Matando Cabos

In Mexico City, the powerful and violent magnate of steel Oscar Cabos (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.) surprises his daughter Paulina (Ana Claudia Talancón) having sex with her boyfriend and his employee Javier "Jaque" (Tony Dalton) and he works Jaque over. On the next day, Jaque pays a visit to Cabos in his office and the angry man comes with a golf club to hit Jaque again. However, Cabo accidentally treads on a golf ball, falls on the floor and faints. Jaque calls his best friend Mudo (Kristoff) to help him, but the janitor Nacho (Pedro Altamirano) finds his boss fainted on the floor and he steals and dresses his clothes and jewels. Meanwhile, Nacho's son Botcha (Raúl Méndez) and his friend Nico (Gustavo Sánchez Parra) have planned to kidnap Cabos and they are waiting for him in the garage. When he arrives in the place, the two kidnappers hit him on the back, believing that he is Cabos, and they wear a hood covering his face. They head with the abducted man to the house of Botcha's girlfriend Lula (Rocío Verdejo). Meanwhile, Jaque and Mudo calls their wrestler friend Ruben "Mascarita" (Joaquín Cosio) and his midget partner Tony 'El Cannibal' (Silverio Palacios) to help them to get rid of Cabos in his birthday party. But both plans do not work well along the night.

"Matando Cabos" is a gem of dark humor and one of the funniest comedies that I have recently seen. This comedy of errors has a wonderful and original screenplay, and the situations are unpredictable and hilarious. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Matando Cabos" ("Killing Cabos")

'Matando Cabos' is a mixture of the retro, Tarantino and absurd movies. It's a must to all of us that adored the b-movies of the 70s.

The story is not pretentiously developed in a way to be unpredictable, it's more like going out in this trip that you simply don't know what's going to happen next because you simply just don't know, just like in 'Go!'. In this fashion, 'Matando Cabos' results in an entertaining and hilarious urban adventure.

For all of those who are just sick of all those Latin American movies that just try to "portray" the reality of society with stories around prostitution, corruption, crime and injustice, you ought to see this movie. It's a good way to see that in Latin America they also "just want to have fun".

Diversión garantizada Fun for sure

Funny from beginning to end, with great references to the classic Mexican wrestling cinema (el santo) and very interesting characters, being "mascarita" and the cannibal unique, all mix up in a movie that in my opinion didn't had many expectations, but at the end it was all worth, really entertaining.

Also, even though the acting from Tony and Kristoff is not Oscar winning, is light but adjusts to the characters, simple and stupid, and don't forget "butcher", a kind of nice psycho trying to avenge his father and being such a funny villain.

8/10

Good characters, well paced, with a tight script full of twist and well placed turns. People will often dismiss any movie that is well crafted by comparing it to another movie that's well crafted. In this case I felt like it was more of a good thing instead of "more of the same", sort of like getting a second helping of something great. The movie does build it's central premise (a series of wild coincidences, characters that are larger than life, the fast paced-all in one night action) on other movies that feature similar elements (Snatch, Pulp Fiction, etc) but because the situations and characters are unique I did not feel ripped off. Overall I found this film to be very entertaining. I saw it at Sundance this year (2005). I hope it comes out in the US, I would recommend it to anybody that like to be entertained.

I just saw Matando Cabos. I have sent emails alerting my friends to see it before it leaves movie houses here in Phoenix. Familiarity with Mexico and its modern culture are a bonus but not requisite to liking this movie. Previous IMDb comments unfairly compare it to Pulp Fiction. There are very few films that could be so measured. The small audience here laughed out loud throughout. I laughed to the point of tears. This is not a "classic" and gets no 10 rating from me, as would Pulp Fiction. This is, however, the funniest film I have seen all year. It made me wish my Spanish were better, I'd bet this is even funnier than the subtitles present.