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24 reviews in total

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10 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
One of the best films from Spain!!!!, 18 March 2003
Author: Rogelio Duron De La Garza (rogelioduron@hotmail.com) from Monterrey N.L. México

This movie was great, i really loved the character development,the way director Alex de la Iglesia used its shots and gave us this dark comedy with suspense filled film. Now as a part of my vast collection this film stands as a great film from its director, i was (and still am in some sort of way) in love with his "Day of the beast" now his latest La Comunidad is a great film that shows us a fun story about people ways into big time money. I hope you have a chance to see it and have a blast about its crazyness and its fun ways to entertain all ages. The starwars freak in this film was so funny, i just love his scenes. I want to give it a good 10 out of 10 on Spanish cool horror/suspense films.

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11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
A first class thriller with some wonderful touches of black comedy. A real return to form for Alex de la Iglesia!, 23 January 2003
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

The last movie I saw directed by Alex de la Iglesia was the disappointing 'Perdita Duranga', which had very little of the inspired invention and originality of his brilliant horror comedy classic 'The Day Of The Beast'. It always felt like a bit of a compromise to me - Iglesia takes on Hollywood and loses. 'Common Wealth' sees the director back in Spain, and back in complete control, and what we end up with is a first rate thriller cum black comedy. Almodovar regular Carmen Maura leads a great ensemble cast in this hugely enjoyable movie. In some ways reminiscent of other "unexpected windfall" movies like 'Shallow Grave' and 'A Simple Plan', Iglesias then takes the basic plot premise in new, unforeseen directions. The viewer is left constantly surprised, and the film is engrossing right until the very end. Highly recommended!

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9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Great dark comedy thriller, 10 May 2003

Author: Simon Booth from UK

Alex De La Iglesia is one of a triumvirate of Spanish directors whose deliciously black comedies have found a sizeable audience outside of Spain (the other two being Bigas Luna and the master Pedro Almodovar). Iglesia's debut ACCIONE MUTANTE was a wonderfully perverse low budget sci-fi parody, but it was his super-dark horror comedy THE DAY OF THE BEAST that first brought him international recognition, and a brief and unlikely stab at Hollywood with the entertaining PERDITA DURANGO.

LA COMMUNIDAD shows that Iglesia has matured a *lot* as a film maker, and feels much slicker and more accomplished than his earlier films. Carmen Maura (Spain's finest actress) plays an estate agent with a gift for telling lies, who discovers a stash of money in an appartment she has to show to some clients. She thinks this is what her life has been waiting for, but she doesn't count on THE COMMUNITY that inhabits the appartment building.

LA COMMUNIDAD is a wonderful thing - a horror movie about ordinary people. Forget mutants, satanists or the devil himself - none of these are as scary as the guy next door! Iglesia brings out the darkest side of our human nature, bringing out delicious black comedy, horror and thriller elements without the need to invoke anything supernatural or fantastical.

Iglesia's direction is assured - helped no doubt by having a veteren like Maura in the lead role. The pacing of the film is spot on, and the atmosphere and tension is built to great effect. The film is creepy, crazy and builds to real edge of the seat tension. The characters are all wonderful, and the cast give great performances. A great piece of work!

9/10

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
a really funky, movie that entertains!!!, 30 July 2004
Author: Wikus J Janse van Rensburg from Afaria Beach

I saw this movie on Tv last night where it was called "Common wealth"

It is really a movie that has it all...Suspense,drama,action humor and a little bit of love. There is no movie even remotely comparable to this, but if movies were cars I would say that this would be a collision between the Matrix,Rosemary's baby, Clerks and in a way maybe Run Lola run. It is one of those headturner movies that proves once more that European filmmakers are brilliant at making films and having said that, I personally LUVED this movie.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Wickedly funny thriller, 17 February 2005

Author: ThrownMuse from The land of the Bunyips

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Julia (Carmen Maura) and her husband are in their 50s and cannot find steady work. She finds herself doing temporary work as an apartment broker in Madrid. After showing a couple a lavish apartment, she calls her hubby over, thinking they could enjoy a night in the classy place. This romantic notion is killed when cockroaches fall through a crack in the ceiling. She calls the fire department and they go into above apartment, where they discover heaps of rotting trash...and a severely rotting corpse! After the scene has quieted down, Julia stumbles upon several clues that lead her back to the squalid apartment...and to 300 million pesetas! Now that she sees herself as a millionaire, she decides to take up residence in the fabulous apartment herself while pondering over what to do with the money.

Everything is finally looking up for Julia.

Until she stumbles into Darth Vader in the hallway. And why is her new neighbor bringing a large kitchen knife when coming to introduce himself?

This terrific black comedy from Spain, finally released on DVD in the US, is a bit of a cross between "The Tenant" and "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." Chockful of film references, "Common Wealth" (the clever English title, pun intended!) effortlessly blends and bends genres. It begins deceptively as a light comedy that turns dark abruptly. Then it glides into Hitchcockian suspense that transforms into all-out horror, all the while keeping its deliciously nasty humorous edge. The direction is top-notch and the camera-work fascinating. The main thing that makes this movie works is the exceptional ensemble cast of unlikeable oddball characters, led by the outstanding Maura (former Almodovar It-Girl).

There are a few plot points that don't make sense and some of the pacing choices are rather odd, but the writing is witty enough to distract from this. There are also some action sequences that some might find ridiculous, but they fit in with the dark humor and inherent craziness and desperation in the story. "Common Wealth" is an excellent movie that is one of the best recent films from Spain that I've seen. My Rating: 8/10.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Definitely "a must see" !, 6 September 2001

Author: arminio from Croatia

I was really surprised when I watched this movie - only de la Iglesia's movie I watched before this was "La dia de la bestia" (Day of the beast) which was very good but this masterpiece is even better ! Here is everything: twisted plot where all characters are "twisted" (even one that looks good and nice at the beginning turn opposite), atmosphere is great, humor is bizzare and black like a night :) ... and there are some rather gory scenes with amazing action-stunt ending !

I mean, worth watching of any minute - I give it 10 ! Highly recommended !

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5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A Suspenseful Tale of Greed, With Lots of Black Humor, 2 August 2004

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In Madrid, Julia (Carmen Maura) is a broker of fifty and something years trying to sell an old apartment without garage, but downtown and well located. When she visits the place with her clients, she realizes that the apartment is ready for living, having all furniture and outfits. She decides to stay in the apartment for a couple of days with her loser mate while performing the sale. There is a water infiltration through the ceiling from the upper apartment and the firemen are called. They find the neighbor, an old man, dead in a very dirty apartment. Julia finds by chance three hundred millions of pesetas in his apartment, but becomes trapped by the other weird neighbors that want to get the old man's money for themselves. This suspenseful tale of greed, with lots of black humor, is another great movie of Aléx de la Iglesia (of `Mutant Action', `The Day of the Beast' and `Perdita Durango' among others). Alternating crime and thriller with very dark comedy in bizarre situations, it is an excellent entertainment for fans of this genre. I liked it a lot. This movie was awarded with the Goya Award. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `A Comunidade' (`The Community')

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Movie Review, 15 December 2005

Author: gleichal from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Alex de la Iglesía directed the movie La Comunidad in 2000. The film was set in Spain. The principal actors and actresses are Carmen Maura (Julia) and Eduardo Antuña (Charly). The movie is about the things people will do to obtain their dreams. Julia, a woman of 40 years, works temporarily for a real estate agency. She is in love with one of the apartments that she is trying to sell In the apartment, there was a leak and she called the firefighters. This caused the firefighters to find a dead old man in the apartment above her. In the wallet of the dead man, there was a map to find 300,000,000 pesetas under the floor. Ricardo the husband of Julia, didn't know about the money and was really mad at her. It was because she has a job and he doesn't, so he left her. The neighbors of the dead man knew about the money and watched over his apartment. They all wanted a part of the money and thought that they deserved it. Emilio is the leader of the group and was with the dead man when he won the money. The dead man was very afraid of the neighbors and never left his apartment. Now the neighbors suspect that Julia has the money and try to kill her. In the process they end up killing each other.

The movie is a comedy with some parts of terror and crime. It has a lot of dark humor and a lot of obscure parts. I didn't like the scenes with the dead bodies Especially the one when Dominguez died in the elevator. The characters are energetic and full of emotions. One of my favorite was Charly because he thought he was Darth Vader. He is funny and a little abstract.

One major theme in the movie is greed. A lot of the characters are very greedy. They want all of the money for themselves and will kill others for it. I think it is a good representation of greedy people. It is a little exaggerated but in real life people have killed others for money.

In conclusion, La Comunidad is a good comedy with animated and vivid characters. The plot is new and exciting. I would recommend this movie to all.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
One of the best movies from spain, 10 January 2002

Author: Thomas Reel from germany

i love this film....Carmen Maura is gorgeous. A new excellent flick from the best director from spain...ALEX DE LA IGLESIA. This man made only GOOD stuff. Eviva Espagna !!!

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Beware: Hungry Tenants, 12 February 2012
Author: Jizdenky from Fraggle Rock

I watched Alex de la Iglesia's 'La Comunidad' on a whim and was pleasantly surprised. This black comedy farce may bear some resemblance to films like 'Le Lòcataire' and 'Apartment Zero' but the only similarity is that all three films take place in an apartment building and the story involves the tenants. While the aforementioned examples are far darker in tone and disturbing to an extent, 'La Comunidad' is more satirical and comic.

To get the minuses out of the way, the first half is quite slow but I'd suggest that one be patient because what follows is both chilling and funny. The suspense is brilliantly maintained.

Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Álex de la Iglesia have penned a fine screenplay. The sometimes-subtle sometimes-not-subtle humour works on various levels. The laughably pathetic tenant characters are a delight and the protagonist Julia is easily recognizable. The score fits well and the lighting is exceptional. The art direction deserves special mention. The apartment building in itself is a character and the interiors look authentic.

Carmen Maura is remarkable as her performance is completely natural. Plus, she looks very hot too. The actors playing the neighbours do a terrific job too.

In the end, I'm pleased I saw this as I can always enjoy a good black comedy.

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