Volando voy

In this flick based on real events and dealing with a child delinquent , there is frenetic action , eroticism , chases , exploitation and sensationalism that undermine verisimilitude . It tells his life like a legend , executing heists , assaults , child driving cars , escapades , and other crimes and misdemeanours . The picture results to be a peculiar biopic of Spain's Juan Carlos Delgado "El Pera" (Borja Navas) , a 11-year-old young delinquent in the 1980's who committed more than 150 crimes . Outspoken ¨El Pera¨ lives with his family (daddy well played by Fernando Tejero , and mummy stunningly performed by Mariola Fuentes) , but at the same time , carries out robbing and heists at malls , and after a frenetic car pursuit is detained by a corrupt police nicknamed ¨El Señorito¨ (José Luis García Pérez) . As ¨El Pera¨ is chased , locked-up , mistreated and accused for robbing ; after being led to a youthful penitentiary run by an upright official (Alex Casanovas) but he gets away . Juan Carlos Delgado is a car pilot and a sport journalist nowadays .

This is an acceptable drama with action elements , adding a bit of social habits from lower classes living in Madrid suburbs . Being compellingly acted and concerning the narration about the relationship between ¨El Pera¨ and his family , gang members and an older woman . Inspired by an actual case , giving a realistic look at delinquency world ; it contains noisy action , hold-ups , car races , pursuits and nudism . ¨Volando Voy¨ or "My Quick Way Out" belongs to sub-genre Quinqui , whose main representation was ¨Perros Callejeros I¨ , this one was a popular and big Spanish hit , that's why its director Jose Antonio De La Loma made several sequels . Drugs , delinquency , terrorism and generational problems are the habitual themes in this genre , and specially dedicated to the underworld of heroin . Seen today , these films are unique documents on how life was lived and perceived during that period . These flicks were notorious in the years of the Spanish transition to democracy including provoking and polemic issues and played by unknown young people . This ¨Volando Voy¨ is a return to the 80s , it is one of several movies dealing with youth delinquency in Spain during the 70s and early 80s mostly realized by Jose Antonio De La Loma , along with ¨Navajeros , "Colegas", "El Pico 1¨ , 2" , ¨La Estanquera De Vallecas¨ by Eloy De La Iglesia and especially ¨Deprisa , Deprisa¨ by Carlos Saura , among others . "My Quick Way Out" is full of engaging moments , regarding lower-class people and older woman younger man peculiar relationship , including nudism in charge of Mar Regueras . The picture is a crossed-over from Quinqui sub-genre along with family drama ; being well-paced in great sense of narration and fairness . The film attempts to describe the juvenile delinquency of the 80s , but also including familiar discussions , father mistreating and many other things . Not trying to be unrealistic and make everything as in a domestic tale but giving way to thought-provoking issues well represented on Alex Casanovas character and his attempt to create special penitentiaries for very young delinquents . In addition , the film gives us a nice panorama about a lower-class family , with an understanding mother and a violent father , as well as its pity , goodness , sacrifice , work , shortage , and various situations happen in its existence . The screenplay by the same Juan Carlos Delgado and director Miguel Albaladejo is such strong with disagreeable events , including nudism , violent scenes , though also with some ingenuousness and brief ironical moments . The main cast and support cast are pretty well , such as : Fernando Tejero , Alex Casanovas , Mar Regueras , José Luis García Pérez and Mariola Fuentes who played various films shot by Albadalejo .

There stands out the colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Alfonso Sanz , a good cameraman who has photographed most films directed by Albadalejo , filmed in Madrid and Toledo where takes place a spectacular car pursuit . Lively as well as adequate musical score -including catching songs of the 80s- by Lucio Godoy , a good professional who has composed soundtracks in a lot of successful movies such as ¨All about my mother¨, ¨Blackthorn¨, ¨Fin¨, ¨Amador¨. ¨Cuento Chino¨, ¨Mataharis¨ , ¨Melissa P¨ , among others . Besides , attractive songs at the end . The motion picture was professionally directed by Miguel Albadalejo , a fine craftsman expert on comedy and drama as proved in ¨Bear Club¨, ¨Rencor¨, ¨Ataque Verbal¨ , ¨Cielo Abierto¨, ¨The first life of my life¨, and this ¨Volando Voy¨ , among others . Rating : 6.5/10 . Better than average . It turns out to be much better than the 80's films starred by actual delinquents as ¨El Torete¨, ¨El Vaquilla¨, ¨El Nani¨ , all of them early deceased . The flick will appeal to Spanish cinema buffs . Worthwhile seeing .

What can I say, my kind of movie, good research, good sound-track good acting, good almost everything. Even though it has some beautiful scenes, sometimes it looks like a T.V movie, but only sometimes, apart from that in my opinion the movie is great. It can be compared to other great classics based on the Spanish juvenile delinquency of the 70's like 'Perros Callejeros', 'Navajeros', or 'Deprisa,Deprisa'.

It shows a quite good realistic look on how the juvenile crime was in Madrid back in the late 70's, the struggle of a young boy and his family, together with some good action scenes and good music.

9/10 "I don't have any accidents when I'm driving, all the bad things happens to me when I'm stop'ed"

El Pera.

Miguel Albadalejo's last movie so far is a curious mix of bitter-sweet comedy and soft drama. The story is that of a famous child-delinquent from Getafe (in the South of the province of Madrid) in the early 80s. Being under the age of eleven, "el pera" -the boy's nickname- had already participated in several thefts, assaults, crazy drivings running away from the police and several other crimes. He was so good a driver that nowadays he trains policemen to follow runaway criminals.

The film tries hard to avoid self-righteousness, but the hatred towards morale leaves viewers without a sound point of view. The script is not very solidly built, being just a succession of loose events, and the roles and personalities of some characters are not clear. The impression is that Albadalejo misses the point, and that the film lacks strength.

However, there are some fine moments, most of them related to the main character's family life. Throughout his filmography, Albadalejo has demonstrated his knack to depict the most comic aspects of the common Spanish people in the tradition of master director José Luis García Berlanga. In "Volando Voy", home violence is portrayed as a result of the father's anger and lack of education and money, not as a vicious kind of violence. The motivation of the child's behaviour, looking for love and affection, and thinking he is not receiving any from his family, is not consistently portrayed.

To sum up, the film has serious flaws, and seem to go from comedy to drama without transitions, leaving an aftertaste of unbalance.

"El Pera" is a 10-year-old kid, he seems normal, but he is one of the most dangerous thieves in Getafe (south of Madrid), expert in driving cars (and stealing them), the film tries to show us a little biography of his life, telling us how were his first years and how ended, in the correctional, where he became professional driver and later, teacher of dangerous driving to the police. It is based in real facts. Well, the film is not quite good. The action scenes are bad filmed, and, most of times, it is clear where there is a computer job (specially on car persecutions), actors are quite forced, anyone feels comfortable in their paper (but for Tejero, that, surprisingly, plays a decent part being "el Pera"'s father). The directing is not better, it is never told to us when there has been a jump in time, nor the boy changes anything to mark the years that have passed (from 8 to 10 years). In addition, some scenes result incoherent, as the relation of the kid with a good-looking junkie (bed scenes included). I don't know if it was real, but the treatment that the director makes is not very good. On the other hand, despite that, the film does not result boring, as the scenes are quick and the story quite interesting. It could have been better with a better directors and better actors.