Escobar

Why anyone (the director?) made Spanish actors speak bad English in a story which is supposed to take place in a Spanish speaking country with Spanish speaking characters is a mysterious to me. It makes the otherwise well intended film unnatural and completely unbelievable, in my mind it turns the film into a B-movie, frankly unbearable to watch. What a waste of good actors! In an age when even HBO has understood that subtitles are indispensable when you want to make your story to be authentic and credible, I think that decision is the worst flaw of the film.

This is a very romanticized version of Pablo Escobar's life. It was meant to be that way, so don't have any other expectations. From that point of view, one of the few couples in Hollywood (Cruz+Bardem) who can work professionaly outside their private life. They make a great team on set.

On it's own this may be a decent movie. But if you watched Narcos before this movie, it only seems like a hasty summary of the series, told from the viewpoint of one of the less interesting characters. This, combined with the fact that it should have been in Spanish, and the annoying voice over, makes it a pain to watch. One upside: Javier Bardem is actually good as Pablo!

This is a simple biography movie about "Escobar" from the viewpoint of "Virginia Vallejo" ,a colombian journalist who had a relationship with "Escobar" in 80's till his death, so the movie shows the last 10 to 15 years in "Escobar's" life, which is good and bad in the same time.

It's good that it shows a specific situations related to the timeline of the story without getting into details , and it goes directly into the actions of drug trafficking. But you may find it bad as it's not a full documentary about the life of "Escobar", so you may have questions not getting answered about the start of his business and his childhood or his life before the drug business.

I found the movie quite enjoyable with that accent,However there is some scenes with full spanish dialogue which is not subtitled so it can be annoying.

The script is acceptable, the directing is good in addition to the photography, the acting of "Javier Bardem" is the best and watching him with his face reactions and his daily splendour lifestyle as "Escobar" is quite enjoyable, you may feel that "Penélope Cruz" doesn't really act and she is showing her real personality but i can't really decide if this is a good or bad thing.

The movie follow a single timeline and it focus about how "Escobar" deal with his family, friends, business and women. The adoption of his home, prison, friends, family and death is really impressive, and you can depend on it if you want to know the real lifestyle of "Escobar".

You can watch "American Made" if you want to see American point of view of "Escobar" and some of his actions.

Finally, it's a good biography movie that lacks a real plot, but this didn't prevent it to be an enjoyable movie that you may hardly feel bored watching it.

The film should have been in Spanish with subtitles. It was impossible to follow the dialogue.