rolherr Reviews

Torrente 3: El protector (2005)

Awful!!!

[1/10 · 4 October 2005]

I just arrived from the movie theater and I can't be more disappointed. Being a big Santiago Segura fan, I was expecting to spend two hours with non-stop laughs. However, I kept waiting for the "fun" parts... and they never arrived.

Torrente 3 has been a big blast during the opening weekend, when nobody knew how third movie looked like. However, I would be surprised if it is half successful as Torrente 2.

Maybe it is because he kept repeating the same jokes over and over again (the famous "pajillas" joke is mentioned at least three times). Maybe his character is so well known that it is difficult to surprise the audience. Maybe the plot lacks of originality. I can think of 15 funny moments in Torrente 2. Only one or two are really funny in Torrente 3. I would definitely skip this one and watch the first two Torrente's again.

Guerreros (2002)

War action... and feelings

[2 April 2002]

There has never been, or at least not in the recent years, a Spanish movie like this one. We are used to certain personal dramas (like Almodovar) or chilling thrillers (like Amenabar´s "Thesis" or "The Others"). In Guerreros, everything turns around the remains of Kosovo´s war and a group of Spanish soldiers that were sent there in a humanitary mission to take control of the situation. Calparsoro discovers us that, in the so-many-times-seen field of war, what it is really important is every man´s personal feelings.

Guerreros is not only a war film. It goes further more than shots, blood or explosions to show us deep inside every soldier´s problems and reactions. You won´t find special effects (like in "Black Hawk Down") but you´ll really suffer as the movie goes on. And you will see how each character evolutionates according to what he sees or feels.

I don´t want to spoil anything from the movie, so I won´t tell any more. If you like war movies, you shouldn´t miss this one. Probably, it will make you think and discover other points of view in a war.

Torrente 2: Misión en Marbella (2001)

Really great!

[9/10 · 7 April 2001]

Well, first of all, to those who have seen "Torrente: El brazo tonto de la ley", I found this second part much, much better. It has many more gags, jokes and funny situations and it isn´t boring at any time. Santiago Segura has created again a box-office movie which will make you laught for about two hours. Gabino Diego has an incredible performance as Cuco, and Torrente is as "special" as always. He is as politically incorrect as he was in the first film, but fantastic. Hurray for Torrente!

What Lies Beneath (2000)

Scary, but predictable

[6/10 · 25 November 2000]

First of all, if you have seen the trailer, you shouldn´t see the film, because you already know the whole plot. This movie amuses, sometimes is scary but it talks about a story we have heard hundreds of times. There are some frightening moments, but in general everything is predictable, specially the end. It has some nice special effects, but the most important thing in the movie, the plot, is quite simple without any twists or so.

The Watcher (I) (2000)

One of the most predictable films so far this year

[2/10 · 3 November 2000]

I didn´t like this movie at all. It talks about the same story policeman-killer, the same kind of chase and the same kind of murders we are used to see. I don´t care if the actors did it well or not. I was expecting a great plot, to sit tense in the movie theater, even to be surprised... nothing at all. The end is boring and it doesn´t show nothing that we haven´t seen yet. I just look for movies with unpredictable plot. This one doesn´t have any.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Where is the plot?

[1/10 · 2 July 2000]

I went to see this movie because I have heard that I was "the best horror movie ever made"; that, without a big budget with special effects, it really made you panic. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! I kept looking at my watch all the time. This movie doesn´t have any plot at all, the actors spend half of the time crying and the rest of it blaming each other for their terrible luck and yelling each other. The worst thing is that they are "playing" with a home-video camera, and they don´t really know how to use it (they keep pointing at the ground, then at the sky, then at the ground again...without even focusing), so after 15 minutes you feel kind of dizzy.

I don´t know how this movie made so much money: probably, because they made a great web page, and everybody said "Let´s go see it, they haven´t spent much money..."

If you don´t want to bore yourself, check for another movie.

The Matrix (1999)

Fantastic!!

[9/10 · 2 July 2000]

Great movie! I went to see it thinking that, like some recent movies, I would only see good special effects. I was wrong. Matrix has, more than nothing, an incredible sci-fi plot. It may seem kind of bizarre but, at the end, everything has sense. I am sure this film will set a "before and after" in sci-fi movies.

Thesis (1996)

THIS IS TALENT!

[10/10 · 2 July 2000]

Wow! Young Amenabar has shown us that you only need imagination and a great plot to make a wonderful film! Amenabar bet for new actors (such as Eduardo Noriega (Bosco)and Fele Martinez (Chema) and succeded. With a soundtrack that makes you scare and without showing a lot of blood, he has made a great job. He is also a big worker (he is the director, he wrote the music, the script...)

This film reminds me that some boring movies like "Blair Witch Project", without any plot and spending also few money, had, somehow, a great success.