MovieChat Forums > Bosque de sombras (2007) Discussion > Big disappointment

Big disappointment

posted 18 years ago by Juevos_Punto
19 replies | jump to latest

I wanted to like this movie because I am from the region where it was made and I have friends who were working on this movie and I wanted to be proud of it. but unfortunately, it was very very bad. Everything was terrible, the acting, directing, music, everything. It will be screened at San Seb this year but I think the organisers were also very disappointed and wished it could be good.

I am still hoping we had better movies from Spain that dont have to come from Pedro. Its sad that Pedro (and maybe also Alejandro A.) is the only directors who can make good movies from my country. Except for them, Spanish cinema is really down.

[–] samo68 18 years ago

It is too bad you can not be proud of this one. I do not argue with you, I saw it in Cannes in May and it was the worst movie I saw at the market this year ! I saw some good movies like the french "Dans Paris" and some films from Germany and Italy that were small but very interesting. But this spanish film was the worst !

For me, the biggest problem in movies like this one is that the makers go for a big star like Gary Oldman to get the money first. If they say yes and accept the right price to do it then they do the movie. I like Gary Oldman as an actor but with exception of Batman, his choices have been poor lately.

Then because they need more money to do the movie, Filmax gets a french actress because the french co-production provided 10 % of the money so it is necessary to get a french actor or actress to be in the cast even if they are not right for the part. They get some of the money from Eurimages and also get support from France, the UK because of Oldman and Paddy Considine and Spain because of Sanchez-Gijon and the locations to make this. It is alot of government money too. But this is only part of the problem of why we see so many bad low budget movies like this.

Another big problem is that the script and the director are both bad. Even if you have good british actors like Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine in front of the camera, behind the camera you have people who have no talent at all so it is a waste of Gary Oldman's talent. For me I prefer to pay more to buy a film from Pedro Almodovar because I will pay for the good quality rather than to pay a cheap price to buy a nothing film like this one.

The film might make it's money back many years from now after it shows in Spain and goes to direct to DVD but "Bosque de sombras" is just another example of more bad movies that pollute the market and make our jobs harder because there is so few good movies to buy these days.

[–] Juevos_Punto 18 years ago

If it is your job to buy movies I think I will envy you. I watch only Hollywood movies now because European cinema is so bad in these days. It is fact that Pedro is the only world class director from Europe outside of England. It is better for Spain to have one good director like Pedro than none at all no?

[–] samo68 18 years ago

Pedro Almodovar is always good. Even the worse Almodovar movie is better than most of movies in the market. Hollywood still makes bad movies but overall it is still much much better than movies from Spain, with exception of the films of Almodovar. Even french movies are getting more silly now.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ilon 17 years ago

by - Juevos_Punto on Wed Aug 23 2006 12:45:07
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If it is your job to buy movies I think I will envy you. I watch only Hollywood movies now because European cinema is so bad in these days. It is fact that Pedro is the only world class director from Europe outside of England. It is better for Spain to have one good director like Pedro than none at all no?

Sólo ves peliculas de Hollywood porque el cine europeo es muy malo hoy en dia?¿
Es triste tener que leer esto. El cine de hollywood es una copia muy cara y espectacular del cine europeo. Y Pedro no es el único director con "talento" por estos lares. Yo diría que Pedro es mas bien un director que ha perdido todo su talento y al que personalmente ya no aguanto, aunque reconozco que me encantan muchas de sus primeras peliculas. Prefiero a Koldo Serra, que ya con "El tren de la bruja" demostró que tiene mucho talento por explotar. Bosque de sombras puede que no sea una obra espectacular, pero yo encuentro mucho magro en ella.

Bueno, no sé que tendras por grandes directores, grandes peliculas, etc.... Posiblemente nada bueno, viendo que solo eres capaz de juzgar de manera positiva el cine de Almodovar y de Amenabar (y el de Jolibud! que ya huele!)... Te dejas mucho, mucho, mucho, tanto español, como europeo. Y deja de ver la mierda que te meten por los ojos (cosas como Almondrovar o Almendrabar) y busca un poco más, que existen cosas muy recomendables fuera de las fronteras americanas!! Y con label Vasco! De la Iglesia, Sojo, Serra, Vigalondo, Berger, Rebollo... un sinfin de nombres con calidad, que supera la mierda de su madre y la castaña de los otros...

En mi humilde opinión, Amenabar es un copión, y Almodovar ya es muy mayor y no tiene nada nuevo que contar.

[–] jjf_ot 16 years ago

Bad european cinema? Pero donde vives? :)

[–] headmix 17 years ago

You are so right.Everything was so bad in this film.The opening credits were the only highlight for me.
Even the great Gary Oldman could'nt help this one.
Very disappointing.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Remember_Sammy_Jankis 16 years ago

Everything was terrible, the acting, directing, music, everything.

No. The acting was not bad. Only the parts with the women, but I think that has more to do with their accents. Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine are brilliant actors.

[–] DianaC224 15 years ago

The acting, the direction, and the music were all good. Seriously, Gary Oldman and the rest of the cast did a great job. The film was beautifully shot. What else do you want?

You want to see a really bad movie? One that doesn't even try to make an effort? Watch Gary's latest movie, The Unborn. That is a piece of garbage.

My Reviews Blog:
http://gothamnights.wordpress.com

[–] gkpete 15 years ago

It just goes to show you can't dress up a turd. Those things were good and that's why I kept watching. The story, however, fails and, if you were suckered into watching this with it mislabeled as a 'horror' movie, it fails miserably. There is just too little substance to the main storyline that the subplot becomes more interesting, and it's really not so much. Overall, 5.8 is about right. Maybe even a tad high.

[–] mwhite182 15 years ago

Wow, alot of negative comments about this movie. I just watched it and thought it was pretty good. I got it On Demand from FEARnet, so I was expecting a horror film. But I got something more of the likes of Straw Dogs and Deliverance. I thought it was pretty good. Gary Oldman is good in whatever he's in, and the other actors did a good job as well. And to the OP, give your country's filmakers some more credit. I've always found Guillermo Del Toro to be a great director (among the others you mentioned). The Devils Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth were awesome. I really hope I don't get flamed for liking him.

[–] travistragic 15 years ago

**spoilers for Backwoods and Haute Tension**

You just might get flamed considering Del Toro is a Mexican director, but we wouldn't be much of Americans if we didn't get everybody else confused, right? I also watched this movie on Demand from FearNET last night, but I'm starting to get used to the idea that if it stars an actual...star, chances are it isn't really a horror movie.

I was digging this movie and especially Norman by the end; but the more I liked Norman and his little killing spree, the more I was expecting some kind of twist like in High/Haute Tension; not the same EXACT twist, but something that did a role reversal for the protagonist, like finding out why that old guy was being so Go* *amned terrible at being an antagonist. I came here on IMDb to see if anybody had anything to say about the ending, and I'm kind of disheartened to see people just hate the movie for, as it appeared in my eyes as well, just absolutely falling apart. **spoiler alert** Why didn't Raul shoot him in the end? Obviously if he can clip a twig with a shotgun (director never played many FPS games as a child) it should've been fine. Why didn't he want Oldman dead until he learned that another one of his *sshole family members had been killed? Why bother bringing up her mother for one line of dialogue? Why is the girl kept this way? Obvious she doesn't have any wild behavioral problems. And, of course, the biggest question of all: Why does he shoot the kid in the end? Paul's dead, your wife doesn't want to shplack, and the only thing you can come up with is to shoot the kid and defeat all of the *hit you just went through and go to prison? What?! Of course, all of these questions have one particular answer in common; it just wouldn't be a foreign film if it kowtowed to such mundane, remedial facets of story-telling like plot continuity and cause and effect.

I suppose I agree with most people commenting here, Almodovar's stuff is better, if you're into that sort of stuff (but if you're a fearnet guy like me, you're probably not). Aja's (French) Haute Tension is great. Lots more horror and guts, but the ending to that movie I feel succeeds where this one I think was attempting to go vis-a-vis good guy/bad guy thing. If you're lucky that might still be on demand.

[–] lathe-of-heaven 11 years ago

Yes, I think you pretty much hit it right on...

*** OBVIOUS SPOILERS ***

I came here to find out what the HELL just happened. So, he DID kill the girl at the end. Damn weird...

I think you are exactly right; the ending was just so bloody stupid and pointless that it leaves you wondering WHY the hell you bothered watching the whole thing in the first place.

The elements within the film were done well; the acting (with the exception of the women - sorry ladies :) was quite good all around. But there just was no bloody substance behind the story at all. If they could have just given the story and and script a little more thought so that it actually lead somewhere NEAR satisfying, then it COULD have possibly packed a LOT bigger punch at the end. But as it is, it just honestly leaves me anyway with the total feeling that I have completely wasted my time. And I am not one to say that so easily like a lot of people here. The frustrating thing is that the elements making up the film were good enough to keep you interested and thinking that something just MIGHT happen to make it satisfying and worthwhile. But then after all this buildup you are truly left with nothing...

I have over 4000 films, many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK!

[–] lombano 11 years ago

No, the girl wasn't killed. She was clearly shown alive and unhurt after the shot is fired (into the air presumably). This is not ambiguous; anyone who thinks she was shot wasn't paying attention.

[–] lathe-of-heaven 11 years ago

Oh yeah, good point mate! AFTER writing this post, I saw a bunch of comments where people said that they saw her moving after the shot. That's good!

Cheers!

I have over 4000 films, many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK!

[–] insaneluchadore 10 years ago

They bring up the mother to help you understand why the girl is imprisoned. The mother pretty clearly had her out of wedlock, itself a big enough issue at that time and place, and the girl's deformity confirmed in the family's eyes that she was being punished by God as an abomination.

Norman didn't kill Paco or the girl at the end. Between Pig and Antonio he had used both his shells.

[–] sillyspaghetti 12 years ago

I was disappointed too. I really rate Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine as actors. But I just found this depressing and sickening. I gave it 4/10 because I thought the acting was good. But the story left me cold.

"Hey! Ladies! That was fun!"

[–] doubl3 9 years ago

Don't know why you don't like it. It was very good, in my opinion. I give it a 7 and even thought of giving it an 8, but EVERY character is unlikable, that is the only down side. Two annoying women who whine and start constant arguments, the guys were about as bad, and then basically everyone else is a criminal. But the atmosphere and overall movie was entertaining. I've watched it twice, which I would not do if it was bad. Reviewers just make no sense. They give the 80s version of The Fly almost an 8 yet this one under a 6. The Fly was boring after a while, despite still good overall.