alevinadresi

I watched this movie in my senior year back in college. It was actually assigned to me as a translation project. Back then, I was like Lucy in the movie, hadn't had a sip of drink, let alone drugs. So when I watched it to translate, I was like "what's this?". Nothing seemed to add up or make any sense to my sober mind. But the technician next to me who was helping me with the subtitles were cracking so much that at one point she fell from the chair while laughing:)) She helped me understand the movie back then. I hated the movie for years thinking how crazy it was but there were days when all of a sudden I would remember the carpet scene and would crack also. I think this was by far the most unforgettable movie for me, and believe me I forget almost everything. And years later I watched it again, and man, I think I have fallen into love with a movie. Acting is amazing, the scenes are so funny with meticulous attention to every detail. I think for an average individual this movie has three states: you hate it, you find it funny, and then you relate to the character's longing for the past, their soul pain, and you get sad for them. I laughed all along the movie, but some scenes really made me feel for these guys. These guys wanted so badly to go back the good old days but you can't rewind time like you rewind a cassette. Past is past. Drugs are there to take the pain off, but even under their effect, they still face their rotten souls and they hate themselves like in the scene with the waitress. I mean how can you hate the movie if you look at it from this perspective? As a final funny trivia, did you notice that Benicio turned into a werewolf in this movie and actually played the Wolfman later in his career? And there was a Che photo in one of the hotel rooms, and he later played Che? I found it really funny too. He had said that after this movie he couldn't find a job for two years, and these two things seemed like a bizarre coincidence:))

The other reviewers already provided extensive descriptions about the movie's plot and characters. So I will just skip it. This is a slow-paced movie but it flows in its own pace and takes you with it. There are some parts that you can relate to yourself, even though you are not a traumatized veteran, that makes you go "ahhh I know the feeling" or "It happens to me, too". I loved the way the dreams were shown to the audience. That made the movie more interesting and fun to watch for me. Benicio Del Toro was great as always. He adjusted himself to the slow-pace of the movie so well that it feels so natural. And thank God that I finally could see him at least kiss a lady in a movie. Hallelujah! Although at times, I must admit it was hard to believe that he was Native Indian, especially in the scenes when he is surrounded by real Native Indians, he still pulls it so well and gives a terrific performance, so much that you feel for him, and believe that he is in fact a person with a soul pain. I also loved how well Mathieu Amalric played the eccentric anthropologist although his character's eccentricity was a bit of cliché. He still managed to make me believe in his role. All in all, if you are not into fast-paced action movies or movies with a surprise unexpected turn of events, but more inclined to watch real world movies with a human touch, than you should give this one a chance.

I truly loved this movie from beginning to the end. This brings a whole new perspective to a war movie. Although the circumstances the characters are in are painful when you think about it, the movie still manages to fill your heart with hope and warmth because it shows you no matter how hard the situation may get, people always adjust and find a way to cope with it with their inherent survival instinct. The movie shows that even in the amid of war, tears, losses, people still can find joy of life even with a small ball or a simple rope, or simply guessing which way to go if you come across a dead cow in the middle of the road. The acting was balanced and not overdone. Usually, in movies with Benicio Del Torro, it is hard to outshine him, but Tim Robbins also gives an equally great performance. It is always hard to finish a war movie with a smile on your face. Yet, this movie makes you think, makes you question, and makes you smile. Kudos to Fernando León de Aranoa. Good job.

I watched the movie after reading many bad comments about it and after having already watched some really good cartel movies. I don't think Oliver Stone wanted to give us a gruesome cartel thriller. Yes, there were some bloody or merciless scenes but they only formed a small portion of the movie and did not distort the general entertaining mood of the movie, which I believe was Oliver Stone's real intention. He threaded it a bit lightly and kept the movie quite entertaining. This is what I would call a laid-back cartel movie that offers you a bit of everything: Love, sex, violence, excitement, revenge. People criticized the young actors too harshly here but that might be caused by their being overshadowed by veteran actors. Come on, how can you keep up with Benicio:) One thing I agree with other reviewers was that there was not any chemistry Ben, Chon and O (Blake) that makes you believe they are actually in love, but didn't it eventually turn out that their love was not real anyway? Oliver made you feel that there was something missing in their relationship from the beginning. Still, when you are finished with the movie, you end up feeling something was missing and that you are not fully satisfied. Yet, what made this movie so special to me was the mind-blowing performance of Benicio Del Toro as Lado. Oh my. He was phenomenal. He looks such a good mannered cool guy in real life that it is so hard to believe he can play such a psycho but he really plays it so well, makes you believe that he is that bad, and makes you love him anyway. It has been a couple of days since I watched the movie, and his scenes keep playing in my mind on a loop. I think this was one of his best performances, and I can watch this movie all over again simply to watch him. But would I rate this movie 8 out 10 without him? Probably not. I would probably give a 5 star if Benicio was not in it. So Kudos to Oliver Stone for giving us one of the most phenomenal bad guys on the silver screen. On a final note, I really loved the colors in this movie. As a foreigner, it made me jump on the first plane to see California. All in all, it is an entertaining movie with some great performances.