Cronos
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Movie Reviews of Cronos
Movie Review: Good Film
Summary: 4 Stars
Creative and interesting. Ron Perlman is in this film. I would watch before purchasing though. I own it on DVDMovie Review: Cronos offers solid low-budget chills
Summary: 3 Stars
Guillermo del Toro made a splash in 1993 with "Cronos," which he directed at the tender age of 29. Perhaps if I could go back to 1993 and see this movie for the first time, I'd give it 5 stars. Unfortunately, I didn't see this movie until 2008 and after I'd seen del Toro's recent masterpiece, "Pan's Labyrinth." I gave "PL" five stars, and I just can't put "Cronos" in the same league.
Essentially a thoughtful, religious vampire story, "Cronos" tells the tale of an elderly antiques dealer, Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi), who innocently discovers the "Cronos device." This machine, a beetle-like contraption made out of gold and with a nasty bug lurking in its wheels, was the creation of a 14th-century alchemist. As Senor Gris learns, the bite of the device imparts immortality, but at a gruesome price. Only the love of his granddaughter, Aurora (Tamara Shanath), provides Senor Gris with the strength and salvation he needs and deserves.
"Cronos" clearly proves that del Toro is a filmmaker to be reckoned with, and the movie deserves its cult status. If you're looking for a solid horror film that creates legitimate tension but never settles for the "jump-out-from-just-outside-the-frame" gimmicks, you could do much, much worse. But despite the solid comic performance of Ron Perlman as a frustrated strong-arm man, one cannot say that "Cronos" is del Toro's best work. He has made better movies since then, and he will continue to do so. But virtually every filmmaker in the world wishes he could have cranked out "Cronos" right out of the gate.
Movie Review: Interesting Spin on an Old Story
Summary: 3 Stars
Guillermo del Toro's first feature film Cronos places a new spin on the familiar vampire genre. The film touches on what it means to be human and on man's quest for eternal life. Immortality is presented to Jesus Gris (Frederico Luppi) through the Cronos device. This device created by a 16th Century alchemist promises eternal life albeit at quite a price.
The film which one numerous awards is quite good with excellent attention paid to details. The supporting cast includes Claudio Brooks as a dying industrialist and Ron Perlman as his henchman nephew Angel.
The film is filled with cinematic in jokes and also contains quite a bit of Mexican and religious symbology. In his first film del Toro tackles many of the subjects that run throughout his later more mature works. While not as powerful as his efforts in Pan's Labyrinth this is a film that is well worth seeing even if it is somewhat expensive and difficult to find.
I viewed the Lions Gate 10th Aniversary Edition which features a director's commentary and a producer's commentary in addition to several making of featurettes and an interview with del Toro. The special features are excellent across the board.
Seek it out you will be glad you did.
Movie Review: Not a geat film by any means
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased Cronos after seeing one recommendation after another. My wife and I sat down to watch it last night. I don't have the energy to go over the same territory covered in so many reviews here. Suffice it to say that we found the movie to be slooooow. We kept waiting for the energy to ratchet up a few notches but were consistently disappointed.
The movie is not bad. It's simply not as good, in our eyes, as the effusive praise of the many reviewers suggests. I believe it's a cultural difference. I mean, the movie won the Best Picture back in 1993 in Mexico and won Best Film at Cannes so somebody likes the languid pace of this movie. But it fails on most counts for me.
In a word: boring. But with many, many ideas that could be dealt with better (for me) by an American writer and director.
Movie Review: Visually arresting, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
The opening and closing sequences of this interesting 1993 spin on the vampire movie are quite stunning, and Guillermo del Toro's beautiful eye for production design (that served him so well in THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE and that even redeemed much of HELLBOY) are much in evidence here. But the tone of this film is wildly uneven, and shows del Toro's relative unsureness when he made CRONOS at age 28. Although comedy and horror often mesh splendidly together, the comic scenes in this film do not work at all, especially when Ron Perlman's poorly conceived character is onscreen. Deadliest of all, the film is just not very suspenseful. But any del Toro film is worth seeing just for the gorgeous cinematography and set design, and that, and Federico LUppi's superb performance as the elderly main character, do not disappoint.