Amazon.co.uk Review
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's striking Amores Perros is the film Pulp Fiction might have been if Quentin Tarantino were as interested in people as movies. A car crash in Mexico City entwines three stories: in one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in fights to get enough money run off with his sister-in-law Susana; in the other car is Valeria, a supermodel who's just moved in with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. As Valeria struggles to recover from her injuries her beloved dog is lost under the floor of the new apartment. Professor-turned-revolutionary El Chivo, who has been living as a derelict/assassin after a long prison sentence, rescues Octavio's injured dog from the crash. All three learn lessons about their lives from the dogs.
Amores Perros opens with chaos, as Octavio and a friend drive away from the latest dogfight with the injured canine on the back seat and enemies in hot pursuit, then hops back, forward and sideways in time. It's a risky device, delaying crucial plot information for over an hour, but the individual stories, which weave in and out of each other with true-life untidiness, are so gripping you'll be happy to go along with them before everything becomes clear. Inarritu is a real find, a distinctive and subtle voice who upends all your expectations of Mexican filmmaking by shifting confidently from raw, on-the-streets violent emotion to cool, upper-middle-class desperation. A uniformly impressive cast create a gallery of unforgettable characters, some with only brief snippet-like scenes, others--such as Emilio Echevarria as the shaggy tramp with hidden depths--by sheer presence.
On the DVD: The anamorphic presentation, augmented for 16:9 TV, is of a pristine print and shows off the imaginative cinematography (with non-removable yellow English sub-titles). The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and there are 15-minutes' worth of additional scenes with commentary by Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga (evidently the surviving trace of an entire feature commentary available on a Mexican DVD release), explaining why they were cut. With a behind-the-scenes featurette, a poster gallery, three related pop videos (two by Inarritu) and the trailer (and trailers for other Optimum releases) the special features offer a more than adequate addition to Amores Perros. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-09-13
This well directed by Alejandro Iñarritu ( Babel , 21 grams ) and interesting Mexican movie tells three interconected stories about love survival and .... dogs.
I feel that nearly every one of the stories could have made a film by itself so the end product tends to be a bit long.
The movie portraits superbly the different social classes in Mexico , from the well off an wealthy to the homeless.
The acting is very good and all the stories are interesting . the director commentaries help to understand the movie a bit better and is the best thing in the extras.
Lock up yor pets.......2007-07-01
Liked City of God? Appreciate fine acting but not from big stars? A tripartite of stories linked by the unlikely glue of mexican dog fighting will impress the discerning film-goer. Dont take the dog fighting too seriously - its only a film.
Stark depiction of modern Mexican society.......2007-01-12
There are a lot of dogs in this movie. And there are some dog-fighting scenes that dog lovers may not want to see. Be forewared, a lot of dog blood is spilled.
And why? Does director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has some kind of obsession with dogs? I don't know but according to something I read at IMDb there's a blurb at the beginning of the film stating that no animals were harmed in making the film. I played the DVD back, but I couldn't find the statement. I wonder. They sure looked harmed, and at any rate must have been sedated for some of the scenes. There is a short documentary called Los perros de'Amores perros (2000) that explains it all for those who are worrying about the dogs. Personally I'm not too worried because I very much doubt that Inarritu would make a film involving so many dogs and allow them to be hurt.
Anyway, this is a violent movie with a lot of the violence happening to the dogs. It was Inarritu's first film, or at least his first big film. He has since made, most notably, 21 Grams (2003). As in 21 Grams, there are three stories here, connected only by chance and the dogs. The opening scene is a car chase in which, we later learn, the three stories collide. There was also an accident in 21 Grams that help to hold the stories together.
Here we have (1) the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love with his older brother's wife, Susana (Vanessa Bache); (2) the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), one-time guerilla fighter, now a hit man who dresses and behaves like a homeless person; and (3) the story of Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and children for a lanky runway model, Valeria (Goya Toledo). All three stories include dogs. Octavio's dog Cofi becomes a big winner at the dog fights and makes money for Octavio which he gives to Susana to save so that they can run away together. El Chivo lives with four dogs, and Valeria has a little dog Richie that somehow (I can't figure out how) gets stuck under the floor and put upon by rats after it chases a ball through a hole in the floor.
Presumably this film shows us the violence that is endemic in Mexican society, perhaps inherited from the Aztecs and the Conquistadors, who were pretty bloody in their time. Or perhaps Inarritu knows that violence plays with the young American audiences that go to the theaters, and what he has is a nice commingling of purpose. One thing for sure, Inarritu knows how to make a film that engages the audience with not just violence but the clash of character and aspiration. A lot of the credit for the success of this film must go to the outstanding cast, in particular Emilio Echevarria and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Best, most original scene: when El Chivo leaves the two men tied up with the gun equal distance between them, just out of reach.
Bottom line: not for the squeamish.
so good, I bought it the next day.......2006-12-21
This is a film that is going to get at least a few peoples backs up before they have even allowed it to get going, as it treats something in a not unsympathetic manner that most people (this reviewer included) would regard as the very definition of cruelty to animals, namely organized dog fighting. However, give it a chance and you will rapidly find yourself drawn into the worlds of a series of interconnecting characters who's dogs have much to teach them about life and love.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who followed this up with the equally critical lauded and fractured 21 Grams, this is a film in 3 acts, each act connected by a bone crunching car crash, the very start of the film. From here, by shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in time we get to see the events leading up to the car crash and the tragic fallout of the crash itself. In one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in the aforementioned fights in order to raise enough money so that he can run away and start a better life with his sister-in-law Susana. In the other car is Valeria and her pet pooch, a model who is fast becoming a superstar and has just moved into an apartment with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. And one of the witnesses of the crash is El Chivo, a former professor turned revolutionary who is living on the streets with his pack of stray dogs following a lengthy jail term and hiring his services out as an assassin. All three of them are due to learn important lessons from their dogs.
Written by Guillerma Arraiga, who also wrote 21 Grams and the superb 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, this is the kind of film that Quentin Tarantino might have made Pulp Fiction into if he had been as interested in real people as he was in super-hip dialogue and interesting film-making techniques (and before you all get started, I am not saying that Pulp Fiction is a bad film). Every character, from the 3 leads to the plethora of supporting turns feels real, a flesh and blood human being with needs and fears, but of particular note must be Emilio Echevirria as El Chivo, a shaggy tramp with hidden depths and a lethal past, and Gael Garcia Benal as Octavio, the slum kid with big dreams, who is as compelling an actor as you are ever likely to see. Infused with an almost documentary style immediacy thanks to the hand held camera-work, Inarritu handles the non linear structure of the film with aplomb and verve, and can shift with ease from raw, on the streets violence to the hang-ups of the upper middle class. On the strength of this and his follow up 21 Grams he is a director to be embraced and cherished.
Don't watch this with your pet dog!.......2006-08-11
I started watching this film in a room with my dogs and the sounds were making them nervous.
I switched off when the bloodied carcass of a dog was dragged off from a fighting arena and the (organiser) guy was told to go and barbecue it!
I appreciate that this was probably a small part of the film and the rest could have been interesting.
I don't find cruelty to animals entertaining - and would have appreciated a warning in the abstract that the film contains cruel scenes involving animals.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's striking Amores Perros is the film Pulp Fiction might have been if Quentin Tarantino were as interested in people as movies. A car crash in Mexico City entwines three stories: in one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in fights to get enough money run off with his sister-in-law Susana; in the other car is Valeria, a supermodel who's just moved in with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. As Valeria struggles to recover from her injuries her beloved dog is lost under the floor of the new apartment. Professor-turned-revolutionary El Chivo, who has been living as a derelict/assassin after a long prison sentence, rescues Octavio's injured dog from the crash. All three learn lessons about their lives from the dogs.
Amores Perros opens with chaos, as Octavio and a friend drive away from the latest dogfight with the injured canine on the back seat and enemies in hot pursuit, then hops back, forward and sideways in time. It's a risky device, delaying crucial plot information for over an hour, but the individual stories, which weave in and out of each other with true-life untidiness, are so gripping you'll be happy to go along with them before everything becomes clear. Inarritu is a real find, a distinctive and subtle voice who upends all your expectations of Mexican filmmaking by shifting confidently from raw, on-the-streets violent emotion to cool, upper-middle-class desperation. A uniformly impressive cast create a gallery of unforgettable characters, some with only brief snippet-like scenes, others--such as Emilio Echevarria as the shaggy tramp with hidden depths--by sheer presence.
On the DVD: The anamorphic presentation, augmented for 16:9 TV, is of a pristine print and shows off the imaginative cinematography (with non-removable yellow English sub-titles). The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and there are 15-minutes' worth of additional scenes with commentary by Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga (evidently the surviving trace of an entire feature commentary available on a Mexican DVD release), explaining why they were cut. With a behind-the-scenes featurette, a poster gallery, three related pop videos (two by Inarritu) and the trailer (and trailers for other Optimum releases) the special features offer a more than adequate addition to Amores Perros. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-09-13
This well directed by Alejandro Iñarritu ( Babel , 21 grams ) and interesting Mexican movie tells three interconected stories about love survival and .... dogs.
I feel that nearly every one of the stories could have made a film by itself so the end product tends to be a bit long.
The movie portraits superbly the different social classes in Mexico , from the well off an wealthy to the homeless.
The acting is very good and all the stories are interesting . the director commentaries help to understand the movie a bit better and is the best thing in the extras.
Lock up yor pets.......2007-07-01
Liked City of God? Appreciate fine acting but not from big stars? A tripartite of stories linked by the unlikely glue of mexican dog fighting will impress the discerning film-goer. Dont take the dog fighting too seriously - its only a film.
Stark depiction of modern Mexican society.......2007-01-12
There are a lot of dogs in this movie. And there are some dog-fighting scenes that dog lovers may not want to see. Be forewared, a lot of dog blood is spilled.
And why? Does director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has some kind of obsession with dogs? I don't know but according to something I read at IMDb there's a blurb at the beginning of the film stating that no animals were harmed in making the film. I played the DVD back, but I couldn't find the statement. I wonder. They sure looked harmed, and at any rate must have been sedated for some of the scenes. There is a short documentary called Los perros de'Amores perros (2000) that explains it all for those who are worrying about the dogs. Personally I'm not too worried because I very much doubt that Inarritu would make a film involving so many dogs and allow them to be hurt.
Anyway, this is a violent movie with a lot of the violence happening to the dogs. It was Inarritu's first film, or at least his first big film. He has since made, most notably, 21 Grams (2003). As in 21 Grams, there are three stories here, connected only by chance and the dogs. The opening scene is a car chase in which, we later learn, the three stories collide. There was also an accident in 21 Grams that help to hold the stories together.
Here we have (1) the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love with his older brother's wife, Susana (Vanessa Bache); (2) the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), one-time guerilla fighter, now a hit man who dresses and behaves like a homeless person; and (3) the story of Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and children for a lanky runway model, Valeria (Goya Toledo). All three stories include dogs. Octavio's dog Cofi becomes a big winner at the dog fights and makes money for Octavio which he gives to Susana to save so that they can run away together. El Chivo lives with four dogs, and Valeria has a little dog Richie that somehow (I can't figure out how) gets stuck under the floor and put upon by rats after it chases a ball through a hole in the floor.
Presumably this film shows us the violence that is endemic in Mexican society, perhaps inherited from the Aztecs and the Conquistadors, who were pretty bloody in their time. Or perhaps Inarritu knows that violence plays with the young American audiences that go to the theaters, and what he has is a nice commingling of purpose. One thing for sure, Inarritu knows how to make a film that engages the audience with not just violence but the clash of character and aspiration. A lot of the credit for the success of this film must go to the outstanding cast, in particular Emilio Echevarria and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Best, most original scene: when El Chivo leaves the two men tied up with the gun equal distance between them, just out of reach.
Bottom line: not for the squeamish.
so good, I bought it the next day.......2006-12-21
This is a film that is going to get at least a few peoples backs up before they have even allowed it to get going, as it treats something in a not unsympathetic manner that most people (this reviewer included) would regard as the very definition of cruelty to animals, namely organized dog fighting. However, give it a chance and you will rapidly find yourself drawn into the worlds of a series of interconnecting characters who's dogs have much to teach them about life and love.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who followed this up with the equally critical lauded and fractured 21 Grams, this is a film in 3 acts, each act connected by a bone crunching car crash, the very start of the film. From here, by shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in time we get to see the events leading up to the car crash and the tragic fallout of the crash itself. In one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in the aforementioned fights in order to raise enough money so that he can run away and start a better life with his sister-in-law Susana. In the other car is Valeria and her pet pooch, a model who is fast becoming a superstar and has just moved into an apartment with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. And one of the witnesses of the crash is El Chivo, a former professor turned revolutionary who is living on the streets with his pack of stray dogs following a lengthy jail term and hiring his services out as an assassin. All three of them are due to learn important lessons from their dogs.
Written by Guillerma Arraiga, who also wrote 21 Grams and the superb 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, this is the kind of film that Quentin Tarantino might have made Pulp Fiction into if he had been as interested in real people as he was in super-hip dialogue and interesting film-making techniques (and before you all get started, I am not saying that Pulp Fiction is a bad film). Every character, from the 3 leads to the plethora of supporting turns feels real, a flesh and blood human being with needs and fears, but of particular note must be Emilio Echevirria as El Chivo, a shaggy tramp with hidden depths and a lethal past, and Gael Garcia Benal as Octavio, the slum kid with big dreams, who is as compelling an actor as you are ever likely to see. Infused with an almost documentary style immediacy thanks to the hand held camera-work, Inarritu handles the non linear structure of the film with aplomb and verve, and can shift with ease from raw, on the streets violence to the hang-ups of the upper middle class. On the strength of this and his follow up 21 Grams he is a director to be embraced and cherished.
Don't watch this with your pet dog!.......2006-08-11
I started watching this film in a room with my dogs and the sounds were making them nervous.
I switched off when the bloodied carcass of a dog was dragged off from a fighting arena and the (organiser) guy was told to go and barbecue it!
I appreciate that this was probably a small part of the film and the rest could have been interesting.
I don't find cruelty to animals entertaining - and would have appreciated a warning in the abstract that the film contains cruel scenes involving animals.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's striking Amores Perros is the film Pulp Fiction might have been if Quentin Tarantino were as interested in people as movies. A car crash in Mexico City entwines three stories: in one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in fights to get enough money run off with his sister-in-law Susana; in the other car is Valeria, a supermodel who's just moved in with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. As Valeria struggles to recover from her injuries her beloved dog is lost under the floor of the new apartment. Professor-turned-revolutionary El Chivo, who has been living as a derelict/assassin after a long prison sentence, rescues Octavio's injured dog from the crash. All three learn lessons about their lives from the dogs.
Amores Perros opens with chaos, as Octavio and a friend drive away from the latest dogfight with the injured canine on the back seat and enemies in hot pursuit, then hops back, forward and sideways in time. It's a risky device, delaying crucial plot information for over an hour, but the individual stories, which weave in and out of each other with true-life untidiness, are so gripping you'll be happy to go along with them before everything becomes clear. Inarritu is a real find, a distinctive and subtle voice who upends all your expectations of Mexican filmmaking by shifting confidently from raw, on-the-streets violent emotion to cool, upper-middle-class desperation. A uniformly impressive cast create a gallery of unforgettable characters, some with only brief snippet-like scenes, others--such as Emilio Echevarria as the shaggy tramp with hidden depths--by sheer presence.
On the DVD: The anamorphic presentation, augmented for 16:9 TV, is of a pristine print and shows off the imaginative cinematography (with non-removable yellow English sub-titles). The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and there are 15-minutes' worth of additional scenes with commentary by Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga (evidently the surviving trace of an entire feature commentary available on a Mexican DVD release), explaining why they were cut. With a behind-the-scenes featurette, a poster gallery, three related pop videos (two by Inarritu) and the trailer (and trailers for other Optimum releases) the special features offer a more than adequate addition to Amores Perros. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-09-13
This well directed by Alejandro Iñarritu ( Babel , 21 grams ) and interesting Mexican movie tells three interconected stories about love survival and .... dogs.
I feel that nearly every one of the stories could have made a film by itself so the end product tends to be a bit long.
The movie portraits superbly the different social classes in Mexico , from the well off an wealthy to the homeless.
The acting is very good and all the stories are interesting . the director commentaries help to understand the movie a bit better and is the best thing in the extras.
Lock up yor pets.......2007-07-01
Liked City of God? Appreciate fine acting but not from big stars? A tripartite of stories linked by the unlikely glue of mexican dog fighting will impress the discerning film-goer. Dont take the dog fighting too seriously - its only a film.
Stark depiction of modern Mexican society.......2007-01-12
There are a lot of dogs in this movie. And there are some dog-fighting scenes that dog lovers may not want to see. Be forewared, a lot of dog blood is spilled.
And why? Does director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has some kind of obsession with dogs? I don't know but according to something I read at IMDb there's a blurb at the beginning of the film stating that no animals were harmed in making the film. I played the DVD back, but I couldn't find the statement. I wonder. They sure looked harmed, and at any rate must have been sedated for some of the scenes. There is a short documentary called Los perros de'Amores perros (2000) that explains it all for those who are worrying about the dogs. Personally I'm not too worried because I very much doubt that Inarritu would make a film involving so many dogs and allow them to be hurt.
Anyway, this is a violent movie with a lot of the violence happening to the dogs. It was Inarritu's first film, or at least his first big film. He has since made, most notably, 21 Grams (2003). As in 21 Grams, there are three stories here, connected only by chance and the dogs. The opening scene is a car chase in which, we later learn, the three stories collide. There was also an accident in 21 Grams that help to hold the stories together.
Here we have (1) the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love with his older brother's wife, Susana (Vanessa Bache); (2) the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), one-time guerilla fighter, now a hit man who dresses and behaves like a homeless person; and (3) the story of Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and children for a lanky runway model, Valeria (Goya Toledo). All three stories include dogs. Octavio's dog Cofi becomes a big winner at the dog fights and makes money for Octavio which he gives to Susana to save so that they can run away together. El Chivo lives with four dogs, and Valeria has a little dog Richie that somehow (I can't figure out how) gets stuck under the floor and put upon by rats after it chases a ball through a hole in the floor.
Presumably this film shows us the violence that is endemic in Mexican society, perhaps inherited from the Aztecs and the Conquistadors, who were pretty bloody in their time. Or perhaps Inarritu knows that violence plays with the young American audiences that go to the theaters, and what he has is a nice commingling of purpose. One thing for sure, Inarritu knows how to make a film that engages the audience with not just violence but the clash of character and aspiration. A lot of the credit for the success of this film must go to the outstanding cast, in particular Emilio Echevarria and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Best, most original scene: when El Chivo leaves the two men tied up with the gun equal distance between them, just out of reach.
Bottom line: not for the squeamish.
so good, I bought it the next day.......2006-12-21
This is a film that is going to get at least a few peoples backs up before they have even allowed it to get going, as it treats something in a not unsympathetic manner that most people (this reviewer included) would regard as the very definition of cruelty to animals, namely organized dog fighting. However, give it a chance and you will rapidly find yourself drawn into the worlds of a series of interconnecting characters who's dogs have much to teach them about life and love.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who followed this up with the equally critical lauded and fractured 21 Grams, this is a film in 3 acts, each act connected by a bone crunching car crash, the very start of the film. From here, by shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in time we get to see the events leading up to the car crash and the tragic fallout of the crash itself. In one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in the aforementioned fights in order to raise enough money so that he can run away and start a better life with his sister-in-law Susana. In the other car is Valeria and her pet pooch, a model who is fast becoming a superstar and has just moved into an apartment with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. And one of the witnesses of the crash is El Chivo, a former professor turned revolutionary who is living on the streets with his pack of stray dogs following a lengthy jail term and hiring his services out as an assassin. All three of them are due to learn important lessons from their dogs.
Written by Guillerma Arraiga, who also wrote 21 Grams and the superb 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, this is the kind of film that Quentin Tarantino might have made Pulp Fiction into if he had been as interested in real people as he was in super-hip dialogue and interesting film-making techniques (and before you all get started, I am not saying that Pulp Fiction is a bad film). Every character, from the 3 leads to the plethora of supporting turns feels real, a flesh and blood human being with needs and fears, but of particular note must be Emilio Echevirria as El Chivo, a shaggy tramp with hidden depths and a lethal past, and Gael Garcia Benal as Octavio, the slum kid with big dreams, who is as compelling an actor as you are ever likely to see. Infused with an almost documentary style immediacy thanks to the hand held camera-work, Inarritu handles the non linear structure of the film with aplomb and verve, and can shift with ease from raw, on the streets violence to the hang-ups of the upper middle class. On the strength of this and his follow up 21 Grams he is a director to be embraced and cherished.
Don't watch this with your pet dog!.......2006-08-11
I started watching this film in a room with my dogs and the sounds were making them nervous.
I switched off when the bloodied carcass of a dog was dragged off from a fighting arena and the (organiser) guy was told to go and barbecue it!
I appreciate that this was probably a small part of the film and the rest could have been interesting.
I don't find cruelty to animals entertaining - and would have appreciated a warning in the abstract that the film contains cruel scenes involving animals.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's striking Amores Perros is the film Pulp Fiction might have been if Quentin Tarantino were as interested in people as movies. A car crash in Mexico City entwines three stories: in one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in fights to get enough money run off with his sister-in-law Susana; in the other car is Valeria, a supermodel who's just moved in with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. As Valeria struggles to recover from her injuries her beloved dog is lost under the floor of the new apartment. Professor-turned-revolutionary El Chivo, who has been living as a derelict/assassin after a long prison sentence, rescues Octavio's injured dog from the crash. All three learn lessons about their lives from the dogs.
Amores Perros opens with chaos, as Octavio and a friend drive away from the latest dogfight with the injured canine on the back seat and enemies in hot pursuit, then hops back, forward and sideways in time. It's a risky device, delaying crucial plot information for over an hour, but the individual stories, which weave in and out of each other with true-life untidiness, are so gripping you'll be happy to go along with them before everything becomes clear. Inarritu is a real find, a distinctive and subtle voice who upends all your expectations of Mexican filmmaking by shifting confidently from raw, on-the-streets violent emotion to cool, upper-middle-class desperation. A uniformly impressive cast create a gallery of unforgettable characters, some with only brief snippet-like scenes, others--such as Emilio Echevarria as the shaggy tramp with hidden depths--by sheer presence.
On the DVD: The anamorphic presentation, augmented for 16:9 TV, is of a pristine print and shows off the imaginative cinematography (with non-removable yellow English sub-titles). The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and there are 15-minutes' worth of additional scenes with commentary by Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga (evidently the surviving trace of an entire feature commentary available on a Mexican DVD release), explaining why they were cut. With a behind-the-scenes featurette, a poster gallery, three related pop videos (two by Inarritu) and the trailer (and trailers for other Optimum releases) the special features offer a more than adequate addition to Amores Perros. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-09-13
This well directed by Alejandro Iñarritu ( Babel , 21 grams ) and interesting Mexican movie tells three interconected stories about love survival and .... dogs.
I feel that nearly every one of the stories could have made a film by itself so the end product tends to be a bit long.
The movie portraits superbly the different social classes in Mexico , from the well off an wealthy to the homeless.
The acting is very good and all the stories are interesting . the director commentaries help to understand the movie a bit better and is the best thing in the extras.
Lock up yor pets.......2007-07-01
Liked City of God? Appreciate fine acting but not from big stars? A tripartite of stories linked by the unlikely glue of mexican dog fighting will impress the discerning film-goer. Dont take the dog fighting too seriously - its only a film.
Stark depiction of modern Mexican society.......2007-01-12
There are a lot of dogs in this movie. And there are some dog-fighting scenes that dog lovers may not want to see. Be forewared, a lot of dog blood is spilled.
And why? Does director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has some kind of obsession with dogs? I don't know but according to something I read at IMDb there's a blurb at the beginning of the film stating that no animals were harmed in making the film. I played the DVD back, but I couldn't find the statement. I wonder. They sure looked harmed, and at any rate must have been sedated for some of the scenes. There is a short documentary called Los perros de'Amores perros (2000) that explains it all for those who are worrying about the dogs. Personally I'm not too worried because I very much doubt that Inarritu would make a film involving so many dogs and allow them to be hurt.
Anyway, this is a violent movie with a lot of the violence happening to the dogs. It was Inarritu's first film, or at least his first big film. He has since made, most notably, 21 Grams (2003). As in 21 Grams, there are three stories here, connected only by chance and the dogs. The opening scene is a car chase in which, we later learn, the three stories collide. There was also an accident in 21 Grams that help to hold the stories together.
Here we have (1) the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love with his older brother's wife, Susana (Vanessa Bache); (2) the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), one-time guerilla fighter, now a hit man who dresses and behaves like a homeless person; and (3) the story of Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and children for a lanky runway model, Valeria (Goya Toledo). All three stories include dogs. Octavio's dog Cofi becomes a big winner at the dog fights and makes money for Octavio which he gives to Susana to save so that they can run away together. El Chivo lives with four dogs, and Valeria has a little dog Richie that somehow (I can't figure out how) gets stuck under the floor and put upon by rats after it chases a ball through a hole in the floor.
Presumably this film shows us the violence that is endemic in Mexican society, perhaps inherited from the Aztecs and the Conquistadors, who were pretty bloody in their time. Or perhaps Inarritu knows that violence plays with the young American audiences that go to the theaters, and what he has is a nice commingling of purpose. One thing for sure, Inarritu knows how to make a film that engages the audience with not just violence but the clash of character and aspiration. A lot of the credit for the success of this film must go to the outstanding cast, in particular Emilio Echevarria and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Best, most original scene: when El Chivo leaves the two men tied up with the gun equal distance between them, just out of reach.
Bottom line: not for the squeamish.
so good, I bought it the next day.......2006-12-21
This is a film that is going to get at least a few peoples backs up before they have even allowed it to get going, as it treats something in a not unsympathetic manner that most people (this reviewer included) would regard as the very definition of cruelty to animals, namely organized dog fighting. However, give it a chance and you will rapidly find yourself drawn into the worlds of a series of interconnecting characters who's dogs have much to teach them about life and love.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who followed this up with the equally critical lauded and fractured 21 Grams, this is a film in 3 acts, each act connected by a bone crunching car crash, the very start of the film. From here, by shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in time we get to see the events leading up to the car crash and the tragic fallout of the crash itself. In one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in the aforementioned fights in order to raise enough money so that he can run away and start a better life with his sister-in-law Susana. In the other car is Valeria and her pet pooch, a model who is fast becoming a superstar and has just moved into an apartment with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. And one of the witnesses of the crash is El Chivo, a former professor turned revolutionary who is living on the streets with his pack of stray dogs following a lengthy jail term and hiring his services out as an assassin. All three of them are due to learn important lessons from their dogs.
Written by Guillerma Arraiga, who also wrote 21 Grams and the superb 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, this is the kind of film that Quentin Tarantino might have made Pulp Fiction into if he had been as interested in real people as he was in super-hip dialogue and interesting film-making techniques (and before you all get started, I am not saying that Pulp Fiction is a bad film). Every character, from the 3 leads to the plethora of supporting turns feels real, a flesh and blood human being with needs and fears, but of particular note must be Emilio Echevirria as El Chivo, a shaggy tramp with hidden depths and a lethal past, and Gael Garcia Benal as Octavio, the slum kid with big dreams, who is as compelling an actor as you are ever likely to see. Infused with an almost documentary style immediacy thanks to the hand held camera-work, Inarritu handles the non linear structure of the film with aplomb and verve, and can shift with ease from raw, on the streets violence to the hang-ups of the upper middle class. On the strength of this and his follow up 21 Grams he is a director to be embraced and cherished.
Don't watch this with your pet dog!.......2006-08-11
I started watching this film in a room with my dogs and the sounds were making them nervous.
I switched off when the bloodied carcass of a dog was dragged off from a fighting arena and the (organiser) guy was told to go and barbecue it!
I appreciate that this was probably a small part of the film and the rest could have been interesting.
I don't find cruelty to animals entertaining - and would have appreciated a warning in the abstract that the film contains cruel scenes involving animals.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's striking Amores Perros is the film Pulp Fiction might have been if Quentin Tarantino were as interested in people as movies. A car crash in Mexico City entwines three stories: in one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in fights to get enough money run off with his sister-in-law Susana; in the other car is Valeria, a supermodel who's just moved in with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. As Valeria struggles to recover from her injuries her beloved dog is lost under the floor of the new apartment. Professor-turned-revolutionary El Chivo, who has been living as a derelict/assassin after a long prison sentence, rescues Octavio's injured dog from the crash. All three learn lessons about their lives from the dogs.
Amores Perros opens with chaos, as Octavio and a friend drive away from the latest dogfight with the injured canine on the back seat and enemies in hot pursuit, then hops back, forward and sideways in time. It's a risky device, delaying crucial plot information for over an hour, but the individual stories, which weave in and out of each other with true-life untidiness, are so gripping you'll be happy to go along with them before everything becomes clear. Inarritu is a real find, a distinctive and subtle voice who upends all your expectations of Mexican filmmaking by shifting confidently from raw, on-the-streets violent emotion to cool, upper-middle-class desperation. A uniformly impressive cast create a gallery of unforgettable characters, some with only brief snippet-like scenes, others--such as Emilio Echevarria as the shaggy tramp with hidden depths--by sheer presence.
On the DVD: The anamorphic presentation, augmented for 16:9 TV, is of a pristine print and shows off the imaginative cinematography (with non-removable yellow English sub-titles). The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and there are 15-minutes' worth of additional scenes with commentary by Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga (evidently the surviving trace of an entire feature commentary available on a Mexican DVD release), explaining why they were cut. With a behind-the-scenes featurette, a poster gallery, three related pop videos (two by Inarritu) and the trailer (and trailers for other Optimum releases) the special features offer a more than adequate addition to Amores Perros. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-09-13
This well directed by Alejandro Iñarritu ( Babel , 21 grams ) and interesting Mexican movie tells three interconected stories about love survival and .... dogs.
I feel that nearly every one of the stories could have made a film by itself so the end product tends to be a bit long.
The movie portraits superbly the different social classes in Mexico , from the well off an wealthy to the homeless.
The acting is very good and all the stories are interesting . the director commentaries help to understand the movie a bit better and is the best thing in the extras.
Lock up yor pets.......2007-07-01
Liked City of God? Appreciate fine acting but not from big stars? A tripartite of stories linked by the unlikely glue of mexican dog fighting will impress the discerning film-goer. Dont take the dog fighting too seriously - its only a film.
Stark depiction of modern Mexican society.......2007-01-12
There are a lot of dogs in this movie. And there are some dog-fighting scenes that dog lovers may not want to see. Be forewared, a lot of dog blood is spilled.
And why? Does director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has some kind of obsession with dogs? I don't know but according to something I read at IMDb there's a blurb at the beginning of the film stating that no animals were harmed in making the film. I played the DVD back, but I couldn't find the statement. I wonder. They sure looked harmed, and at any rate must have been sedated for some of the scenes. There is a short documentary called Los perros de'Amores perros (2000) that explains it all for those who are worrying about the dogs. Personally I'm not too worried because I very much doubt that Inarritu would make a film involving so many dogs and allow them to be hurt.
Anyway, this is a violent movie with a lot of the violence happening to the dogs. It was Inarritu's first film, or at least his first big film. He has since made, most notably, 21 Grams (2003). As in 21 Grams, there are three stories here, connected only by chance and the dogs. The opening scene is a car chase in which, we later learn, the three stories collide. There was also an accident in 21 Grams that help to hold the stories together.
Here we have (1) the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love with his older brother's wife, Susana (Vanessa Bache); (2) the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), one-time guerilla fighter, now a hit man who dresses and behaves like a homeless person; and (3) the story of Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and children for a lanky runway model, Valeria (Goya Toledo). All three stories include dogs. Octavio's dog Cofi becomes a big winner at the dog fights and makes money for Octavio which he gives to Susana to save so that they can run away together. El Chivo lives with four dogs, and Valeria has a little dog Richie that somehow (I can't figure out how) gets stuck under the floor and put upon by rats after it chases a ball through a hole in the floor.
Presumably this film shows us the violence that is endemic in Mexican society, perhaps inherited from the Aztecs and the Conquistadors, who were pretty bloody in their time. Or perhaps Inarritu knows that violence plays with the young American audiences that go to the theaters, and what he has is a nice commingling of purpose. One thing for sure, Inarritu knows how to make a film that engages the audience with not just violence but the clash of character and aspiration. A lot of the credit for the success of this film must go to the outstanding cast, in particular Emilio Echevarria and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Best, most original scene: when El Chivo leaves the two men tied up with the gun equal distance between them, just out of reach.
Bottom line: not for the squeamish.
so good, I bought it the next day.......2006-12-21
This is a film that is going to get at least a few peoples backs up before they have even allowed it to get going, as it treats something in a not unsympathetic manner that most people (this reviewer included) would regard as the very definition of cruelty to animals, namely organized dog fighting. However, give it a chance and you will rapidly find yourself drawn into the worlds of a series of interconnecting characters who's dogs have much to teach them about life and love.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who followed this up with the equally critical lauded and fractured 21 Grams, this is a film in 3 acts, each act connected by a bone crunching car crash, the very start of the film. From here, by shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in time we get to see the events leading up to the car crash and the tragic fallout of the crash itself. In one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in the aforementioned fights in order to raise enough money so that he can run away and start a better life with his sister-in-law Susana. In the other car is Valeria and her pet pooch, a model who is fast becoming a superstar and has just moved into an apartment with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. And one of the witnesses of the crash is El Chivo, a former professor turned revolutionary who is living on the streets with his pack of stray dogs following a lengthy jail term and hiring his services out as an assassin. All three of them are due to learn important lessons from their dogs.
Written by Guillerma Arraiga, who also wrote 21 Grams and the superb 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, this is the kind of film that Quentin Tarantino might have made Pulp Fiction into if he had been as interested in real people as he was in super-hip dialogue and interesting film-making techniques (and before you all get started, I am not saying that Pulp Fiction is a bad film). Every character, from the 3 leads to the plethora of supporting turns feels real, a flesh and blood human being with needs and fears, but of particular note must be Emilio Echevirria as El Chivo, a shaggy tramp with hidden depths and a lethal past, and Gael Garcia Benal as Octavio, the slum kid with big dreams, who is as compelling an actor as you are ever likely to see. Infused with an almost documentary style immediacy thanks to the hand held camera-work, Inarritu handles the non linear structure of the film with aplomb and verve, and can shift with ease from raw, on the streets violence to the hang-ups of the upper middle class. On the strength of this and his follow up 21 Grams he is a director to be embraced and cherished.
Don't watch this with your pet dog!.......2006-08-11
I started watching this film in a room with my dogs and the sounds were making them nervous.
I switched off when the bloodied carcass of a dog was dragged off from a fighting arena and the (organiser) guy was told to go and barbecue it!
I appreciate that this was probably a small part of the film and the rest could have been interesting.
I don't find cruelty to animals entertaining - and would have appreciated a warning in the abstract that the film contains cruel scenes involving animals.
Amazon.co.uk Review
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's striking Amores Perros is the film Pulp Fiction might have been if Quentin Tarantino were as interested in people as movies. A car crash in Mexico City entwines three stories: in one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in fights to get enough money run off with his sister-in-law Susana; in the other car is Valeria, a supermodel who's just moved in with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. As Valeria struggles to recover from her injuries her beloved dog is lost under the floor of the new apartment. Professor-turned-revolutionary El Chivo, who has been living as a derelict/assassin after a long prison sentence, rescues Octavio's injured dog from the crash. All three learn lessons about their lives from the dogs.
Amores Perros opens with chaos, as Octavio and a friend drive away from the latest dogfight with the injured canine on the back seat and enemies in hot pursuit, then hops back, forward and sideways in time. It's a risky device, delaying crucial plot information for over an hour, but the individual stories, which weave in and out of each other with true-life untidiness, are so gripping you'll be happy to go along with them before everything becomes clear. Inarritu is a real find, a distinctive and subtle voice who upends all your expectations of Mexican filmmaking by shifting confidently from raw, on-the-streets violent emotion to cool, upper-middle-class desperation. A uniformly impressive cast create a gallery of unforgettable characters, some with only brief snippet-like scenes, others--such as Emilio Echevarria as the shaggy tramp with hidden depths--by sheer presence.
On the DVD: The anamorphic presentation, augmented for 16:9 TV, is of a pristine print and shows off the imaginative cinematography (with non-removable yellow English sub-titles). The soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 and there are 15-minutes' worth of additional scenes with commentary by Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga (evidently the surviving trace of an entire feature commentary available on a Mexican DVD release), explaining why they were cut. With a behind-the-scenes featurette, a poster gallery, three related pop videos (two by Inarritu) and the trailer (and trailers for other Optimum releases) the special features offer a more than adequate addition to Amores Perros. --Kim Newman
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-09-13
This well directed by Alejandro Iñarritu ( Babel , 21 grams ) and interesting Mexican movie tells three interconected stories about love survival and .... dogs.
I feel that nearly every one of the stories could have made a film by itself so the end product tends to be a bit long.
The movie portraits superbly the different social classes in Mexico , from the well off an wealthy to the homeless.
The acting is very good and all the stories are interesting . the director commentaries help to understand the movie a bit better and is the best thing in the extras.
Lock up yor pets.......2007-07-01
Liked City of God? Appreciate fine acting but not from big stars? A tripartite of stories linked by the unlikely glue of mexican dog fighting will impress the discerning film-goer. Dont take the dog fighting too seriously - its only a film.
Stark depiction of modern Mexican society.......2007-01-12
There are a lot of dogs in this movie. And there are some dog-fighting scenes that dog lovers may not want to see. Be forewared, a lot of dog blood is spilled.
And why? Does director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has some kind of obsession with dogs? I don't know but according to something I read at IMDb there's a blurb at the beginning of the film stating that no animals were harmed in making the film. I played the DVD back, but I couldn't find the statement. I wonder. They sure looked harmed, and at any rate must have been sedated for some of the scenes. There is a short documentary called Los perros de'Amores perros (2000) that explains it all for those who are worrying about the dogs. Personally I'm not too worried because I very much doubt that Inarritu would make a film involving so many dogs and allow them to be hurt.
Anyway, this is a violent movie with a lot of the violence happening to the dogs. It was Inarritu's first film, or at least his first big film. He has since made, most notably, 21 Grams (2003). As in 21 Grams, there are three stories here, connected only by chance and the dogs. The opening scene is a car chase in which, we later learn, the three stories collide. There was also an accident in 21 Grams that help to hold the stories together.
Here we have (1) the story of Octavio (Gael Garcia Bernal) who is in love with his older brother's wife, Susana (Vanessa Bache); (2) the story of El Chivo (Emilio Echevarria), one-time guerilla fighter, now a hit man who dresses and behaves like a homeless person; and (3) the story of Daniel (Alvaro Guerrero) who leaves his wife and children for a lanky runway model, Valeria (Goya Toledo). All three stories include dogs. Octavio's dog Cofi becomes a big winner at the dog fights and makes money for Octavio which he gives to Susana to save so that they can run away together. El Chivo lives with four dogs, and Valeria has a little dog Richie that somehow (I can't figure out how) gets stuck under the floor and put upon by rats after it chases a ball through a hole in the floor.
Presumably this film shows us the violence that is endemic in Mexican society, perhaps inherited from the Aztecs and the Conquistadors, who were pretty bloody in their time. Or perhaps Inarritu knows that violence plays with the young American audiences that go to the theaters, and what he has is a nice commingling of purpose. One thing for sure, Inarritu knows how to make a film that engages the audience with not just violence but the clash of character and aspiration. A lot of the credit for the success of this film must go to the outstanding cast, in particular Emilio Echevarria and Gael Garcia Bernal.
Best, most original scene: when El Chivo leaves the two men tied up with the gun equal distance between them, just out of reach.
Bottom line: not for the squeamish.
so good, I bought it the next day.......2006-12-21
This is a film that is going to get at least a few peoples backs up before they have even allowed it to get going, as it treats something in a not unsympathetic manner that most people (this reviewer included) would regard as the very definition of cruelty to animals, namely organized dog fighting. However, give it a chance and you will rapidly find yourself drawn into the worlds of a series of interconnecting characters who's dogs have much to teach them about life and love.
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who followed this up with the equally critical lauded and fractured 21 Grams, this is a film in 3 acts, each act connected by a bone crunching car crash, the very start of the film. From here, by shifting backwards, forwards and sideways in time we get to see the events leading up to the car crash and the tragic fallout of the crash itself. In one car is Octavio, who has been entering his dog in the aforementioned fights in order to raise enough money so that he can run away and start a better life with his sister-in-law Susana. In the other car is Valeria and her pet pooch, a model who is fast becoming a superstar and has just moved into an apartment with her lover Daniel, who has left his wife for her. And one of the witnesses of the crash is El Chivo, a former professor turned revolutionary who is living on the streets with his pack of stray dogs following a lengthy jail term and hiring his services out as an assassin. All three of them are due to learn important lessons from their dogs.
Written by Guillerma Arraiga, who also wrote 21 Grams and the superb 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, this is the kind of film that Quentin Tarantino might have made Pulp Fiction into if he had been as interested in real people as he was in super-hip dialogue and interesting film-making techniques (and before you all get started, I am not saying that Pulp Fiction is a bad film). Every character, from the 3 leads to the plethora of supporting turns feels real, a flesh and blood human being with needs and fears, but of particular note must be Emilio Echevirria as El Chivo, a shaggy tramp with hidden depths and a lethal past, and Gael Garcia Benal as Octavio, the slum kid with big dreams, who is as compelling an actor as you are ever likely to see. Infused with an almost documentary style immediacy thanks to the hand held camera-work, Inarritu handles the non linear structure of the film with aplomb and verve, and can shift with ease from raw, on the streets violence to the hang-ups of the upper middle class. On the strength of this and his follow up 21 Grams he is a director to be embraced and cherished.
Don't watch this with your pet dog!.......2006-08-11
I started watching this film in a room with my dogs and the sounds were making them nervous.
I switched off when the bloodied carcass of a dog was dragged off from a fighting arena and the (organiser) guy was told to go and barbecue it!
I appreciate that this was probably a small part of the film and the rest could have been interesting.
I don't find cruelty to animals entertaining - and would have appreciated a warning in the abstract that the film contains cruel scenes involving animals.
UK DVD:
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- Casanova [2005]
- Casino [1996]
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- Charmed - Series 1
- Charmed - Series 3
- Charmed - Series 5
UK DVD List
UK DVD
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