McHuevo

I didn't have much expectations about this movie, so I guess it was a good deal paying half the ticket price on a wednesday for a few laughs.

"Sin ton ni sonia" goes nowhere. It has tons of characters with very different backgrounds and situations. They try to give a lot of time to each of them, but in the end you realize they weren't needed that much. At least not in so much detail. We get dubbers, police men (mexican and american), physics, telepaths, organs-traffic dealers, hackers, and much more. I bet by now you're saying "What the...", and yes, that's just what I thought as I was watching the movie.

As I said, too many characters and for nothing. In the end things are just left the way they were in the beginning. In the end nothing happened. In the end you can't help but think "What? That's it?"

Maybe they just tried too hard. In Mexico there's more budget to film commercials than to make movies; is that simple. Mexican filmmakers, and the audience, are tied to that and must rely on good writing (which this movie totally lacks) for a movie to succeed.

If you are at the theater entrance trying to decide on what to see, you can leave this one as the last option. Don't worry, you won't miss anything.

It's funny how many of us use the term "Adam Sandler movie" more and more consistently. As I said before: Sandler has managed to do this kind of comedies, make them his own and get away with it. I have to say, I generally like Sandler's kind of campy, exaggerated movies. Now they added a Jack Nicholson to the recipe, and I was wondering: can this possibly work? To my relief and amazement, the answer was YES.

There's a reason for Jack Nicholson to be one of my favorite actors of all time: he floods the screen with his personality, he can be the scariest villain or the funniest looney ever. He is simply the best. I liked the fact that Nicholson was given the first credit; it is a wide spread tendency these days to put one of these youngsters preceding a well-know movie legend (Keanu Reeves before Pacino, Banderas before Hopkins or Affleck before Freeman, to name a few).

In "Anger Management" Nicholson plays Buddy Ridell, an anger management therapist trying to "help" Dave Buznik (Sandler) get over his problems by the hard way... the VERY hard way. That is IF Buznik has any behavior problems at all. Ah well, if he didn't have any he's about to.

Sandler and Nicholson make a very funny on-screen duo. Both fit in those characters to perfection. Nicholson being a world class know-it-all completely insane therapist and Sandler the shy guy with occasional rage outbursts, which we all know he has mastered over the years, in his own kind of way.

I wish there was a 7.5 rating option in this website. It doesn't deserve the 7 I gave it, but it doesn't make the 8 either. It just one funny film you don't want to miss, specially if you're one of us that likes Adam Sandler movies (yup, there it is again).

I despise musicals. To me, most of them are movies in which all of a sudden, and for no particular reason, people just start communicating with songs. I think it is a very difficult job trying to make this kind of stories convincing, for who in their right mind start singing out of nowhere? Animated and Disney-like movies make me more forgiving, but that's where I draw the line with one single exception so far: Chicago.

"Chicago" is two hours of pure entertainment. The whole plot is very well paced, even with all those musical numbers. The tiny difference that made me like this movie so much is that all the songs aren't real. The director does not try to convince you that all those people in jail or the courthouse just happen to like singing; instead, all the musical numbers are treated as Roxie Hart's perception of things. I just loved this way of telling the story. It fits perfectly with Roxie's personality and helps define her character: for her, it's all show business. Also, it made possible for all sequences to be cut from 'reality' to 'musical' freely, without sacrificing any of the credibility of the situation, displaying an outstanding editing work.

On top of that you get to see Reneé Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere in roles you never thought they would be so good at. My personal favorite was Reneé; she nailed the role of Roxie Hart, the girl who seeks (and finds) fame at any cost. The movie is hers completely. Catherine shows off her singing and dancing attributes (more of the first than the latter if you ask me) as Velma Kelly, Roxie's idol. Richard Gere performs surprisingly well as Billy Flynn, Hart and Kelly's lawyer. I never would have guessed he could sing, much less tap-dance! Good job Mr. Gere! (although I cannot help but think that John Travolta would have done better).

You won't regret seeing "Chicago". Not one bit. Once the DVD is out, go get it, crank up the volume and enjoy the show. (Feb '03)