littlelovephobia

OK, here we have it, "9" one of my most anticipated movies of 2009. And unfortunately, one of the most disappointing movies of the year, at least for me. While "9" is by no means a completely bad movie, it has too many flaws, so let's cut the cake.

Nine starts in this post-apocalyptic world a la Terminator where the machines have taken over the world and a scientist have created rag dolls which destiny seems to save humanity. An our little friend, the rag doll number nine has awaken in this empty room, trying to figure out what's happening, encountering another rag doll like him, named number two.

While the beginning and the concept of this movie seems pretty interesting, like mixing Toy Story with Terminator Salvation, Shane Acker after a good beginning rush things up. The pacing of the movie is ugly, never allowing the characters to develop. At the very beginning you see a Nine that has a lot of fear, then on the very next scene he's now the fearless rag doll among his peers. And we have tons of this, characters having a complete different personality or doing things that betray their motives. A completely lack of direction, if only Shane Acker has taken more time for his characters to develop, the film will be a whole lot better.

But it's not only the characters but the story too the one that seems rushed, story goes from point A to point B very randomly. Once your at point A and when point A feels like it will come to its climax which never truly reaches you get to point B and a different sequence has begun. This perhaps be more an editing problem, but the real problem I have with the movie was the screenplay. I mean, you have a win win situation where you can create both an action epic animated movie and a classic sci-fi fairy tale but you never get any of it. Instead, you get a very cliché storyline, unsatisfying conclusions and a feel that something's missing, there's no deep, no emotion.

But OK, let's focus on the good things that "9" has. The animation is top notch, not as intense as the Oscar nominated short which was the basis for the film, but it really created a Gothic atmosphere and the rag dolls look truly amazing. Number 5, number 6 and number 2 rag dolls have some good moments and are the best characters. The Harry Potter (fans from Harry will know what I'm talking about) style conclusion was pretty good too.

Basically, "Nine" is the short film in a new 79 minute version. Though not recommended for the kids to some parents I think kids who like some action, good animation and sci-fi will enjoy the movie and feel attracted to it.

Recommended for those who enjoyed Bruce Willi's "Surrogates", "Titan A.E." and those othe good and entertaining sci-fi movies.

Yes, it had such potential, such promise, but then, "Nine" you lacked cohesion.

I came to this movie expecting to be great just because Russell Crowe was in it. The thing here is Mr. Crowe doesn't have the principal role, but that certainly isn't bad news. The main actors, Jon Foster and Mrs. Sophie Traub did an excellent job here. If not for them this movie would have sink in the waters of oblivion.

The story had to be slow paced, it's a history about a boy named Eric who was condemned to prison, judged as a kid for killing his fathers. Now that he is 18 years old he has been released. But a cop thinks he will murder again, so he follows him, waiting for him to make a mistake. And while the boy goes in the search of a beautiful girl he saw once, a depressive girl named Lori appears in his car and joins him in his trip.

And here we go, the basic premise of the movie, we don't know for sure if Eric will kill again, we don't know why Lori is so obsessed with him and we also don't know why the cop wants him to be in prison. The good thing about this film is that it will answer all your questions and you will be rewarded at the end, but the very slow nature of the history make it difficult to watch, but helps you to take time to understand the motives of everyone involved.

Tenderness its a really simple movie about very complex characters. Everyone has their motives, their back story and while the ride is not as fun or well done as it could, it closes pretty well. It's like a simplified version of the style of "The Talented Mr Ripley" or Woody Allen's "Cassandra's Dream" Recommended for those of you who enjoyed slow suspense, character driven thrillers.

"Me importas tú... y tú" is very loosely based on the Fritz Glockner's book "The Ship of Illusion".

Here we have Genaro (Ulises de la Torre), a shy student who has a crush with Adriana (Altair JArabo), a girl who loves the golden age of Mexican cinema and is doing her thesis about the work of Germán Valdés Tin Tan, one of the greatest comedy actors of that era. Genaro, who believes in secret he is Tin Tan's son because her mother worked with him in some movies, finds the perfect opportunity to conquer Adriana's love when she asks him for help on the subject. Even more, Genaro is haunted by Tin Tan's ghost (Marcos Valdes), who always appears either to give him advice or to mock him about his lack of success with women.

What happens next is that things get complicated when Genaro's brother (Rafael Amaya) and Adriana's ex-boyfriend (Alejandro Nones) enter the scene. The brother is the complete opposite of Genaro, confident, tough, attractive to women and always is getting in all kinds of trouble. While the ex is just hoping to talk with Adriana, but she always refuses.

That's the basic premise of the movie, which unfortunately didn't work out as it should. The direction was pretty average, Marcos Valdes role was given very little time on screen and his appearances seemed pointless most of the time, not to mention they were so random And the main actors made very ugly over the top performances and not in a good way. Ulises De la Torre seemed like he was trying too hard and unfortunately his comedy skills are not as good as the ones of his brother Arath. Rafael Amaya was way better here than in "24 cuadros de terror", at least he is trying to act now, but still gave a pretty bad performance. Alejandro Nones was a little bit better than this other two. And sometimes the acting gets so awkward that you can not help but feel the same way, kind of embarrassing really.

Honestly I can not tell if Altair JArabo made a good job or not, she is such a beautiful woman that it was very distracting, but that charm was one of the strong points of the movie, as long as some of the members of the supporting cast (MAria Rojo,Joaquín Cosio,Ana Layevska, luis Felipe Tovar, Gustavo Sánchez Parra) which didn't were great as usual but made a pretty decent job. And the movie do has some very fun moments. Even a pretty bad fight scene, but this one is so bad that it is funny in the end and some of the night club scenes worked out pretty well. Even at some points of the film Ulises de la Torre understands what he should do to get a good laugh, he can do a good job when he focuses, but he needs to focus more. And in the last minutes the movie starts to get better and interesting that you forget a little bit about the bad performances that were on it.

Adolfo Martínez Solares hasn't show yet the talent that his father had in abounds. At some point of the movie Altair's character says that Gilberto Martínez Solares was the greatest director of the golden age. Not so far from truth, he was one of the greatest directors of that era, Solares and Tin Tan made an awesome team. Even the bad comedy films that they made are way better than this film. But I'm pretty sure Adolfo can do better, at least this was interesting and fun at some points.

With better acting, a better direction and perhaps a little more tribute to the source material (book and Tin Tan's life) this could have been a pretty good comedy.

With a very slight resemblance to "What Happens in Vegas", "Recién Cazado" is a romantic comedy that tells us the story of a man who gets married after a crazy night of booze but doesn't remember anything about it. Unlike the Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kusher movie, here the woman's character played by Gabriela Vergara knows that she got married the night before, but her new husband played by Jaime Camil don't.

Here we have Sebastian a soon to be successful enologist who likes to have sex with lots of women and is very good at it. He also gets drunk and goes to party everyday. But one day, he wakes up and realizes he married a beautiful woman the night before. He freaks out and asks her to annul marriage but she refuses to do so until she is sure she didn't get pregnant. Which means Sebastian will have to share his house with this strange woman for three weeks at least, giving them time to know each other.

While Jaime Camil finds here the perfect excuse to develop his comic style, there is no chemistry between Vergara and him and that is a serious handicap when you are talking about the two main characters. Still, Camil's performance carries the whole movie along those of Angelica Aragón and the at some times hilarious but wasted Dino García as Camil's best friend.

I wish Dino García could had more time on screen, his character had a lot of potential giving the comedic nature of him and Camil. Truth to be told, the movie could be a lot better with some changes to the script and a better performance by Vergara.

In the end, a movie slightly better than "What Happens in Vegas" and recommended for fans of Camil's work in "La fea más bella" and "Siete Días".

"Solo quiero caminar" is the sequel to the critically acclaimed and multi-Goya winner (spanish academy awards) "Nobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead" (Nadie hablará con nosotras cuando hayamos muerto).

Gloria Duque (Victoria Abril), the star of the first movie commands a four-women gang who commit robbery, but something goes wrong and one of them called Aurora (Ariadna gil)ends in prison.

Félix (José María Yaspik) is a Mexican gangster who wants to do some business in Spain. Gabriel (Diego Luna) is his hit-man, a cold-hearted guy who is very good at shooting people with a gun, but he has one classic rule, no women and no children.

While doing business in Spain, Felix meets Ana, a prostitute from the four-women gang and ask her to marry him. Felix beats Ana and then Ana wants her friends to help her get revenge.

That's the basic premise from "Solo quiero caminar". Make no mistake, the main characters here are the ones played by Diego Luna and Ariadna Gil's as Aurora, Ana's sister. Victoria Abril is no longer the main character but it's still relevant The film has outstanding performances from Luna and Yaspik. Pilar López de Ayala is very good and the other actors are good as well. In general, a very good cast, even the singer Manuel Mijares appears singing his classic song "Soldado del amor".

You can expect some very violent scenes. Some of us may compare it to the gangster films of Tarantino or Guy Ritchie but as Agustín Díaz Yanes first effort, it lacks the type of humour or irony those other directors have, Yañez is a little bit more serious about it and while there is some little comic relief, you won't find that much. In fact, the film is very violent at some points and with very little dialog at others.

It does has some nods to the first film, but is not necessary to watch it to understand what happens here. This is a whole different story with the same style as the first film, but yet different. The kind of nods you will appreciate if you saw the first movie, specially the return of Ana Ofelia Murguía as Doña Amelia, but nothing more.

While not as good or interesting as the first one, it does have a better direction, and amazing use of the camera, and a whole technical improvement over "Nobody".