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Its no doubt that here in Guatemala we are still opening our way in cinema, Puro Mula shows us a brand new concept and focus about Guatemalan Cinema that feels fresh and different from what we are used to. Before Start Reviewing I want to give my brief retrospective about Guatemalan Cinema.

I have always taught that Guatemalan cinema has been very slow in progress, mostly showing the Cheesy comedies of Nito and Neto, that ultimately have become in some points part of the popular culture in Guatemala, but still being cheesy and monotone comedies that honestly I don't care for. There are in fact some very well crafted films like El Silencio de Neto o Donde Acaban los Caminos. Both good dramas but almost no one knows them. Of course in the past couple of years there were some films like Gerardi, based on the life of the Priest Gerardi and Gasolina, a different kind of movie but also my reception was not so convinced. We don't have too much films and we are already creating a plot cliché,and is no exaggeration, almost all dramas and other films focus on stories of the Civil War, Political Events or plots between the Native Americans and the Citizens of Guatemala. I don't mean to bash it, but it comes to me as something too overused.

REVIEW: Puro Mula took a whole new approach to the audiences in form of a Comedy but also with some dramatic and artsy tousches here and there. I have to admit I was surprised, the creativity and focus of this movie was really interesting and for the most part because finally we are starting to see something different. The story is about a 28 year old guy called Joel who is leaving a very unbalanced and irresponsable life, he doesn't works, lives with his father and the only thing he likes is drinking and rest. However, his day takes a big turn when he has to take care of his nephew and during the day the child is missing and is his job to look for him in the whole neighborhood. Basically thats the whole point of the movie but with enough jokes, dialogues and situations to keep you interested. The strong language using guatemalan slangs is pretty much the heart of the comedy and is a very funny kind of humor to hear that vocabulary on the big screen. But is the kind of humor that only guatemalans get, also because of the scenario and the location. With this movie Im pretty sure they were trying to go for a different approach and make a movie for a wider audience. I have to admit that the name alone got my attention, "Puro Mula" which means more or less "Like a dumbass" and well, that was a very interesting title. I loved the first 25 or 30 minutes of the movie, but I felt that slowly It was loosing the trail. The strong language humor eventually gets old and some of the situations and dramatic elements of the movie just didn't worked for me a whole lot, in the end starts to make a approach more or less to a drama, and the intention wasn't bad but It was done unbalanced and thats why I think the las parts of the movie feel very inconsistent. I also didn't like the ending but I wont spoil It, I felt they wanted to make an ending in some sort of dramatic way, Joel's fate in the future is more or less up to the audience but the formula of this last part just didn't do it for me, the focus was good but It felt unbalanced with the sudden change in the tone of the movie. The acting was not great, but overall all of the actors did a good job and Domingo Lemus as Joel was the one who actually deserves the prize. Not much to say about his acting, but It was a good and consistent performance in a more or less coming of age focus. Also It feels like the actors had a lot of fun in the making of the movie, and that same feelings transcends into the audience. Overall, Its flawed and feels unbalanced but this one is a different and fresh approach to the guatemalan cinema, and this one is a comedy that you may want to try out, I spect to see more in this kind of focus more often in our cinema.

I have always thought about Akira as one turning point in the history of anime and general animation as well. It was one of the very first animated movies to show gruesome acts of violence, people getting killed, and blood and gore all over the place. Of course, this is not the first time an animated movie directed to a mature audience was made. In fact, for me the first movie of this kind was Heavy Metal from 1981. I admit Heavy Metal is awesome but the movie wasn't that popular, and became more of a cult movie rather that something that completely redefined the genre. For me Akira was not only the movie that completely redefined the genre of mature animated films, but also was the movie that showed everyone that anime, and "cartoons" were not longer exclusive of the kids culture. When It came out, Akira made look animation for the first time as something cool. It was no longer something for a small group of followers of anime, but opened the genre and animation to a much more bigger audience, including the Media. I cannot think of any other animated film that made such a drastic revolution such as Akira. The movie is amazing not only for the mature themes, but also the story and the animation itself are the show stealers. The animation was fabulous, extremely detailed and extremely accurate into showing a "Cyberpunk" world. The city of Neo Tokyo stills being one of the most amazing things ever made in animation, and the action scenes were also pretty good. The Blood and Gore effects were also fabulous. Katsuhiro Otomo created a master piece of animation which will last forever as a classic and a total revolution in the history of anime and animation in general.

Ademas de mi segunda pelicula preferida en Star Wars (Mi primera es el Imperio Contrataca, esta es una de las mejores peliculas que he visto en mi vida. La mas violenta, tragica y oscura de toda la saga, pero al mismo tiempo por esas razones una de las mejores, y en mi opinion es indiscutiblemente la mejor que hubo en la nueva trilogia. Historia: No quiero hacer demasiado detalle, no solo porque no deseo alargar esta reseña tanto, sino tambien porque echaria a perder muchos de los mejores momentos en ella. Basicamente, La pelicula cuenta la caida de los Jedi, El ascenso de los Sith al poder y la tragica caida de Anakin al Lado Oscuro, dandole origen a Darth Vader,uno de los villanos mas famosos de la historia del cine. Hay varias escenas de accion epicas, desde los combates de los clones hasta las impactantes peleas con sables laser. La pelea de Obi-Wan contra el general Grievous, Yoda y el Emperador y la Batalla Final de Anakin contra su Maestro fueron extremadamente impactantes. Cada escena se sentia importante,en lugar de haber tantas escenas de accion o demasiado CGI unicamente para causar espectaculo (Los principales peroblemas de las anteriores precuelas), esta vez la historia y los personajes se desarrollaron de una manera excelente. La actuacion tambien estuvo muy buena, todos los actores dieron actuaciones muy metidas en su personaje. Hayden Christensen esta vez dio una actuacion mucho mejor de lo que se vio en El Ataque de los Clones, no digo que haya actuado mal en esa pelicula pero su actuacion no fue del todo carismatica, esta vez dio una excelente actuacion como Anakin, su actuacion fue tal que uno de verdad podia sumergirse por lo que pasaba su personaje. Sin embargo el actor que simplemente se robo el show fue Ian McDiarmid como El emperador/Senador Palpatine. Su actuacion en ambas personalidades de Darth Sidius fueron impactantes, en el de Palpatine se ve como un sabio anciano que desea llevar a Anakin por nuevas enseñanzas, ofrecerle su ayuda y hacer que cuestione su deber como Jedi. Y del otro lado El emperador. Su actuacion como este ultimo es tan impactante como escalofriante al mismo tiempo. Que es exactamente lo que hace un buen villano es algo que no se como responder, pero lo se cuando lo veo, le dio vida a su personaje como pocos actores saben hacerlo. Me encanta lo tragica, triste, oscura y violenta que se pone en la ultima parte. La batalla final es una de las peleas mas emotivas que he visto en mi vida por tanta mezcla de sentimientos que te puede dar, Anakin y Obi-Wan, los amigos que solian ser casi como hermanos peleando hasta la muerte es una escena que me genera muchas emociones cada vez que la veo. Claro, una de las mejores cosas fue ver a Darth Vader de nuevo, y con la voz de James Earl Jones, el mismo actor que dio su voz en la trilogia original. Desafortunadamente lo unico que dijo fue "Noooooooooo!". La pelicula es emocionante de principio a fin y cierra la trilogia con broche de oro. Claro que hay una que otra cosa menor que criticar como algunos dialogos pero nada que resulte molesto. Excelente, simplemente Excelente.