Promedio Rojo 1

I am sorry but this is on the top 5 list of the worst movies ever. A complete apology to bad taste, lack of redeeming values, or to any values (including entertainment values for that matter). The acting is over the top, the references to many movies, (meet Joe Black, High Times in Richmond High, Some Kind of wonderful) and to styles and directors (Alex de la Iglesia, Kevin Smith) are somehow pathetic. I have seen some really good chilean movies in the last decade but this one is that kind of movie that will leave you mad for having wasted almost two hours of your life for watching it. Avoid it at all costs. It is that bad.

This movie was the big hype of 2004 in Chile. The director visited almost every mass media he could to promote the film, even 3 months before its release on theaters. With this, the film had an amazing start at box offices, everybody went saying it was a big success. But let the truth be said now. The movie is awful. Director Nicolas Lopez portrays himself as the main character, a complete nerdy loser who is the object of rejection of everybody at school, the daddy boy of the class beats him, the new Spanish beauty almost ignores him. Everything goes bad for him. Director Lopez tried to imitate the style popularized by Spanish director Alex De la Iglesia, but tried to transplant it to Chilean idiosyncrasy. The result could have been much better if he had had a good script. Some superb Chilean actors as Fernando Farias, Ernesto Belloni and Kathy Kowaleczko are absolutely wasted here, given them such minimum characters which weren't properly developed. The result is a complete mess which is not funny nor entertaining. After this movie, seems very difficult for Lopez to get some new high budget to make a mainstream movie (this one cost more than a million dollar), so it seems he will be condemned to return to his infra cult circuit where he was born and probably will remain there for the rest of his movie director life.

It's a laugh feast! Satirical, fast-paced, imaginative, savvy, wonderful performances lead by a director who knows what he is doing. Main character Roberto is a geek, but a talented comics artist, and the film weaves the real-life situations into the black&white comics book he is creating. Through his eyes real-life events are exaggerated and surreal, like when he wonders through a mall feeling a huge heart-ache for Cristina and all he sees at every step are young couples glued to each other kissing. Scenes with depraved grandfather who he adopts as mentor are hilarious. All scenes have an unexpected turn-around. Fine black-humor. A classic not to be missed!

Believe it or not this movie did great here in Chile, it's original and very different from most of the movies Chile has done. I think the main problem with this movie is that is made for Chileans. This movie says a lot about our culture, it has our sense of humor and I doubt someone from any other country (except maybe countries closer to Chile like Argentina) would really understand what is about and what the movie says about us. It's not Oscar worthy, but it stands out from most of our movies. It's well done, it's light, it's funny because it shows a lot of characters we recognize in today's society here.

To say Chileans should be embarrassed about this movie is and insult not just to me, but for our entire country, and it's completely out of line. Most of the movies made in the USA are dumb or crappy, but you can't blame that on the WHOLE country, usually you blame it on the director, or the cast, or the idea was bad, etc.

Chilean comedies seem to have a great flaw: they're either dull or vulgar: this one is both. Quite influenced by the Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, this movie imitates his style, including his faults. The story is very silly and there's nothing original in it. It concerns high school nerds in their sexual awareness and the attempts to have their first experiences (does that sound familiar to you?) It certainly looks quite old fashioned,with the most recurrent stereotypes of the American youngster comedies of the sixties like "Porky" and all its sequels and imitations. The humor is rough - kind of vulgar actually - and the interpretations are quite elementary. It was quite popular in Chile but it faded away a few months after being released.