return with the treasure to the United States.

The only other actor familiar to me in La Fortuna was Clarke Peters who plays Jonas Pierce an attorney who takes on the task on behalf of the Spanish Government Department of Culture to reclaim the treasure and return it to the country that La Fortuna was returning to before it was sunk losing its 200 passengers and crew as well as its cargo .

The rest of the cast are predominantly Spanish and all give terrific performances including two very charismatic young Spanish actors Álvaro Mel who plays Alex Ventura and Ana Polvorosa who stars as Alex Ventura's colleague and eventual romantic interest and fellow adventurer Lucia Vallarta.

Álvaro Mel I've since found out is a 26 year old Spanish Instagram Star, YouTube Star, Social Media Star, Fashion Influencer, Model & Television Actor and a very impressive actor that I'll watch out for in future movies.

Ana Polvorosa, is a Spanish film, theatre and television actress and she also impressed me greatly in her role as Lucia Vallarta a Public Servant assigned to assist Alex Ventura navigate the American Legal system in obtaining the treasure out of the hands of Frank Wilde and back to Spain.

Together both Alex and Lucia gradually become the prominent characters in the show because of their vitally important career assignment to travel together to the USA and assist in the retrieval of the treasure from La Fortuna and of course they form a deep emotional attachment for each other in spite of their many differences.

Alex is a young and inexperienced diplomat, who inadvertently becomes the leader of the mission to recover the undersea treasure stolen by adventurer Frank Wild.

Lucia is his more mature radical outspoken and attractive colleague who at first clashes with Alex's clean cut suit and tie conservative style.

All the ensemble cast are impressive in this series La Fortuna and I would have given it an 8 if the conclusion was better .

In my view it did get a little frantic and seemed to go unnecessarily off course in the last episode but all in all a great viewing experience.
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7/10
Todd show, a pity about some of the Yanks.
rodhagen10 December 2021
Been enjoying this series, now up to the last episode. Annoying watching the contrast between the formulaic US style and the rest at times, but the Spaniards make up for it generally. Great to see the relationship between the two primary Spanish characters evolve!
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9/10
Fun Bilingual Series
leftbanker-122 January 2022
"La Cultura es nuestro petróleo." Culture is our oil (meaning as a natural resource).

Written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar adapted from the graphic novel, El tesoro del Cisne Negro by Guillermo Corral and Paco Roca. This was my first graphic novel and I have to say that as a novel, it's stupid, but as the basis for a movie, it's brilliant. Amenábar must have thought he hit the lottery with this as it's like someone already story-boarded the entire series for him.

The negative reviews here seem to be from people taking offense that there are some jabs taken at the USA. I'm American, but I'm also very thick-skinned and not easily insulted. I always say the same thing, any America who thinks that they rest of the world has to think we are the greatest is being a child, and the rest of the world has to realize that as the leading power in the world, there have been much worse in history than the USA.

Back to La Fortuna. This is one of the best, if not THE best Spanish series that I have seen. It definitely has the best acting, and for good and bad acting, I always put the blame or the praise on the director. It is the director's project, so if someone gives a bad performance, that's on the director. Chapeau to Amenábar.
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10/10
This is based on a true story
typspan23 January 2022
For those who criticise this series should do some background research before making a knee jerk reaction search for Odyssey who plundered Spanish gold in silver coins in the same nautical area near Gibraltar and living in Andalucía I witnessed the true story unfold.
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4/10
Really wished it was better, but is quite mediocre
juancpq8 November 2021
Good acting by the three main English speaking cast, and Ana Polvorosa has her moments... But the plot is quite bad, full of clichés, cheaply nationalistic/nostalgic at times (and I'm from Spain) and, well, boring, predictable and flat, really. A waste of resources is what I think all the time while I watch.
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8/10
better than I expected
angekenos26 January 2022
This is my very first Spanish TV show and to be h0onest, I did not expect to enjoy it so much. The story line is brilliant and Stanley Tucci deserves an Academy or a Golden Globe.
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5/10
waste of time
amokryyy14 November 2021
I have been very excited, when I have heard that Alejandro Amenábar had been working on a series. But this is an amateur hour. The main american cast is great, but they can't make the screenplay better. Holes in the plot, disappearing and reappearing of the main protagonist, dialogues from a high school play and so on. My advice: avoid this one, and watch Alejandro Amenábar movies.
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8/10
Beautiful, exciting, and fun
jade_mansueto15 November 2022
We never read the graphic novel, so we came to this series with no preconceived notions. The story is compelling and the cast is superb: Stanley Tucci, Clarke Peters, Ana Polvorosa, Álvaro Mel, T'nia Miller quickly create full characters.

Art direction is superb. The locations for Jonás Pierce's home, along with locations in Madrid, those government buildings!, gave the series a real grounding. I believe it was all shot in Spain.

I've read the other reviews and horrified at the American xenophobia and racism. Talk about overloading context! Ignore these fools - watch for yourself. It's a good tale, love the multicultural cast and storyline.
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10/10
A masterpiece: He did it again!
pocofree4 March 2022
I think Maestro Amenabar has done it again, creating a story that is thrilling, keeps you on the edge and in the meantime you are having the best of times. He continues with his style of strong principal characters supported by believable secondary actors, the cast is impressive: from my all time favorite Stanley Tucci to a well recognized veteran as Karra Elejalde. Álvaro Mel & Ana Polvorosa make a wonderful & unusual duo, both very different and similar is some way. Not to mention making Spain look like US & the sequences you see on the trailer from 19th century. Can´t recommend it more if you wan to go back to have fun with cinema.
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4/10
Childish
haawier17 January 2022
Aside from the leading actor's terrible acting skills. I cringed at the constant politicization throughout the story. The core storyline was good but it is just too bad Amenabar has tried to fit in too many side notes.
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10/10
amazing acting!
tohmsono1 October 2022
More and more i try and watch short-ish TV series with newer or less known actors, from across the globe, and this one blew me away from the get-go! What amazed me the most is how well the actors performed, all of them! Everything seemed so pure and unforced. I gotta give it to the spaniards, they really deliver! Also, such an amazing job at telling the story, and twisting its ends continuously...loved it! Keep on keeping on...we want more. More and more i try and watch short-ish TV series with newer or less known actors, from across the globe, and this one blew me away from the get-go! What amazed me the most is how well the actors performed, all of them! Everything seemed so pure and unforced. I gotta give it to the spaniards, they really deliver! Also, such an amazing job at telling the story, and twisting its ends continuously...loved it! Keep on keeping on...we want more...
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1/10
Pathetic in every sense of the word
spam-73025 October 2021
No idea how Stanley Tucci ended up in this soapy spanish ego puff-piece, but I truly feel sorry for him.

The characters are as flat as the medieval earth and the production looks about as cheap as a 1980s mexican telenovela.

Tucci is surrounded by also-rans who I didn't know before, and wish I hadn't, after.

That said, there's a generous portion of national glory, honor, pride, and the story seems to take itself too seriously at pretty much every turn.

If that's what you're into, perhaps you'll have a great time. Otherwise watching this is a complete waste of electricity.
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10/10
Binge watching for the first time in years
goflog25 December 2021
I loved it and found it refreshing to watch a multilingual movie. Why there are so many people "rubbishing" it - I do not understand.. I twas not sunk in the Strait of Gibraltar but in the Atlantic.

Good movie- good actors - good and real set up --I did not claim to be HISTORY LESSON Having worked in Spain and been in Gibraltar it brought back some memories - how i miss a RIOJA.
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10/10
Fantastic show worth binging!
Petitcomite20 December 2021
If you like stories about lost treasures and sunken ships, you'll love this.

Inspired in real events and directed by Oscar winner Alejandro Amenabar, this is an ambitious and charming show with stellar performances by S Tucci and Morgan Freeman.

A breath of fresh air.

Absolutely loved it!
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5/10
Unnerving
aava-6434224 January 2022
After pillaging the Americas for centuries,Spain claims ownership of a treasure lost at sea, meanwhile the Americans who found it are depicted as greedy pirates.
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1/10
one of the worst series this year
Ignacio-alvarez31 October 2021
Cannot understand how Amenabar has been able to produce such a horrible story, no interest at all, no credibility, bad story telling. Awful Director. Recommendation: do not see.
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3/10
Warped morality Anti-American propaganda
DiscoStu48215 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
La Fortuna is about the battle over a sunken treasure. The antagonist is an evil American businessman who builds a company that searches for underwater treasure on expeditions that he personally leads and, when he is successful, has the gall to try to keep what he risked everything and spent millions to find! The protagonists are Spanish bureaucrats who spend all day lecturing people about their ideals until they find out about the find and embark on a quest to use legal technicalities to appropriate the treasure they didn't find or even look for from the man who committed everything to finding it. It's a socialist morality play in which the State destroys the capitalist, so if that's your thing, you'll like La Fortuna.

Almost as warped as the morality is the romance between the bureaucrats. For some reason, the 25 year old clean-cut, handsome male lead is hopelessly infatuated with his 40-year old chain-smoking, uncouth colleague, who spends most of the series insulting him for being boring and insufficiently progressive and ranting about how much she hates America, unceremoniously dumps him and then has a change of heart and pursues him until he inexplicably welcomes this foul-mouthed, aging harpy back into his life.

The plot itself, which should be interesting since it involves a multi-national lost treasure, is mostly a boring procedural about (likely inaccurate) maritime law. Most of the movie takes place not on the ocean or underwater, but in airports, courtrooms and motels.
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1/10
Shame on you Tucci!
whiskeyjack-1722317 February 2022
What starts out as a great series, fun & exciting, ends up being about America bashing. Didn't even finish, stopped after ep 4. Also if I want to read so much I'll get out a book! Or watch a foreign show.
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3/10
Good production, ethically problematic
claus-8109321 January 2022
Premise: underdog colonialists argue with evil imperialists over a gold and silver coin treasure originally plundered in South America by the Spanish.
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1/10
bad director
artera-273982 October 2021
Another bad realization of Spanish cinema, as it is possible that an impressive story can be developed so badly, full of cliches, the truth is that it was foreseeable from its director, lately he only makes bad movies, and this is a clear example, a good story , bad director.
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3/10
You Decide What's Fair
westsideschl14 August 2022
1. Most nationalistic themed movies need a baddie. In this case it's the U. S. while the good guy is Spain; where the script originated.

2. Maritime salvage & "finders" laws vary by country & time period. So let's make it simple.

3. Spain was taking money, perhaps gotten unethically or not legally, from the U. S. to Spain 100s of years ago when the ship sank perhaps by conflict. Spain has made no active effort to retrieve the lost treasure so may have given up the possible right of ownership.

4. Ship, forgotten & abandoned, is discovered by a person, portrayed as a greedy American, who risks his life; his time; his money to search & find the lost-at-sea treasure. By salvage law he is entitled to compensation relative to value. By finders law he is rightfully the new owner.

5. Your decision?
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1/10
This Show is a JOKE!!!
mark-k-jacobs28 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I am not saying the acting is bad, some of these actors are real experienced people and it shows.

The tension between the main characters was explained WAY TOO LATE and their actions toward each other seemed way to amped up.

Alex look like a 14 year old who somehow "saved the world". OK, not saved the world, but somehow bested a whole country and a huge mega corp that does underwater treasure hunting.

Also the conceptual idea that Treasure Hunters can find treasure left on the ocean floor for centuries only to then have countries try to lay claim to it that had put no effort into finding it just seems very wrong (morally).

I get that this show was meant to show case young adults, Alex on one side, the daughter on the other, but the daughter got the short end of that since all she got was "shut up daughter" pretty much all the time. :D.
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