hazells518

I think I wrote a review once on this film on the Amazon Lovefilm site, now defunct. This just didn't "do it" for me. The setting and costumes are good and atmospheric for this classic story but the treatment falls stunningly flat. Winstone stumbles through this, mumbling his lines (so I couldn't make out half the dialogue) and looking like he wished he wasn't there. The Dorset accents are laughable. I fast forwarded through it to say I'd "seen" it, and sent it back. Oh dear. A mess. Might be OK for the kiddies.

Oh dear. This had the potential to be so much better. Spanish made so did not need to be big and blousy (cue SEXY BEAST) and why does it have to appeal to the US market anyway. There is another world out there folks. Can't they also appreciate smaller European films. Potential beautiful locations wasted, including Madrid. Dialogue]script was just plain terrible - predictable and banal. Penelope Ann Miller and Henry Thomas didn't even put much effort into it. PAM whines all the way through, looking for her "daughter" with seemingly less frantic interest in her beloved "husband" and HT looks like he just got out of high school and is completely out of his element. The kid daughter just had to yell the lines, "Daddy, Daddy!" The subtitles, which I needed as an aid to understanding the mumbled English, were wrong as once again, no-one seems to be able to spell COLOMBIAN correctly !! Music reasonably OK, suspense lacking, characters all too incredibly 'pretty', the baddies look stereotypical and the opening sequence of the drugs raid seemed quite chopped like it had gone into a blender, so initially I had no idea WHO was WHO nor what was going on. I nearly turned off right then! The mafia family, Arias and daughter were more relaxed and believable. And what the heck was Dean Stockwell doing with a wavering attempt at a British accent in the US Embassy in...er, Barcelona. That should have flagged up one of the flaws as it would only be a CONSULATE. This is just a mess. You won't miss much missing it. Unless you need a sleeping pill.