Review of Amores Perros (2000) by Brett G — 25 Feb 2010

After hearing people rave about this movie for weeks I finally got down to it. Bought it on itunes for 5 bucks, no less. I have to say that this film had a lot of promise from the beginning but slowly but surely lost my attention.

I have a problem getting interested in stories about people making stupid decisions. Don't dog fight. Don't cheat on your wife. Don't rob banks. Don't hate your brother. Don't try to steal your brother's wife. Don't leave a hole in the middle of your living room floor. Don't hire a guy to kill your brother.

I understand that all of these "don'ts" make for interesting viewing, but putting it all in one film centered around a car crash and saying that the car crash was the cause of a lot of the problems is pretty silly and over the top.

Then you have Octavio's friend caring about the dying dog while they are being shot at. Why does he all of the sudden care about his friend's dog that he has been using for dog fights?

Also, the bearded man's story isn't really connected to the car crash as much as it was "forced" to be connected to the car crash.

I guess that this film influenced the others like Crash and Babel, but other than that I find Crash and Babel much more intriguing than this one.

An hour shorter would have helped pick up the pace and I would have liked it a lot better.