800 balas

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.

I rented this one on a hunch, not having watched any of director De La Iglesia's work, even if I had heard of him - if not the film in question.

I thought this was going to be an out-and-out Spaghetti Western update, and it looks like it at first, but the way it developed makes it original and even more interesting than I had imagined! It's frequently uproarious and displays a refreshing irreverence, especially in its use of foul language (which I found even funnier because it's so similar to our own); astoundingly, there are also sex scenes witnessed by, and almost involving, a minor! Deliberately paced and overlong, it ultimately emerges as an endearing, even infectious, spoof of Spaghetti Western film-making and the world of stunt-men (which to me, having been in Hollywood a little while back, has a special relevance). Recurring jokes like forgetting the hanged man once the shooting's over, a stuntman dedicated to making his fall from a roof-top as realistic as possible, and the front of a poor woman's house being demolished by a runaway van are very funny, and there's a hilarious funeral finale with a surprising appearance by "Clint Eastwood" (who, as everyone knows, became a household word in Italian Westerns filmed in Spain)!

The cast is largely made up of unknowns (except for Carmen Maura) but they enter enthusiastically into the tongue-in-cheek spirit of things, with Sancho Gracia's characterization being especially vivid (at times, even a moving one). Indeed, among the various in-jokes which crop up throughout the film is the mention of the Raquel Welch/Burt Reynolds Western 100 RIFLES (1969), a film in which Gracia really appeared!

"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.

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")

OK, let's get this clear first: seasoned veterans of the genre might be disappointed by the tribute aspect of 800 Balas. The only spag references are to Leone's films, Clint Eastwood and his poncho. Add to that a score that resembles Morricone, great opening credits in the colourful spag tradition, and excellent cinematography (wide shots and close-ups included) and that's as far as it goes.

However it's tons of fun. Although not as outrageous as other De La Iglesias efforts like Accion Mutante, El Dia de La Bestia or Perdita Durango, it still has all the trademarks that made him famous. Black humour, quirky dialogues, energetic pace, fluid camera shots, excellent performances, it's creative and above all entertaining. Sancho Gracia steals scenes and was an original spaghetti western actor himself.

Watch it for a great opening scene that (suprisingly enough) is a tribute to John Wayne's Stagecoach, a saloon orgy, a hooker seducing a minor, a spectacular shootout between a SWAT team and spaghetti western stuntmen, the Hanged Man (first screenshot), the Dragged Man (who is constantly being dragged by a rope behind a horse...it is his only trick) and a cameo by a faux-Clint Eastwood.