Reviews

This is 95% fiction with a 5% based on real life. There is nothing in the miniseries depicting Griselda as she was: a brutal mass murderer with a particular taste for gruesome deaths and unnecessary killing. The point of the miniseries is lost. What are the producers trying to do? I know it sounds bizarre, but it's not too hard to come with some similarities with the Barbie movie, and at the same time, with recent narco series. It's a lost ship, with no direction, attempting to satisfy different audiences with a product that is lacking in every dimension. It's a gigantic distortion that makes a disservice to history fans like me. I honestly think that Sofia Vergara is one of the worst actresses that I've seen in my life- she doesn't connect with the story- the real Griselda didn't look at all like Sofia. Other actors/ actresses are actually good, but of course they had to choose the money maker. Bad decision.

You already know what the series is about. Let me focus on the execution. I have a theory of why the writing in Latin American, and in particular Colombian series, is so clumsy. I believe it's because of politics and cronyism. I suspect that the same people, the well-connected, are given the opportunity over and over. It's impossible to believe that there isn't a better talent. In the country of Garcia Marquez? That's how this project was ruined from an art perspective. The idea was good. I would say great. The production and edition are definitively good. The actors are a mixed bag, but hardly responsible for the debacle. But the writing... I'm not only talking about the dialogues, so full of cliches. It's also, and more notably, the ridiculous situations and sequences. The bank robbery in the second season is a masterpiece on malpractice. It's so bad, that almost make the whole experience of watching the series worth it from a research perspective. Why. How do you fumble the opportunity. You were given an interesting topic and a production team that created fantastic imagery making Bogota look as if it was the most beautiful city in the world. I'm aware that this has been a commercial success, like cat videos. But, is that what we are supposed to do with budget and opportunity? Cat videos? The series could have been a lot bigger, say Money Heist level. Instead, it's just a filler that won't be remembered. You missed the opportunity of making it big and making x10 more money. My suggestion: for the next time, keep the good, drop the bad. Think bigger. Raise the bar. Don't follow the Netflix trap, where series are more and more unrealistic as the pressure to add content to the platform increases. Hire new writers and be fair to them. Don't give them too many constraints, as if you knew the formula (you obviously don't). Don't tell them to write a soap opera. And if the Director is not up to the task, you know what, there are lots of people waiting for the opportunity.

Good people are 100% good and bad people 100% bad. No grey tones. It's supposed to be based on real events, but the characters are simple, boring, and one dimensional. In other words, they are not real. The writers could not figure out what they were doing. Is this a documentary, a "Patron del Mal" type of series, or something else. Whatever the case, writing is lazy. The series comes across more as an attempt to clear the names of some players and coaches. I'm afraid the real story is not as clear cut. No mention of key themes to understand what happened to the team: 1- "Barrabas" Gomez, the player that had to sit because of the threat, is in real life the assistant coach's brother! No discussion about that conflict of interest. Most people in Colombia thought that he didn't deserve to be in the national team. 2- Four years earlier, the striker that score the goals that helped Colombia classify to the 1990 World Cup stayed at home- he wasn't called for the World Cup team. Colombia's Achilles tendon in the 1990 World Cup was the attack. So there you have two examples of conflicting situations between managers and players that had a meaningful impact in the World Cup. Was Higuita 100% pure and his visit to Pablo Escobar in jail a humanitarian effort? I don't know and certainly wish that was the case. But the series failed to develop the story. It was just an event, almost disconnected emotionally from the rest of the action. The edition is poor, the sequence of events impossible to understand if you're not Colombian, and the concept a disservice to viewers and football fans. Wasted money.

As a native Colombian, it pains me to see what Disney has done. The producers thought that adding some digitalized "Colombian landscape", a couple of Carlos Vives' songs and some yellow butterflies checked the box for the cultural appeal. Never mind that the dialogues are 100% Disneyesque, and that the story follows the same Disney formula, only this time with less drama and from a different locale. Even the references to the violence (a period of Colombian history) are weak and unexplained. It's obvious that there was limited research and no real input to create a Colombian experience: from how we interact with family and friends, to the magic realism. That's perhaps the most egregious part. Magic realism is not about the magic driving the story, but instead, the story driving the magical elements when the collective memory, and logic, can't explain the events. Don't watch the movie looking for a cultural experience. Just go for the Disney experience.

A master piece. I won't go into the details, but it's the perfect preamble to the ending. Congrats to the team- you pulled a "Breaking bad" quality ending, made in Spain.

32 years ago I watched my first movie. It was Star Wars Episode IV. Today, my 3-years old son watched his first movie in the big screen. Only to keep with the family tradition, Toy Story 3 is going to run the same fate as one of the greatest movies ever. This is a spectacular movie, inspiring, moving and hilarious all at the same time. It touched me, made me cry and made me think about what's really important in life. I usually don't care much about technical variables. e.g. the animation itself. But in this case the plot and the animation are so brilliantly delivered that it's hard to imagine one without the other. There is one scene in particular (and don't worry I won't tell you which) that will pass the test of time as one of the greatest moment of this beautiful form of art.