Description: Heaven has sent its best, and the devil has enlisted his worst - Victoria Abril and Penelope Cruz co-star as agents doing battle for ultimate supremacy. The winner is to be decided by whoever can secure the soul of a short-tempered, punch-drunk boxer on earth. These sexy angels pull no punches, using their brains, wiles and of course, sex appeal. Damnation has never been this seductive, and seduction never more heavenly; he’s not going to know what hit him…he’s only human!
This movie was very entertaining, and the actresses were simply amazing. I was able to enjoy every single minute of it.
Something very different This whole film is a bit quirky. The premise of a contest between heaven and hell is a bit outlandish. The languages spoken in each place are interesting, and some of the characters are unique. Gael Garcia Bernal gives an outrageous and likable performance as the leader of hell, and Penelope Cruz is very unique as what turns out to be a guy in a female body. Trying to make sense out of what the movie is supposed to mean might make your head spin, but if you don't think too hard, it can be entertaining.
In Heaven they speak French, in Hell, English. There are problems in the afterlife. Heaven is on the verge of bankruptcy, while Hell is suffering from overcrowding and its CEO (Hell is run like a business) is about to be overthrown. The only thing that can stop either of these events is the acquisition of a certain soul, that of a Spanish boxer. Enter Penelope Cruz and Victoria Abril. Abril plays the agent of Heaven, who must pose as the boxer's estranged wife, while Cruz plays the agent of Hell, who is posing as the boxer's long-lost cousin and who isn't quite what she appears.
This film is very good fun. It's fun to see the writer and director's vision of the afterlife (Heaven is Paris and Hell is a prison), and the ending had me giggling for the next two days. It is also fun to see Gael Garcia Bernal as Jack Davenport, the charismatic CEO of Hell (who happens to hold a Swiss passport while on Earth). It's not a perfect film, but you're also not going to waste your money if you buy it.
A different side of "La Pe" The movie has been rehashed plot wise here endlessly so I won't go there. The movie is a grab bag of good and bad parts, great scenes, mediocre scenes and flat out bad scenes; therefore it is disjointed. I think this is in part because of what it takes on. Heaven, Earth , Hell, the afterlife like never imagined, plots, sub plots, bizarre scenarios, crazy impossible situations are all battling for your attention like the protagonists battling for the soul of the boxer. Gael Bernal-Garcia is a funny but limited director of hell, he doesn't have enough of a role I believe, Victoria Abril is very good in her role as an angel on Earth and Penelope Cruz rocks as a fallen angel, a man returned as a woman bidding for the boxers soul. I love Penelope Cruz in most of her roles so I am impartial. She gives a very good gutsy, down to earth, comedic performance. Her scene where she dances to "Kung Fu Fighting" is hilarious and should be remembered alongside Travolta's "Stay'n Alive." The problem is the audience is different and many mainstream movie goers will never witness her performance. Speaking of audience, it is interesting to note that the movie did well in Spain and Europe. The audience has(everything) something to do with appreciation for cultural nuances in a film. I found the dark comedy to be pretty entertaining, hilarious at times, a little bit of a let down at other times but worhty of an hour and a half of my life. I would give it 3.5 stars. This movie is definitely not for everyone. Recommended for fans of Penelope Cruz and absurd comedies that reflect on our existence and the unknown; between laughs you might even ponder your own existence and the what if's surrounding your existence.
Charming, if a bit pretentious The eternal struggle between Heaven and Hell seems to have come down to one soul: that of a worn-down boxer in Madrid (or at least, that's what Hell's number crunchers claim.) Each side has sent an agent to try to steer Manny Chavez (Demian Bichir) toward their side: Lola Nevado (Victoria Abril) for Heaven and Carmen Ramos (Penélope Cruz) for Hell.
Each agent is quite good in manipulating Manny and other circumstances surrounding him, but neither is quite powerful enough to overcome some of the other forces at work that threaten Manny, including a pair of crooked Madrid cops trying to shake him down for their influential boss.
The lines between good and evil begin to blur as the movie progresses. Lola, who is posing as Manny's wife, is certainly willing to use sex to try to steer Manny in the right direction. Carmen herself possesses considerable charms, but doesn't follow Lola's lead because... well, that would be telling. Near the end, it's hard to tell who works for whom when both are enmeshed in a plot to appease the cops.
Writer/director Augustin Diaz Yanes' script is quite amusing, and he uses language and film effects creatively in this movie. Most of the action takes place on Earth, in Spanish. Heaven is portrayed in black and white as a nightclub where the management and patrons speak French. Hell, meanwhile, is a darkly-tinted prison where each "circle" represents some unique form of punishment depending on the sin... and everyone speaks English.
Abril's performance and character seem quite vanilla at first, but she seems to gain momentum during the latter half of the movie. The sexually ambiguous Carmen is far from a typical Cruz character, but her portrayal is quite effective (watch for that little dance she does to "Kung-Fu Fighting" late on.) Gael Garcia Bernal definitely steals the show as Hell's eccentric CEO Jack Davenport, who is trying to fend off a conspiracy within Hell to replace him.
The movie, originally called "Sin noticias de Dios" (No News from God) is not particularly deep or memorable, but it is fairly entertaining if not taken too seriously.
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