I liked this film when I first watched it, only now I found out it's just a copy (almost line to line) from his Italian counterpart.
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ma-cortes18 January 2018On a warm summer evening and about an eclipse , a loving couple, a plastic surgeon (Eduard Fernández) and Eva (Belen Rueda) , a therapist is expecting his long-lasting friends to share a pleasant evening over dinner at their luxurious apartment . They have a 16-year-old daughter Sofía (Beatriz Olivares ) whose relationship with Eva is under strain . Everything is in order: the first course is ready, the roast is in the oven and the table is set. Without a doubt, this is going to be a gathering of true friends and the waiting comes to an end when the first couple arrives. The bell rings and it is Antonio (Ernesto Alterio in real life married to Juana Acosta) , Ana (Juana Acosta) , the newly-wed Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega) and Blanca (Dafne Fernández ) . And followed subsequently the only one missing who is Pepe (Pepón Nieto ) , their friend who is still single . Pepe doesn't bring his new girlfriend with him, which is to the discontent of the rest, since none of them have been met her yet, and there is always a reason behind. Before long, the group is complete and without any delay, they begin the feast. Surely, this is a nice but somewhat usual dinner, when suddenly someone makes a proposition : to place their mobile phones on the table and like a Russian roulette, whatever arrives (texts, WhatsApp messages, calls) they would share it with the others. Clearly, this uncommon truth or dare game has no point among friends who share everything with each other, nevertheless, when the phones start ringing, who will be the one with the sweatiest palms?
The story takes place in Madrid , present day , altogether restricted in one night , among seven tight-knitted friends, three couples and a recent divorcé , Pepe , during a dinner party hosted by Alfonso , magnificently played by Eduard Fernández , as a cosmetic surgeon , and his beloved wife , splendidly performed by Belén Rueda , and dealing with a twisted game , as whoever receives a phone-call, a message whether it is a text message will have to read or hear it . De la Iglesia's bewildering comedy ¨Perfectos desconocidos¨ blends intriguing elements with humor , tongue-in-cheek and thrills ; so, the tone of the film is light-hearted as well as stirring . The film starts at a slow pace, and it took a while to catch me , when it did it was fantastic . Very amusing and twisted film concerning about seven long-time friends get together for a dinner , then they decide to share with each other the content of every text message, email and phone call they receive, as many secrets start to unveil , the equilibrium trembles and things go wrong .The brilliant beginning idea is developed in a marvelous crescendo that turns into rapidly the situation from a nice dinner with old friends into a bloody battleground that reveals the surprising secrets . As well as the darkest secrets are disclosed to all of them and then awry consequences take place , some are cunningly revealed only to the eyes of spectators . A wonderful and talented plethora of actors, the mainstays of current Spanish cinema, implements a totally suspenseful melodrama interspersed with twists , turns , top-shelf comedic flair and naturalistic theatrics . It also contains a final twist in the screenplay that I will not reveal . It's well acted and smartly written.The movie is both funny and dramatic and so is the bitter-sweet ending .
It packs an adequate and moving musical score by Víctor Reyes . And a colorful and appropriate cinematography by Ángel Amorós . The motion picture was masterfully written (along with his usual screenwriter Jorge Guerricaechevarría) and directed by De La Iglesia , well known as the Spanish king of black comedy . He's a cool director has got much success as ¨Accion Mutante¨ ,¨Dying of laughter¨ or ¨Muertos De Risa¨ , ¨Baby's room¨ , ¨Oxford murders¨ , ¨Balada Triste De Una Trompeta¨ and ¨Perdita Durango¨ is probably the weirdest Javier Bardem film ever made . And , of course , ¨Day of the beast¨ and ¨La Comunidad¨ obtained the unanimous praise of both the critics and the public and result to be a lot of fun¨, especially for those who enjoy surrealist humor , they won several Goya prizes and and resulted to be a turning point in his meteoric career ; from then on he became his own producer, beginning with '800 bullets' (2002) through the Pánico Films company . Winner of several Goyas (Spanish Oscars), however his movies have not yet reached box office in USA, but he has strong followers , as his films have a kind of comic edge to them . Nonsense, ridicule , laughters , absurdity , disturbing scenes and many other issues ; you can find everything in this flick . ¨Perfectos desconocidos¨ captures the essence of the best Alex De La Iglesia, a filmmaker who, at this point in his own story, is respected and admired worldwide and has the most committed fans in the film universe . This is without a doubt an enjoyable movie to be enjoyed for comedy buffs and Alex De Iglesia fans . -
atrzadeha21 November 2018It was an entertaining movie but the plot was predictable to some extent. And the ending was kind of disappointing.
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henaog20003 January 2019I didn't see the original but this movie is intense and twisted. Very good movie until just some minutes before final, but it wasn't easy give an exit for this mess.
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muchiemix23 April 2018The plot is simple, but funny. The movie shows how complicated our ordinary lives can be and how technology has taken center-stage of our day-to-day lives as well as become tools for deceit and betrayal.
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deloudelouvain9 May 2018Perfectos desconocidos might not be known everywhere but in it's country of origin, Spain, it had a huge succes. And I can see why. The story is entertaining to watch with some good funny moments. It's a remake of an Italian movie, Perfetti Sconosciuti, that also did very well in their country. I didn't watch that one, because I live in Spain and I thought it would be good to improve my Spanish language so I chose the Spanish version. The cast is well chosen, with some well known actors from Spain like Eduard Fernández and Belén Rueda. The story is quite simple, all guests lay their mobile phones on the table during a meal and everyone can see or hear the incoming messages or calls. What follows is of course calls or messages that need explanations to their partners, as some guests have different secrets. Certainly worth a watch.
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abisio9 April 2018"Perfectos Desconocidos" is a Spanish remake of the Italian movie "Perfetti sconosciuti"; both have been very successful in its own country; but as I am from Spanish origin; I prefer the Spanish one. Seven friends everyone with his own crisis reunites for a dinner in a house. Somebody proposes a game; left all cell phone on the tables so everybody can see secrets of the others. Things get unexpectedly complicated as a secret of each person is being revealed. There are outstanding comedy moments and suspenseful as well. One particular conversation between a father and her daughter carriers more tenderness than any flick released in 2017. This kind of movie can only works with outstanding actors; and all of them are. It will be unfair to point on one in specific since this is coral movie; however Eduard Fernandez and Ernesto Alterio are both commanding. In brief; it is perhaps the best 2017 comedy; with the Italian original being the best of 2016.
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benjamincepeda8 November 2020This film is enjoyable. The story is good, but the end... Meh. I didn't like it. But is a enjoyable film, like i said. I think one of the best spanish's movies. If you want to watch a good movie just for enjoy this is your movie, it's not bad. 7.3/10
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RosanaBotafogo16 April 2023Seven lifelong friends meet for dinner, with the rule that all messages and phone calls they receive will be public to the rest of the table, revealing secrets that mess up their lives.
I was unaware of the fact that there are more than six films of different nationalities based on the original from 2016, I had already watched the 2018 French-Belgian version, which, opportunely, was very fun and charming, so much so that it started monotonous and boring, it gradually gained good contours in the As the secrets revealed, commas and so many secrets, a risky joke, a banal, even silly outcome, the message that remains is that the best secret is to keep them secret, well hidden... -
kamalbeeee22 April 2020The film depicts about effect of the mobile and it won...castings are awesome...
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vianey_rj26 December 2018The mexican movie Perfectos desconocidos is in theatres now, this movie is Spain. Check this please.
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lookattheowls22 February 2019Cheap, ugly, an overall disgusting remake. Do yourself a favor and stick to the italian original.
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housearrestedever26 December 2022Once this movie started, we could immediately realize that the female cast of the woman who took off her underwear was not as good and attractive than who was playing the same role in the Italian version. She's somewhat not eye-appealing either. The other female actresses and the male ones were okay and similar to those who played the same roles in the Italian version. But this Spanish version got a better cellphones arrangements, they were evenly placed on the ROUND dinner table and even had a scene of those phones were placed around a big dish, unlike the Italian poor arrangement, everybody still held onto their own phones around a counter-height rectangular dining table, causing resistance and unwillingness to expose their incoming messages.
One thing that I do not quite understand is why you have to follow the exact storyline instead of adding some plots and scenarios closer to your own country's culture and customs? Why you have to faithfully the original one? This is why after watched the Italian version, I almost lost interest in watching the almost the same or even exactly the same version from Spain.
But the major letdown is the not quite smart choice of the female cast as I just mentioned above. -
flores-8134128 August 2020I didn't have an idea that this movie was a remake of other movie, only i have a problem with the end. Many things of the movie in my opinion was unnecessaries like the part of the group photo. My favorite part was the conversation between the husband of the theraphist and his daughter.
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educallejero11 August 2018This is a text book black comedy, with excellent writing and acting. The movie creates believable tension withing a realistic group of friends. It plants the seeds for an amazing finalle, and then the decision they took was the worst possible. It makes the movie reatroactively bad and its a shame. The movie is great, but the ending a disaster. I decided to give it a five then.
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It loses the magic of the italian original, for me, it's only worth a watch if you haven't seen the 2016 Perfetti Sconosciuti.
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As my headline stated, the original Italian version is far far better than this Spanish one. Somehow, the chemistry between the Spanish actors in this movie is just not there for me.
Go watch the original Italian version, if you haven't done that. -
verohmarin31 December 2018Obvs one of them is supposed to be younger (as she is the outsider of a group of friends from school) but the age difference is strong with this one. Also, the only thing that can come out of a game like that is infidelity and I'm pretty sure that they could've at least cover different ways of it. Of course this is a remake and you can't properly judge it but the eclipse part is ridiculous! Lastly, everything stays the same, what's the point of making a movie like this if everyone is gonna continue to do the same stuff? Where's the development?
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Kitahito25 November 2023I'm not sure what's more painful: the fact that the rapidity of the characters' Spanish speech makes it feel like you're watching the film at 1.25x speed making you miss a lot of important details and nuances, the fact that they were able to reduce the story's most dramatically powerful moment to a half-sentence dropped casually, or the fact that the whole plot was deflated and marginalized with this nonsensical, forced CGI blood moon mystical element.
I've seen very few films this unnecessary lately. Do yourself a favour and watch the Italian version instead, and leave this one alone. When an adaptation takes when it wants to give, you know you've wasted another hour and a half of your life. -
bololoiionut3 January 2019Perfetti sconosciuti - original movie after 2 spanish versions are done...as far as I know...this is like a bad joke compared to the original one! Firstly, how is this even out and didn't get sued? Secondly, are the people in this movie suppose to be the same age, I mean really? All in all I think this has to be a worse remake than the american version of "Oldboy"...simply a disgrace to film making everywhere!
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Ok, it was all a dream/vision! How many stories have you seen/heard that ended like this? After all the time, all the emotions caused, all pieces of the story unfolded, you find out that nothing of that happened, at least yet.
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gonzalogil-2222924 April 2022And this is why I don't want to watch spanish movies anymore. I see it has received 15 awards and 2 prizes... What a shame!!! The acting is really poor; the script and dialogues are stupid. Not worth at all.
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leedsedu14 December 2021All wonderful until the end, and the whole thing has been a game - Then the entire film makes NO SENSE whatsoever. This is a bad a film in the end as 'Fight Club' - ..."and then I woke up". Truly beyond making any sense at all. The writers/directors should have kept the night going, but to turn it all into acting just makes the film make no sense as well as being totally impossible. Works wonderfully well until the last 10 minutes, when you realise you should have made that coffee-and-biscuits half way through and not returned.
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The entire film is a copy of the original film except for the ending.
Acting, desperate, same words as in the original film.
I have nothing nice to say about this movie, except boring, boring. Where did this movie get its high rating from? And numerous awards, I don't want to watch this garbage ever again.
The complete original until the very end and then the last 10 minutes is the stupidest thing I've seen in the history of a movie. The twist is terrible as is the whole movie.
Maybe this movie would make some sense if it wasn't a copy of the original, maybe this movie could be watched without first watching the original, it's all just maybe. After the original version, you have to skip this, you get the same thing, with a lot of bad acting and stupid and not with an understandable ending.absolutely desperate movie 1/10.