Hotel California (2008)

Purely Joyful Movie!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This film could have been way better but Geo Santini ruins the film.Even if it's not super well written the story is interesting and it's not the worst scenario but the director has just ruined the movie. Indeed, during several scenes, he hops from the current scene to others scenes which happened in the past but using very disappointing techniques.The dialogs are also very disappointing. I know that this is a movie about drug dealers but I don't think that the characters have to say f*** every 2 minutes. Once in a while it would be okay but in this case, it's simply annoying. The actors are fairly good so they could have write better dialogs for them.

I wonder if this is a movie funded with drug money. Lots of drug money since the production values are very good. Unfortunately the drug must have been a cocaine meth speed-ball, since it is near impossible to tell what the heck is going on. The movie hops around in time and the same bad guy is after the same protagonist so it is hard to tell current events from flashbacks. There was lots of gratuitous violence and you could almost hear the "chop, chop, chop.....snooooorrt, hey lets have him shoot that place up too." If they just financed the movie instead of meddling with the plot, story, and dialog, this might have been much better. The had great acting and cinematography that was ruined by the story. Dopers, who really cares if they kill themselves? The dopers think they are cool, but they have been losers for 2000 years and all the snazzy camera work and good audio can't make it interesting.

Overall, I thought the story was compelling. It showed that not all movies have a definitive good guy or bad guy. The dynamic between the characters leaves you engrossed in the film. Beckford, Ali, Rex and Palladino show true acting chops by embracing roles that you would not expect them to portray. The true show stoppers are Raymond Barry as he gives a vivid and gripping explanation into his dark and assorted past and Tatyana Ali leaving the comfort of "Bel-Air" and exploring the depths of gritty street life. Beckford does a nice job of being a protagonist while Rex is both a conflicted sidekick who gets caught up in the crossfire. I recommend this film. While you may not get gun totting action you do get plenty of stylistic and visual storytelling.

Regardless of how much i rated this movie, it is not really bad. i watched on TV, although i couldn't find any comment here and was having a 2nd thought to finish it, but i got hooked to to it. It is not a bad movie, it has some talent (direction wise), the characters are some how simple so the acting was fair enough. Santini tried to use some direction tricks, which somehow reminded me of "Natural Born Killers" and it seemed relevant to me, although sometimes they didn't fit. Overall, it shows Santini's talent to make movies "maybe of Guy Ritchi's school". The story is almost nothing, but at some point i felt like what's gonna happen. Don't expect so much of this, but if it happened you have a chance to watch this movie, then go ahead. You still can make a cup of tea or a sandwich while the movie is showing.