Burnt Money (2001)

You won't be disappointed!

Thanks for the memories!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A movie about waiting. Doesn't sound too interesting, but when you have well written characters, their interactions become action. This is the story of a heist that goes a little awry. The gang must then hideout. This sounds easier than it is, as fingers begin to point at a setup, and a couple begin to drift apart. This whole time waiting becomes a time for the two protagonists to explore and experiment. It soon becomes obvious that money isn't the only thing at stake, but also pride and freedom, and not just the kind of freedom that involves keeping out of jail. The film, like the best crime thrillers, explodes into violence at a shocking speed. It emphasizes the realistic tone. I loved the 60's setting, and the music really captured the period. At times both frustrating and sad, it shows how humans will let their hearts take over, even if that means getting everyone killed/imprisoned and losing a lot of money in the process.

I wasn't excepting anything special before I started to watch "Plata quemada". I just knew that it was an Argentinean movie and it has won the Goya price. Only good movies win this price. After the beginning of the movie (the underground scene) I thought that it would be another stupid gay romance. Later, step by step, the movie became more and more interesting. Great plot, excellent actors (and actress), wonderful music. As one of the IMDb users says, Eduardo Noriega's acting is similar to the River Phoenix's one. For example in "My private Idaho". Who knows if his voices were symptoms of mental defect or small epileptic fits etc.? When the movie was ending I was thinking that it was one of the best movies I had ever seen. But when appeared the information that it was based on a true story my breath was taken away. Next half an hour, I was not able to do anything, except to think about the movie. I reacted this way just when I had seen "Dancer in the dark". It is not one of the best movies I have ever seen, but the best one ever.

I have always hesitated when seeing the DVD at the video store, but finally watched it. The only thing I knew about it was that it was about robbery and a gay couple. I also knew that I was going to see the leads 'behinds', which I thought would at least give me something to be happy about in case I didn't like the movie. My fears were confirmed.Having seen the user rating (7.4) and read the reviews posted so far I've concluded that most of grades/reviews must be on behalf of the "real", "not stereotyped", etc. relationship portrayed in the movie. That is true, but that alone doesn't make a movie good.I wasn't hoping for action (which in fact is there), but for good characters, for a good, well paced story, something to think about or at least mess with something inside me - good cinema. That didn't happen at all.The characters are poorly developed: we get to "know" them through their "thoughts" and the narrator's speech rather than through their actions and expressions, which doesn't help much to make the viewer sympathize with them. Just being gay and hot is not enough to make a -even gay- viewer like with a character, is it? The relationship between the three repeats its (poorly developed) pattern throughout the movie. Nene wants Angel, who also wants Nene but feel guilty (the "voices"), and El Cuervo makes fun/gets angry at them for being gay. Then, by the end, during the shooting, it all resolves itself in a cathartic moment: El Cuervo becomes tolerant and even sort of nice, and both lovers make peace shortly before dying. Come on, only because it's a gay couple it's not a cliché? And the movie is mostly just plain boring, as if the director was trying to stretch it for no reason with scenes that added not much to the plot and/or character development (and I'm not talking about "meaningful silences" either). Also the abuse of voice-over usually indicates lack of acting/directing skills to give the spoken message in a more artistic way. Plus the voice-over thoughts were sometimes pseudo-poetic and sounded pretentious.I don't recommend it unless you're really eager to see a gay couple on screen (and not much more).

After reading the reviews of this film on this site, I became interested and subsequently spent nearly two hours of my life watching it. These are hours I will never get back.I would bet that gay men would find this movie very interesting but if you are not a gay man, I'd recommend you spend your time watching something else. I kept waiting for something to happen that would grab my attention. Seeing naked or nearly naked men, particularly within the context of homosexuality, does not offend me, it just does not interest me. Also, for me, the men they were portraying (as it is based on a true story) were too stupid to be sympathetic.Not a bad film, just not very interesting.