Kuzz

This is probably one of the most funny portuguese movies that I ever seen. The story is really peculiar with lots of nonsense, but it's this nonsense that caughts the true essence of the movie. This film as also an ending turn-over... one of the great parts of the film. One of the tricky parts is the "Saniplas" part. One advice, try to find this film, if you don't find it, steal it!!

This film has been accused of being too pretentious and too "commercial" by some of the portuguese press. However, in my opinion this short movie is one of the first signs of an emergent generation of portuguese directors. People like Jose Pedro Sousa are needed in the local cinema production as the market can only profit from the variety offered.

It also gives young promising directors an opportunity to express themselves in a different manner from the majority of the present portuguese directors - without retaining merit from these.

The movie is in fact an excellent exercise of personal style, revealing the preponderant influence of Tarantino's filmography. It is very funny and paints a light "fresco" of Oporto's sub-world in a humorous way. Having been present at the Fantasporto and the Festival Caminhos do Cinema Portugues (winning the "Premio da Critica", the film has passed through a lot to be released, limitedly, on circuit.

My praise to the director and here's hoping he doesn't stop here and is given the opportunity to continue his path.

This is the first portuguese cult movie; low-budgeted shot in a raw way, guerilla style, rough black and white celluloid, like crime movies are supposed to be... Manoel de Oliveira might be the best portuguese movie director and his movies are wonderful but we need a revolution in the portuguese movie making and filmmakers... KUZZ might only be a beggining and also a begginer's work but at least it's something. And man, I was quite taken... it really triggered me in... This is my favorite portuguese movie. The recipe for this movie was quite simple, José Pedro Sousa did a cocktail of the some scenes taken from Pulp Fiction and some from Reservoir Dogs, added some corrosive humour, a pint of Star Wars, gallons of cinematic trivia, finished with beer and Port Wine shook it up and put a cherry on the top with the oppenning credits sequence, which I consider to be one of the most amazing computer/camera work with the home-made music composed by JP himself and a friend. Yes, the soundtrack helps this movie to score points because, it's original music and it's great! It's not as thrilling as Dick Dale's Mirsilou in the opening credits for Pulp Fiction but it also sets an mysterious tone for the movie and that it's very important. JP is one of the most talented and smart guys in this business here in Portugal, he did the movie in the american fashion but used portuguese pop culture instead of american pop culture. So no wonder that instead of hamburgers and coke (i meant the soda) the characters are found of portuguese traditional dishes and food such as broculli soup... yum! I rate it 8 cause it's not perfect and it could have been better, but hey, he's young and still has a lot of things to learn... C'mon give the kid a chance! Damn' right he's got what it takes to become a famous hip director an idol and a symbol of power for today's youth in filmmaking, I'm positive he'll make it sooner or later. I'm tellin' ya this kid jams! The title reads exactly like it's spelled and by reading it we'd might think we're talking about a "made in Hong Kong" movie about arms and drugs dealin' with kung fu fights and John Woo-esque bullet ballets with all the beautiful aesthetic effects of the 'double 45. automatic guns-slinging'... Yeah, it could be, i guess... KUZZ is a movie where you have cops trying to nail thieves and thieves trying to frame cops... but it's a little bit more than that when the plot thickens... There's no kung fu fighting but you have street fight, the mexican standoff and violence enough to kill the faint of heart...The double 45. automatic guns are there but they have more interesting purpose than just killing people... but if you expect to watch bullet ballets ya better fuhgeddaboud it cuz' KUZZ it's Tarantino-esque pure rock f***in' roll! Oh yeah! Not for you grandparents or even your parents to watch!! The script is funny, bright, witty, the language is simple and the bad words and cursing of the characters are like musical notes giving rythm to sentences as in an Eminem song... Well it's common sense that luck ryhmes with f*** that must have some kind of symbolic meaning don't you think? Better ask to Bourdier. He seems to have a M.D. in Symbolic Meaning... There's a scene with the 'saniplas' ban-aids junkie salesman that's simply awesome amazing and terrific. That guy it's one of the best actors in the whole movie for my money... Anyways... The most funny thing about the characters is that they are all very peculiar and likable, there's not a single character that we don't feel imediate empathy. It has been said the actors worked for free and the mostly likely it's they actually did it. From watching the movie seems like they had good fun making and shooting the movie and we have fun watching it and enjoy it because they let the viewer see (maybe a little too much) that what happened during the shooting was that they were only a group of friends who got together and decide to have great good ol' fun! That's what you suppose to have! Enjoy!

Well, what can I say about this one...it's god damn good, I loved every bit of it, specially the whole Bourdieu stuff (since I had to study him for 1 whole year!!) and of course the Saniplas dialogue, it's brilliant, I laughed my head off during this one...

It's not an ordinary movie, it's a kind of portuguese version of something between "Reservoir Dogs" and "Pulp Fiction", but it is quite unique.

The dialogues are great, the soundtrack follows the movie pretty good and the characters are all very...peculiar...

In the end I gave it 8 out of 10, here in Portugal we need stuff like this. I hope José Pedro Sousa keeps on doing movies, it's some fresh air into portuguese cinema, too bad 99,99999% of people here don't know the movie...my advice is go and find a copy of this one in hell if you have to, but just see it...but don't forget this is a low budget portuguese film-noir thing...so don't expect great explosions and lot's of blood, but anyway it's great! (it might be a "classe Zé" movie, but it's rock'n'roll.)

This one is a must...forget big budget things, forget all those things...this one is for real...this one is Kuzz!

This flick was shown in the last Fantasporto, and it really deserved being there, it's somewhat a mix between Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, but very unique and with very peculiar characters...it's portuguese you know...

The all Bourdieu stuff is fab! and I specially enjoyed the all Saniplas dialogue...hehehe great stuff!!!

Anyway, if you're portuguese, just find a copy of this, even if you have to search all country after it, and enjoy it...but never forget the small budget on this one...I hope directors like José Pedro Sousa keep on doing movies, even if they are not comercial ones, it's always great watching to freak weirdo dialogues and a lot of bad words in a portuguese movie...keep up the good work!