23rd Aug2015

Escobar: Paradise Lost (Film)

by timbaros

pl-d32-img_2680A young Canadian man finds himself in the world of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and doesn’t realize it comes with a high price until it’s too late, in the new film Escobar: Paradise Lost.

It’s the late 1980’s, and Nick Brady (Josh Hutcherson – The Hunger Games) and his brother Dylan (Brady Corbet) set up a surf shop on a beautiful beach in Colombia. But this scene is actually at the end of the film. Flash forward a few years, to 1991, and Dylan is, against his better judgement, working for Pablo Escobar (Benicio del Toro), the most notorious, and wealthiest, drug lord in the world. Dylan is where he is now because he has fallen in love with Escobar’s niece Maria (a very good Claudia Traisac). They meet at the local clinic that Maria is running, and which was funded by her uncle Pablo. Dylan and Maria are smitten with each other, enough so that Maria invites Dylan to meet the rest of her family, at a lavish compound in the middle of nowhere. It’s here that Pablo Escobar is celebrating his birthday, in a house that looks like it’s worth millions, with many friends and relatives in attendance, all tended to by maids and servants. But Escobar is not just any man, he’s a man whose respected, not only by his family, but by the communities in Colombia. He’s given money to open up schools, clinics – anything that can help his fellow Colombians live better lives. But Escobar made his money by selling cocaine – via the Medellin Cartel – which was responsible for smuggling tons of cocaine each week into countries all over the world, and also responsible for hundreds and hundreds of murders.

Dylan and Maria are getting closer and closer, and together they move into a room on Escobar’s compound. Dylan has fallen in love with Maria, but he has also fallen into the Escobar family’s way of life. Dylan sees what Escobar and his henchmen are up to, and slowly they integrate him into their world. But things come crashing down for the Escobar family after the country’s Minister of Justice is killed, after he has just launched an investigation into Escobar and his dealings. Escobar and his family are now enemies of the state, he has to go on the run, kill anyone who might betray him, even his closest comrades, and hide his assets. When asked to kill a man who is helping him to hide some of Escobar’s diamonds, Dylan must decide whether he is capable of doing this, or if he doesn’t is he ready to live with the consequences that impact not only his and Maria’s lives but also the life of his brother and his wife and their new baby?

‘Escobar:Paradise Lost,’ while not based on a true story, is a gripping and tense film that begins when an innocent romance starts to blossom but then slowly escalates into a thriller where Nick and Maria cannot escape the clutches of her powerful uncle. Hutcherson as Nick Brady is in fine form, he proves that he is able to carry a film that requires more than just fantasy and special effects; unknownTraisac as Maria is even better. She’s the soul of the film, the woman that Nick loves and the woman that Escobar adores. Del Toro as Escobar is perfect. Del Toro looks sinister and mean, he’s a dead ringer for Escobar. First time Director Andrea Di Stefano (she also wrote the film) takes us on a journey through the lush lands of Colombia to a dangerous and potential life-threatening situation as seen through the eyes of a young man whose been exposed to the very violent Escobar crime family.

ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST will be released in UK cinemas and available on demand on 21st August, 2015

Available on Blu-ray and DVD from September 21st, 2015

Category : Film
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23rd Aug2015

Pressure (Film)

by timbaros

0ozUa2rQg1wIuzT7vi4W_M4PrpG3q-ExprQ4itMNGl8Four men are tasked with fixing an oil pipeline hundreds of feet below the ocean’s surface in the Somali Basin but quickly run into trouble in the new suspense thriller ‘Pressure.’

The four-member team include Danny Huston (American Horror Story, Made in Dagenham) as the experienced Engel; Matthew Goode (The Imitation Game) as team leader Mitchell; Joe Cole (Skins) as wet behind the ears Jones; and Alan McKenna (Belle) as Hurst. They are sent down into the deep blue sea in a tiny submarine-like vessel to investigate a broken oil pipeline as their ship stays on the surface. But once they are in position, a storm destroys their ship, while their vessel starts to shake and roll violently, ultimately landing on the seabed. A couple of them venture out of their vessel to investigate, and, in scenes of pure horror, they see the bodies of some of their fellow crew members from the ship floating all around them. At this point they then realize that they are literally in deep trouble. With nowhere to go, nowhere to turn, they attempt to use their radio to signal for help. Meanwhile, they have limited oxygen reserves, argue over the best way to ensure survival, and are ready to give anything a go just to get out of this life-threatening ordeal. They are met with almost certain death; the freezing water outside, the decompression sickness that could happen, their lungs rupturing, and most worringly, the diminishing air supply.

‘Pressure’ is a short 91-minute film in which the plot is quick to take hold, and the men are suddenly and quickly in trouble. And ultimately it’s up to the actors to convey the tension and drama while they decide and attempt to take matters into their own hands. ‘Pressure’ is a bit like ‘Gravity’ – where George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are trapped in space. In ‘Pressure,’ we have four men trapped in the opposite spectrum – at the bottom of the sea, and face the same problem – how to get back ‘home.’ But in 91 minutes we hardly get to know the men. We do know that they all have women in their lives, via flashbacks; Jones’ (Cole) girlfriend is pregnant, he really wants to survive to see the birth of his baby (we see sweet flashbacks of them early on in their relationship); Engel’s girl is shown in dream sequences as a passenger in a car he is driving; and in another dream sequence we see Jones literally being kissed to death by a mermaid. Does this mean he is not going to survive? It looks realistic and scary. Yet there’s not a whole lot more to ‘Pressure.’ While it’s a good film, with excellent special effects, don’t expect too much from it. Perhaps if it were a bit longer to tell more about the characters and their personal lives and backgrounds we would’ve cared a bit more about them.

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