Burnt Money
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.04 You Save: $8.91 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $6.37 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Burnt Money
Movie Review: Routine Heist Film Disguises Great Love Story
Summary: 5 Stars
It's too bad that a special interest distribution company is hawking this movie, because even though the protagonist couple of the film are both men, the passionate love story that ensues is powerful enough to transcend its "gay" subplot. This is a movie that anyone who likes a romantic story about a love that manages to survive in the face of unbelievable adversity will enjoy. Based on an event that actually happened in Buenos Aires in 1965, a botched robbery and subsequent manhunt that lasted two months, it is reminiscent of the Charles Starkweather/Carol Fugate killing spree that happened in the USA in the late 50s/early 60s and paralyzed three states. The film starts with the meeting of the two hit men, in a public restroom. Within the first five minutes we know that Angel "hears voices" and that Nene falls madly in love with and determined to protect him. When Angel gets injured in the robbery and they hightail it out of Argentina, his voices warn him against losing his "sacred bodily fluids" and the subsequent abjection drives the hapless Nene out into the sordid night life, the flotsom and jetsom of Montevideo, for companionship. As the police make their inexorable way to the hiding robbers, it all builds to a heroic, passionate climax that's one of the most deliriously romantic resolutions in recent or, in fact, distant memory. This is all beside the fact that the three leads, Pablo Echarri, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Eduardo Noriega, are three of the most refreshingly handsome and talented young actors you'll probably see from any country. I can't recommend it highly enough.Movie Review: neo-noir with vulnerability
Summary: 5 Stars
'Burnt Money' has the familiar scaffolding of the botched heist but it is really more interested in relationship drama - but on an archetypical scale, and all of it done in a languid, elegiac, chiaroscuro, and yet, stiflingly hothouse and tango mood. The cinematography is lush and dark and grimy and gorgeous. And it's clear from the language of the voiceover narration, the characters' nicknames, the religious iconography (especially pietà & crucifix), and that the movie is divided into 'chapters,' that it is also a structured tale, despite its true-crime inspiration. Not a morality tale, more like a ballad... El Nene (the baby) embodies the cool, smart, protective antihero, while Ángel is his naïve, mad-saintly emotional core, and that pairing itself of the Twins also echoes many 'buddy' tropes...
But despite the stylized/symbolic distance, there is so much intimacy in this movie it hurts. The chemistry between the two leads is insanely intense and fragile and beautiful. But not sentimental. Or histrionic. The movie and its emotions are violent and with a certain degree of romanticization but the exchanges between the Twins are so 'real' that it's as if it weren't acting... Sbaraglia especially is good at packing intense love and devotion, frustration, and everything else into a mere look. Kinda makes you wish you were the recipient of that look - or even of the pitying consolation that he gives to Giselle. OMG, the lost years from having known/seen this only recently! OK, enough gushing. It's just hella amazing.
Movie Review: A true love story
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was not quite what I expected, but I loved it. It's a little hard to keep up with the plot as the subtitles are long and go by fast so you haven't always got time to watch the movie and read the subtitles too. Therefore I got a little lost in places and had to go back and replay some spots. Not too bad though as the plot kept my interest. Sound and picture quality is excellent. Plot is from a true story. The love between the central characters, a gay couple known as "The Twins" is a story of undying love in the midst of personal inner conflict, frustrations and many life events happening in the meantime. If you are looking for hot steamy sex scenes between the two guys, theres not much there to see but the acting is very good and you get the sense that these two actors were the actual couple come back to make this film. Their chemistry together is awesome and very realistic. They appear to have enjoyed doing this project together and you are left believeing the actors themselves formed a lifetime friendship through this project. There were things I didn't like in the story but since it is based on a true story, there isn't much you can do but accept it as part of what makes the whole thing go around. I would recommend this film highly. It contains lots of adventure, suspense, drama, action and warmth weaved throughout all of that. I'll spare you the details of the movie and let you watch them unfold yourself. I also recommend watching this one over again to catch what you missed the first time through. It is worth it in my opinion.Movie Review: A Rare Find
Summary: 5 Stars
There is no need to recount the storyline; others have done that very well. The most revealing new comment I can add is that seeing this film on Sundance caused me to go out and buy not only the DVD, but my first DVD player as well. While the DVD is not up to the technical quality I expected, the production itself retains high values in terms of script, direction, and execution. It is the kind of film I start to watch thinking, "I'll just fast forward to all the high points once more," but wind up transfixed watching from bitter beginning to bitter end. Truly a masterpiece.I also bought the book that inspired the film. Because it has yet to be translated into English, I had to keep the dictionary nearby to augment my meager Spanish, and I found the book written stylistically very much in the vein of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Comparisons to films like Bonnie and Clyde, Thelma and Louise, or Reservoir Dogs are largely fragmentary and even inappropriate. Burnt Money (Plata Quemada) is nothing if not unique.
Nor is the film documentary or just another love-action thriller. It is noirish, as others have noted, but it is at its center a classic tragedy as well, something Ricardo Piglia surely had in mind, replete with symbols, adumbrations, and a score of tragic flaws in the characters.
My next step is to brush up on my Borges, followed by a couple of weeks in Buenos Aires to retrace the footsteps of the originals. Why not? I am deeply impressed by this story.
Movie Review: Emotionally Intense
Summary: 5 Stars
"Burnt Money" isn't just about a bank robbery that took place in South America, it is about the emotions of two men Nene and Angel. Nene and Angel are occasional lovers and partners in crime. Angel hears voices all the time because his emotions take control of him. The robbery has an effect on him. He wants to get out of South America and go to New York. Nene wants to have a good time. He can't control his sexual urges and takes on both male and female lovers. The one person that he desires is Angel. Angel's mood swings force him to seek sexual gratification elsewhere. He get caught up with the prostitute Giselle. Giselle is emotionally damaged. Although a prostitute, she is a human being with feelings. She has feelings for Nene and Nene takes advantage of those feelings. She is also a climatic downfall for the robbers Cuervo, Nene and Angel. She emotionally explodes as she realizes that Nene and Angel are lovers, not siblings.
In addition to the emotional high in "Burnt Money", also unravels the corruption in South American politics. The economy was not good. The government officials were concerned about fattening their pockets than helping its citizens. Military governments were common during that period overthrowing presidential officials for the sake of power. The movie pretty much gets into the core of its sociopolitical structure and how it affects the people.