Miguel Coyula's film Red Cockroaches is something that is not for everyone, but for myself, it is one of the greatest surreal films I have seen to date. Besides the fact that the film is a tour de force of no-budget cinema, it is an involving and engrossing story that leaves more questions than answers for its audience when the ending credits stop rolling. The history of these characters is shrouded in mystery and dangerous secrets which makes the confrontations between each of them all the more memorable, adding to the drama and complexity of their relationships. Though there were parts I was completely confused on why they were in the film, these parts were far and few between. However, several of these instances were made clear and their place was justified after several viewings of the film. Red Cockroaches has a place of special attention on my shelf and Miguel's next film I am certain will even be greater than what I have just reviewed.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Terrible, Agonizing, and Possibly Insulting
27 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This film lacks both drive and creative innovation. I can forgive the first one because I know that the Disney Channel churns almost nothing but televised fantasy worlds that is thrown together with bad writing and low-key acting. There is nothing that I find appealing with this film and saying that, I walked out of the early screening ten minutes into the film. I later watched it online, to try to give it a chance, but this film ranks with "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" as one of the worst movies I have seen. A combination of stock Disney Channel acting, with Broadway rip-off choreography mixed with bad dance numbers that you might see in hip-hop music videos, and then add the poor dialogue written by Peter Barsocchini, and shotty direction by Kenny Ortega, you've got a masterpiece of bad film-making. I had been partially hopeful that it would be bearable to sit through because the director was Kenny Ortega, who had directed "Hocus Pocus", one of my favorite childhood films. But he simply takes to this film just as Martin Brest did with "Gigli"
badly. With the overall theme of these preppy and obnoxious teenagers finishing up their senior year in high school, there isn't much you can work with. If it had been a realistic portrayal of high school with a decent writer and passable acting, Ortega could have pulled off something marginally acceptable. But this does not pass the mark, not by a long shot. It is simply a horrendous movie.
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