Here's one that would compete for my Worst Of:
Our Lady Of The Assassins a film that has quite a few good
reviews, but I found to be mostly awful. A writer returns to his home of
Medellin, Columbia where he hasn't been in 30 years and finds basically hell
on Earth. He picks up a teenage boy in a club and they begin a
relationship. The film proceeds from there in ponderous fashion, they take
walks through the streets as the man reminisces about locations from his
childhood and the boy alternates between killing anyone who threatens the
writer even slightly, and avoiding drive-by shootings by gangs that are
after him. Then there are "quiet" moments in restarants, churches or at the
writer's apartment where we hear the writer give banal, nihilistic speeches
on the emptiness of life, the non-existence of God, blah blah.......and then
there's the bizarre supernatural elements, a boy who can predict death,
dream/hallucinatory scenes of ghostly bikers with uzi's blazing.
This thing was a chore to sit through, I couldn't believe some of the
reviews I read. Maybe it's different on film in a theater, but transferred
directly from digvideo kills whatever sort of realism this film was going
for in my mind. It has the look of porn/Mexican TV soap operas/Baise Moi,
ie. overly bright video. It feels exactly like a movie, not the documentary
effect described in some of the reviews (Ebert, Village Voice). While the
naive might be shocked at the cheapness of life presented here, it's hardly
revelatory, similar scenes could be found in dozens of locales around the
world. It might have been better if they'd just dispensed with the awful
script and shot a straight documentary.
The DVD from Paramount is nice video wise, but has burned in subs and not so
much as a trailer.
Our Lady Of The Assassins a film that has quite a few good
reviews, but I found to be mostly awful. A writer returns to his home of
Medellin, Columbia where he hasn't been in 30 years and finds basically hell
on Earth. He picks up a teenage boy in a club and they begin a
relationship. The film proceeds from there in ponderous fashion, they take
walks through the streets as the man reminisces about locations from his
childhood and the boy alternates between killing anyone who threatens the
writer even slightly, and avoiding drive-by shootings by gangs that are
after him. Then there are "quiet" moments in restarants, churches or at the
writer's apartment where we hear the writer give banal, nihilistic speeches
on the emptiness of life, the non-existence of God, blah blah.......and then
there's the bizarre supernatural elements, a boy who can predict death,
dream/hallucinatory scenes of ghostly bikers with uzi's blazing.
This thing was a chore to sit through, I couldn't believe some of the
reviews I read. Maybe it's different on film in a theater, but transferred
directly from digvideo kills whatever sort of realism this film was going
for in my mind. It has the look of porn/Mexican TV soap operas/Baise Moi,
ie. overly bright video. It feels exactly like a movie, not the documentary
effect described in some of the reviews (Ebert, Village Voice). While the
naive might be shocked at the cheapness of life presented here, it's hardly
revelatory, similar scenes could be found in dozens of locales around the
world. It might have been better if they'd just dispensed with the awful
script and shot a straight documentary.
The DVD from Paramount is nice video wise, but has burned in subs and not so
much as a trailer.
I must go out and buy the DVD so I can view the film again.
