800 Bullets

The 12 year-old Carlos fools his rich corporate mom (who thinks he's on a skiing trip) and goes lookin' for his grandfather, an alcoholic stuntman who worked with Sergio Leone and Eastwood in the 60's. The grandfather and other boozehounds do daily Western shows for German and Japanese tourists, every nite they're out whoring and partying and they take Carlos with'em. Carlos's mom (Almodovar's regular Carmen Maura) hates her dad and wants to close down the shows in the Western town, but then the 'cowboys' band together and defend their lives and town, this time with REAL bullets instead of blanks. "800 Bullets" is a wildly entertaining 'light' comedy loaded with Iglesia's brand of anarchic humor. Since this film isn't that violent (compared to his other films) and if the sex and nudity was removed, "800 Bullets" could pass a feel-good-comedy-for-the-family! Joe Dante meets Fellini? It's not his best and its way too long at 121 mins, the silly and serious antics are an uneven mix, but "800 Bullets" is a must for fans of Iglesia. Most outrageous scene: 12 year-old Carlos' cheerful sexual debut with a hooker and her bouncing boobies!?! Only in Spain! I miss Iglesia-regular Santiago "Torrente" Segura though, he'd have been perfect as a scummy drunken cowboy.

In Madrid, the boy Carlos (Luis Castro) never gets satisfactory answers about the life and death of his father and also about the work of his grandfather and former stuntman Julián (Sancho Gracia) from his executive mother Laura (Carmen Maura) and from his grandmother Rocío (Terele Pavez). While traveling on vacation to a ski station, Carlos escapes from the group of students and travels alone to Texas-Hollywood in Almeria, Spain, to know Julián, who works with his colleagues making shows in the decadent set of the old Western for small groups of tourists and telling his participations in movies like "Patton" and mostly as the stunt of Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's trilogy "Per un Pugno di Dollari", "Per Qualche Dollaro in Più" and "Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo". When the bitter Laura discovers that Carlos is visiting Julián, she decides to buy and destroy the studio using the place for a tourist resort. However, Julián buys eight hundred bullets to protect the village with his unemployed mates.

With "800 Balas", the cult director Álex de la Iglesia makes homage to those that made the desert film studios Texas-Hollywood in Almeria and to the end of the Spaghetti Western Era. The engaging dramatic comedy has great performances, well-developed characters and an unexpected tragic conclusion. I regret the absence of the cameo of the real Clint Eastwood, but Constantino Romero does a good job; and the corny change of decision of Laura in the end of the story, typically to give a commercial end to the great story. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "800 Balas" ("800 Bullets")

I found "800 balas" to be a very entertaining film, if a little juvenile. The story follows a young boy in search of his grandfather. Carlos' (the young boy) father was a stunt man who died in an accident before Carlos was old enough to remember him. He goes in search of his grandfather to discover the true story his mother refuses to tell him.

Carlos finds his grandfather working in a Wild West tourist town where spaghetti westerns were once filmed. The exploits Carlos and his grandfather get into are entertaining and full of action, although fairly predictable. Carlos' grandfather is played by Sancho Gracia who is probably the highlight of the film. He very convincingly plays a depressed alcoholic who dreams of the old days when he was a stunt double for Clint Eastwood and other Hollywood stars, while also harboring guilt over the death of his son (Carlos' father).

Overall the films is good, but not great. The action sequences are very well thought out and the director's somewhat wild sense of humor fits in well with the overall tone of the film. In particular the ending sequence skillfully plays on suspense, action and humor to bring the film to a satisfying and sentimental conclusion. The location of the film in central Spain is very beautiful and the film does a good job of using the landscape and incorporating it into the story. The film is worth watching if only for its pure entertainment factor and for Sancho Gracia's superb performance.

Alex de la Iglesia is probably one of SPain's finest filmmakers. An artist that can deliver such masterpieces as El dia de la bestia is really worth following. Here he derails with a tale the takes too long to unfold nd takes the spectator nowhere. Alex major problem lies always with the scripting of his films. Hs first film spent half of its footage presenting us a group of characters that were then killed so that the story could go in a different different direction. Same mistake here. The story starts and evolves then stops and then starts again in a different direction, etc. We are never heading in a concrete direction. The filmmaker gets lost among all the characters and their troubles never deciding which route to take. He is a good craftsman, and the film is above average in the technical department, still it's pretty boring, unusually so for a De La Iglesia comedy.

"800 Balas" is another funny and cool movie from Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, the guy who did the absolutely wonderful "El Dia de la Bestia", one of the best comedy/terror movies ever made. But I must tell you, people, if you don't speak Spanish, no matter how accurate the subtitles will be, you're missing half of the fun. And I mean Spanish from Spain, literally, because here in Argentina we speak Spanish too but in a complete different form and mood. Spanish people are hilarious when they insult each other (and there's a lot here) using some expressions that just can't be translated, like "me cago en la puta leche". But it's a funny and well delivered film no matter the language. A kind of homage to spaghetti westerns and all those little cheap movies from the 60's done with an excellent cast. Recommended.