800 Bullets (2002)

Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

A different way of telling a story

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Alex de la Iglesia is probably one of SPain's finest filmmakers. An artist that can deliver such masterpieces as El dia de la bestia is really worth following. Here he derails with a tale the takes too long to unfold nd takes the spectator nowhere. Alex major problem lies always with the scripting of his films. Hs first film spent half of its footage presenting us a group of characters that were then killed so that the story could go in a different different direction. Same mistake here. The story starts and evolves then stops and then starts again in a different direction, etc. We are never heading in a concrete direction. The filmmaker gets lost among all the characters and their troubles never deciding which route to take. He is a good craftsman, and the film is above average in the technical department, still it's pretty boring, unusually so for a De La Iglesia comedy.

I rented this one on a hunch, not having watched any of director De La Iglesia's work, even if I had heard of him - if not the film in question.I thought this was going to be an out-and-out Spaghetti Western update, and it looks like it at first, but the way it developed makes it original and even more interesting than I had imagined! It's frequently uproarious and displays a refreshing irreverence, especially in its use of foul language (which I found even funnier because it's so similar to our own); astoundingly, there are also sex scenes witnessed by, and almost involving, a minor! Deliberately paced and overlong, it ultimately emerges as an endearing, even infectious, spoof of Spaghetti Western film-making and the world of stunt-men (which to me, having been in Hollywood a little while back, has a special relevance). Recurring jokes like forgetting the hanged man once the shooting's over, a stuntman dedicated to making his fall from a roof-top as realistic as possible, and the front of a poor woman's house being demolished by a runaway van are very funny, and there's a hilarious funeral finale with a surprising appearance by "Clint Eastwood" (who, as everyone knows, became a household word in Italian Westerns filmed in Spain)! The cast is largely made up of unknowns (except for Carmen Maura) but they enter enthusiastically into the tongue-in-cheek spirit of things, with Sancho Gracia's characterization being especially vivid (at times, even a moving one). Indeed, among the various in-jokes which crop up throughout the film is the mention of the Raquel Welch/Burt Reynolds Western 100 RIFLES (1969), a film in which Gracia really appeared!

Alex de la Iglesia, not one of our favorite Spanish directors, seems to have great ideas for the movies he wants to do. The execution, though, is always problematic. Having said that, "800 balas" seems to be one of the most accessible pictures he has ever directed. Mr. de la Iglesia wanted to pay homage to that era of the sixties in which his country played host to the so called Spaghetti Western genre, which by the way, was an Italian phenomenon, not a Spanish one.The film concentrates in the figure of Julian Torralba, who brags about his friendship with the great stars that participated in the many movies shot around Almeria. Torralba tells, anyone who will listen, about the days in which Clint Eastwood came to the area to work. His friends who take part in the show they put for tourists, don't believe a word he is saying.The arrival of Torralba's grandson, a young boy from Madrid, is the event that turns around the action in that run down place where these Spanish pseudo-bandits stage their gun fights. In fact, the young boy, Carlos, brings Torralba to his senses and helps to reunite the old man with his estranged daughter Laura, who is Carlos' mother.Sancho Gracia as Torralba has some good moments. The young Luis Castro is seen as the sweet boy searching for a grandfather he never knew. Carmen Maura, who has worked with the director before, doesn't have much to do in the film.

To keep it simple, this film is just good fun to watch, especially if your a fan of the old spaghetti westerns.Lots of laughs to be found (many revolving around a 12 year old being corrupted by the old men & their big drinking, whore loving lifestyle).After dragging slightly in the middle of the film, 800 Bullets, picks up the pace for a great final 30-odd minutes, where it's all action.Interesting that an "Original Music" credit has been given to Roque Banos, considering that all that was done was to remix Ennio Morricone's classic spaghetti western themes.I highly recommend this film to anyone, especially in the mood for a fun, rollicking film. 8/10