Escobar: Paradise Lost (2014)

Too much of everything

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

"Escobar: Paradise Lost" is a great movie about Colombia's most ruthless, wealthiest, most powerful and certainly one of the most violent criminals of all time. It is not another Escobar biopic, instead the film provides a new perspective on him since lets you "visit" Escobar's family and estate. It recreates Hacienda Napoles quite well. Benicio Del Toro is Pablo Escobar. This is probably the best performance ever about Escobar's real character. Actor Josh Hutcherson gives a great performance as Nick, and actress Claudia Traisac who plays Maria gives a great performance. Carlos Bardem plays Drago, with a short but impressive intervention on the plot. I highly recommend you this movie.

After watching the first hour I couldn't help feeling that the film felt a little bit rushed- you didn't really get to know the characters or understand their relationships. You didn't feel any strong connections between them for example between Nick and his brother (It's not even made obvious that they are actually brothers until later than it should have been pointed out in the film. The script just felt weak and rushed and even the acting felt quite poor.That is, until around halfway through the film when this all changes when the real "action" takes place. You can see why Josh Hutcherson was cast in this role (after his roles in the Hunger Games). Benicio Del Toro looked the part however I thought he'd portray the character as more menacing and dangerous, to the point where you could feel just how powerful the character was when he walked into the room (See Wagner Moura's version from Narcos) You do end up feeling part of this gripping action thriller eventually. The tense action scenes are brilliant and you are definitely rewarded for sticking it out and continuing to watch after the first part. After seeing the trailer for this film, I couldn't wait to see it. The premise sounded great, a love story based around the worlds most notorious drug lord and the impact he had on the couple. Before watching the film, I'd seen IMDb's rating of it was a lot lower than what I expected it to be so I wasn't expecting to be blown away and I definitely wasn't in the first half. In the end I'm glad I stuck it out as I was pleasantly surprised by the 2nd hour. Not the greatest of films and a lot could have been done better but definitely worth a watch!

Review: Why haven't they made a Pablo Escobar biopic? This movie only touches on a period of his life and I must admit, I did Google his life story afterwards because his life story is definitely intriguing. I don't think that anyone else could have played Escobar, except for Al Pacino in his Scarface days. Anyway, this film follows a young Canadian surfer, Nick (Josh Hutcherson) who moves to Colombia to be with his brother. Whilst living in the woods, he meets up with Pablo Escobar's niece, Maria (Claudia Traisac) and they fall in love with the blessings from her family. After getting engaged, he builds a relationship with Pablo but his brother is worried because of the dangerous world that surrounds him. Nick soon realises that he has entered a world of drugs, violence and corruption so he tries to leave with his brother to go back to Canada with Maria but Escobar has other plans for him. With the pressure of the politicians and the American government on his back, Pablo starts to clean house before handing himself into the authorities. He gives Nick a job to hide some of his assets with the help of a young villager but Pablo has become very paranoid and he doesn't want any loose ends. Nick ends up fighting for his life against Escobar's henchmen, which also puts his family and friends in danger. Personally, I wouldn't have chosen Josh Hutcherson for this role because of his innocent face and a lack of depth behind the eyes. Benicio Del Toro has plenty of depth behind his eyes and for a lot of the scenes, he only had to look at people to get his point across. Escobar is definitely a Robin Hood type of character who created a empire which is beyond my imagination. There's many stories about the notorious Medellin cocaine cartel but I think that film makers are to scared to bring it to the big screen, which is understandable. Anyway, it's definitely a film worth watching, if your interested in the Escobar empire but don't expect an in depth biopic. Interesting!Round-Up: Puerto Rico born Benecio Del Toro, 48, hit the big time as the weird speaking Fenster in the Usual Suspects in 1995 but he had starred in quite a few movies before that, like James Bond: Licence to Kill, the Indian Runner, Fearless with Jeff Bridges, China Moon and the under-rated Swimming With Sharks. He then went on to star in the Fan, the Funeral with Christopher Walken, Excess Baggage, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was a brilliant performance alongside Johnny Depp, Snatch and the Way of the Gun. He then won a Oscar for his supporting role in Traffic and he brought out 2 films in a 3 year period called the Pledge with Jack Nicholson and Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones. After that he got another supporting role Oscar nomination for 21 Grams and after another 2 year break, he starred in Sin City in 2005. He didn't return to the big screen until 2007, alongside Halle Berry in Things We Lost in the Fire and in 2008 he played Che in the 2 movie epic. After the disappointing Wolfman and Savages he starred in Thor 2 and the brilliant Guardians of the Galaxy so he's definitely one that picks his movies with a lot of thought. Personally, I think he is a unique actor who made this movie watchable and I can't wait to see him in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. This is the first movie directed by Andrea Di Stefano who has starred in movies like Life of Pi, Nine with Daniel Day Lewis and Eat, Pray Love. For his first project, I honestly think that he put together a decent movie which has definitely touched on a interesting subject and the whole story with Nick was intense and dramatic but not as intriguing as the Pablo character. I did feel thoroughly entertained after watching the film but the ending was a bit weak because you don't know what happened with any of the characters. Budget: N/A Worldwide Gross: £3.75millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their crime/drama/romance movies about a young Canadian surfer who falls for Pablo Escobar's niece and enters a world which puts his life in danger. 6/10

The movie is definitely not as bad as the critics have said. For example, I don't see any POV problem. It might not satisfy some audience by telling the story from the perspective of a Canadian surfer boy. But it fits reasonably well with the theme of the movie and the true story it wants to tell. Besides, it makes it possible to tell the story of Pablo Escobar with a much lower budget than a real full scale bio piece on him would allow.It is obvious that the director truly loves his actors and actresses giving the amount of screen time he allows the main characters to play out their emotions. But unfortunately the emotional display was neither necessary to carry the main plot, nor does it contribute much the thriller aspect of the movie. It distracts the audience more from the main plot, and make the already weak plot even weaker.Talking about the plot, it is the weakest aspect of the movie. Half of the story is spent on events that are before the movie's inciting incident. The writer might think it is absolutely necessary for setting up the story and the characters. The truth is that it only shows the lack of skills of the writer at handling its plot.The movie is not really a linear piece as many of the reviews have claimed. There is only one real flash-back at the end of the movie which is put there in place of the real ending to create a more subtle and more literary ending. Most of the confusion is caused by the movie's choice of putting the real inciting incident at the beginning of a story, as an attempt to keep the audience's attention before delving into a backstory that covers half of the movie, an exact signal that the backstory does not belong there, and that there is something fundamentally wrong with the structure of the story. This choice of plot line might not be a bad one for a romantic movie or an art-house piece, but definitely should not be there for thriller. It makes the movie feel like a badly stitched together piece of two very different movies from completely different genres. I understand the creators of the movie want to create a contrast to convey a stronger message. But this is not a novel, or a play which is split explicitly into three acts, and the audience get to take a thirty minutes break. Keep one of the two as the main plot, and the other as a subtext, either one will be much better than what it is now.I would not recommend that the writer to go back to school to really learn how to tell a story, that would be too mean. But at least send the script to a real expert who would very likely have pointed out the flaw in the plot at very beginning, and subsequent rewrites might have guaranteed a much more successful movie.I am not sure how to comment on the acting. The movie is doomed by its plot from the beginning, there is not much the actors could have done to save it. The director made a reasonable choice, to give his stars enough freedom to create the characters. Unfortunately, when it is overdone it becomes too much a distraction and makes the plot even weaker.The only acting in the movie that really deserves accolades is from the actor who played Drango. Del Toro obviously had a lot of fun playing the character Escobar, but the end result is not proportionate to the amount of creative freedom he was given. Hutcherson did a reasonable good job at portraying the emotions of the pov character that fits the "innocence lost" theme of the movie reasonable well. But he needss a better command of how to use his body to convey his emotions. Acting is not carried out only by the muscles above the neck.