Cronos
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Movie Reviews of Cronos
Movie Review: Truly excellent retelling of the vampire legend. Buy It!
Summary: 5 Stars
`Cronos', written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, his first film, is a really delightful find, similar to many other surprising little movies such as `La Femme Nikita', `The 13th Warrior', `Mad Max' and going back a ways, `The Hustler'.
One very important warning is that this is NOT the relatively poor sci-fi B movie of a few decades back, with a spelling, I believe, of `Kronos' and a plot vaguely suggesting world domination by computers.
The most amazing thing about this movie is that it gives AT LEAST two new twists to the old vampire story, if you interpret the vampire legend in its broadest terms. The first twist is the notion that vampirism can be induced by the inoculation of blood from an essentially immortal insect, with the assistance of a clockwork mechanism created by a very talented alchemist in Spain at the time of the Inquisition. The second major twist is the notion that a person, once infected with vampirism and benefiting from it's gift of long life, will want to be free of this `gift' and die for good.
Many of the other twists in this plot are somewhat predictable, except that they are implemented in a truly creative way. The story is realized in such a subtle manner that the level of graphic horror is so low, one wonders at how it deserved its R rating. On the other hand, I will give credit to the review board for appreciating the subtlety of the dread in many of the movie's situations.
One of the most effective cards played by this story is the `little girl in peril' card, so vividly done up in the movie `Aliens'. To the credit of Del Toro and company, he does not go as far as James Cameron does, but just far enough to have the gambit do its thing.
One of the very best things about this DVD is its subtitling in English and its director's commentary in English. I will give you the warning now that you should watch the whole movie through first with the original soundtrack before rewatching it with Del Toro's talkover. I was especially surprised to find such quality subtitling in a low budget movie. The English subtitles seem to be done not only for the benefit of someone who does not understand Spanish, but also for a hearing impaired viewer, as the subtitles include notes on background sounds and indications on when the lines are being sung rather than just being spoken.
This low budget movie realization is so good, one is not surprised that Del Toro does such a good job on big budget efforts such as `Hellboy' and `Blade 2'. The writing is so good, one wonders why, however, he takes on projects based on other people's material. The Spanish-speaking actors are unknown to me, but they do an excellent job, as does Ron Perlman whose dialogue, thankfully, is all in English. I say that not because I have any doubt that Perlman can't come across in Spanish, but as a thoroughly American actor, he is much more believable in English.
The other extras are pretty predictable. Note that while the credits give two commentary tracks, the track spoken by the producer is all in Spanish, which did me little good.
If you have a taste for good horror, this movie is not to be missed!
Movie Review: Life and blood
Summary: 5 Stars
Currently everybody thinks of him as directing Pan's Labyrinth or the Hellboy movies. But at the very beginning of his career, Guillermo del Toro honed his directorial skills with a truly brilliant, unique movie called "Cronos," which expertly blended alchemy, vampirism and creeping psychological horror.
Antique dealer Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) is handling an angel statue when he finds an insectile metal object in the bottom. And it bites him, injecting him with a strange fluid. Soon Jesús finds himself addicted to the device, and he finds that it's slowly restoring his youth and strength. And during a party, he also finds that it's giving him a hunger for blood.
Unfortunately, a wealthy but dying businessman is determined to find the device, and he sends out his brutal nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to find it -- and Angel even kills Jesús when the old man doesn't tell him what he wants to know. Jesús rises again as an undead creature who is still determined to get the device back, but now his young granddaughter is in danger as well.
"Cronos" was the very first movie that Guillermo ever directed, and it's not surprising that it feels a little rough compared to his later work. But expect lots of del Toro trademarks -- mysterious golden items, insects, weird and grotesque vampirism, religious symbolism, and favored actors Luppi and Perlman.
The entire movie is beautifully directed, and del Toro paints every scene with shadows, gold and blood. And rather than going for over-the-top spookery, del Toro mingles vampiric horror (Jesus staring hungrily at his granddaughter) with more visceral psychological horror (Jesús returns to life with his mouth stitched shut). Even the gross-outs are subtle, like when we see that even Jesús' flesh is turning white and larvalike.
Federico Luppi is absolutely brilliant as Jesús -- he starts off as a genial, kindly old man with a love of antiques, but slowly he's eaten away by his lust for blood and addiction to the device. By the end of the movie, you only see a tiny flicker of what he was. Perlman gives a similarly awesome performance as a devious thug, and Claudio Brook is great as the dying businessman.
It took a long time, but this movie is FINALLY coming out in the Criterion catalog -- it will have a restored high-def digital transfer; del Toro's early short film "Geometria"; a tour of de Toro's house; audio commentaries by del Toro and the producers; video interviews with del Toro, Luppi, Navarro and Perlman, a stills gallery; trailer; new English subtitles; and a booklet with not only a Maitland McDonagh essay but del Toro's notes.
"Cronos" is a little more toned-down than Guillermo del Toro's later work, but it's still a powerful, haunting horror movie. An absolute must-see!
Movie Review: A New Bite On An Old Mythology
Summary: 5 Stars
A new vision of the vampire myth involving an insect trapped in a device that grants immortality (with a price of course), an innocent grandfather, his all but silent granddaughter, a human monster and his victimized nephew.
An elderly antiques shop owner, Jesus Gris, and his granddaughter, Aurora, discover an unusually device in a four hundred year old Archangel statue. Gris inadvertently triggers the device which begins a change in him that not only slowly makes him more youthful in look and energy but infects him with an addict's consuming fixation for blood. Unfortunately for Gris, he is not the only one with knowledge of the device's existence and power, and he becomes the target of the dying businessman De La Guardia's desire for immortality at any cost and his violent nephew Angel.
Loved this film! Loved it! I've always had a thing for vampires and I really enjoyed this new view of the vampire mythology. This isn't just a new story of vampirism though, it is also a tale of family. The love, devotion, and acceptance of family is beautifully shown through the grandfather Jesus and granddaughter Aurora, as is the dark side of family, with it's violence, abuse and victimization, as shown through the obsessed De La Guardia and his nephew Angel.
Ron Perlman is absolutely superb as Angel. He takes what could have been the average brute/thug character and gives him humor, depth, and the ability to evoke sympathy and, almost, forgiveness, from the audience. If you want to introduce a friend to Ron Perlman's work, consider doing so with this performance.
Frederico Luppi and the late Claudio Brooks are also entrancing in their performances as Jesus Gris and De La Guardia, respectively.
Favorite line (narration describing the death of the cronos device creator): "His skin was the color of marble in moonlight."
The DVD extras and commentary are wonderfully enjoyable in and of themselves (how they shot the interior of the cronos device and what happened to it later...eeeewwww, that the thirteen cronos devices used in the film were stolen on the last day of the shoot, that Ron Perlman did accidentally connect, fist to face, at one point with Frederico Luppi, etc). Guillermo Del Toro's commentaries are as spellbinding as his films.
Movie Review: beautiful and inteligent
Summary: 5 Stars
The only thing I can only say is that this movie is one of the best things that could ever had happened to the mexican movie society(I rather call it that, cause there is no such a thing like a movie industry in Mexico), and to the world horror movies.The script is brilliant, inteligent, and the characters are like normal people, they arent stereotypes(something very intelligent and brave)the gag of perlman wanting to fix his nose its an example of that, that helps the movie a lot to achieve that scary mood.
What is better is that Guillermo dignifies the horror genre, he gives also a quality to the film, that even the so called intellectual people must accept that this is a great movie.
The movie moves forward thanks to the story, and uses sfx only when is needed, doesnt need to rely on sfx to be scary, like many recent horror pictures,that cant even do that.
The movie is full of metaphores, and retoric forms for those who like the stylish movies, actually most of the images are poems in themselves.
To finish, if you are a adult with a young spirit you would like it, and if you are a so called intellectual or sofisticated person you would like it as well.
Congratulations Guillermo, you make us Proud!!!!
Movie Review: An eternal desire: To live forever!
Summary: 5 Stars
An ingenious alchemist creates a device that satisfies an everlasting human ambition: to live forever. 400 years later an elderly antique dealer will discover the pleasures of the immortality from a trivial perspective. There is nothing free in this world. If you draw the veil of the unknown get ready to pay the prize.
Once more the force of the myth reappears, yesterday Faust, then Dorian Gray 's portrait and now Cronos recreates the archetypical desire: the triviality conceived as the absence of physical tensions and the required attention to assume the cost of the daring.
The vehement desire of the human race legitimated from the own Greek roots, to enthrone us in Gods nature and taste the fruits of the eternity, is the essential key stone of the Greek tragedy: the transgression of the rule and the attempt for cross the forbidden line imposed by Ex machine Deities may be considered for many people as an affront and to others as a reaffirmation of this famous statement: "The man is the measure of all the things.", reinserted in Goethe 's Faust: "I only love those who pretend the impossible."