Reviews

A series of short films set in Rio de Janeiro.

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Helen8
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Reviews

Post by Helen8 » Thu May 05, 2016 4:47 pm

Well, as usual, Jason's the best thing in the movie. Rated 1½ stars out of 5:

The only segment that generates any kind of emotional involvement is about a one-armed boxer named Texas (Land Vieira), who receives a disturbing offer from a visitor (a sinister Jason Isaacs). Guillermo Arriaga writes and directs with an elegant, haunting touch, and the piece boasts the unsettling overtones found in a good episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

The rest of the review:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/entertai ... /83893394/

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Marie
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Re: Reviews

Post by Marie » Fri May 06, 2016 8:02 am

Gee - how many times have we heard "Jason Isaacs is the best thing about the movie" or "the only reason to watch this movie!"

::rofl

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Hilary the Touched
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Re: Reviews

Post by Hilary the Touched » Fri May 06, 2016 10:50 am

*ouch!*

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Helen8
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Re: Reviews

Post by Helen8 » Sun Mar 10, 2019 12:20 pm

I purchased this DVD about 6 months ago. Forgot about it until last night. Um. Jason is on screen for about 2 minutes! (Good thing the DVD was under $8 when I bought it.) Besides that, the short segment didn't resolve. :rave

The movie is made up of short vignettes about life and love in Rio. By the end of the film, all the storylines that end abruptly are resolved later on. In Jason's, his character makes a distasteful proposition to a one-armed streetfighter. The last time you see Jason, they've thrown a couple of punches at each other. And that's it! He gets more screen time in the bonus material, but that's all. I suppose we're intended to infer the outcome, but come on.

Primarily, the movie is a travel poster for Rio . . . which is a good thing. The camera holds on Sugar Loaf mountain, the statue of Jesus and distance shots of the white-washed buildings that rise from shore to hilltops. The music, which I call bassa nova from a hit song in the 1960s, is beautiful and plays very well against the scenery and the stories. There's a vignette about vampires, which took the film in a completely creepy direction, but it ended quickly . . . as they all do.

So, the 1½-star rating from a previous review is appropriate.

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thunder
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Re: Reviews

Post by thunder » Sun Mar 10, 2019 1:02 pm

Thanks for posing your review, Helen. I only saw Jason's scenes in this, then I forgot about it. :oops:

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Helen8
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Re: Reviews

Post by Helen8 » Sun Mar 10, 2019 4:09 pm

That says it all, thunder.

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Marie
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Re: Reviews

Post by Marie » Mon Mar 11, 2019 7:49 am

I completely missed this one - and now it sounds like that was OK! Thanks Helen.

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Re: Reviews

Post by Helen8 » Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:04 pm

Well. He takes his shirt off, revealing a chest full of tatoos, just before the fight starts. I guess you can imagine that.

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Re: Reviews

Post by Anniemouse » Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:29 am

Ok watched this movie today. As others have mentioned it ios basically a travel brochure for Rio.

Points of interest;

I enjoyed the ballet section which looked beautiful and very romantic.
I enjoyed the child at the telephone wanting Jesus to send the football autographed by Pele.
I enjoyed the John Turturro and Vanessa Paradis (only recognised her from the gap in her teeth)
The Emily Mortimer segment was darkly comic.
Liked the tramp Gran.

I was completely thrown by the vampire segment which seemed out of sync with the rest of the movie.

The we reach Jason section. I could have watched this section as an entire stand alone movie. The back story of how the Gringo got to Rio, the loss of his wife and child; the car crash that devastates the lives of the boxer and his model wife. Why he felt compelled to find the boxers wife and offer such a strange deal and above all; who won the fight!!!!!. I was hopeing that we would get a resolution to that vignette but it was left in the air and deaply frustrating.

I don't think having so many directors did the potential of this movie justice as the tone was all over the place. I enjoyed sections but it could have been so much more.

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