Commentaries - October 2007

It's Hallorbeans! - 10/31/07

October 31st, the scariest day - or night - of the year. I guess I could have used this occasion to review some horror or Halloween-themed movie, but no... I decided to review the freaki' Pirates of the Caribbean films. Why? Well, first of all I don't generally like horror films. I go to the movies to be entertained, to have fun, to laugh, to get my blood pumping or to follow interesting characters or intriguing stories. Not to be afraid. I do admire and admit the qualities of horror movies, and I do know when they're accomplishing their purpose, but I just don't like 'em. Secondly... I've already reviewed the only horror movie I have in my DVD collection - Silent Hill, and yes, I liked it. Well, instead of saying I "liked" it, I could say I actually admired the fact it gave me the chills, meaning it did what it's meant to do, being a horror movie. But like I said... I'm not precisely a horror fan.

So, Halloween's here. For those of you who don't know much about Peruvian culture or Latin American culture in general, yes, we do celebrate Halloween here in Peru, albeit in a more controlled and less "popular" way. I mean, not too many people actually celebrate it and, instead of everyone going to parties or going out to the streets to get candy, only children and teenagers celebrate the occasion. Kids go "trick or treatin'" to the streets, and teenagers go to parties. In my case, I'm going to a friend's party at his house, and yes, I'm going in a costume. I'm dressing as a devil. (Yeah, I know, I'm very original and creative, you don't have to say it.) We'll probably dance and drink and eat and talk and watch a horror movie. (Probably Silent Hill, hehe.) Yup, it's a foreign tradition many Peruvian grown-ups don't like very much, but it's a foreign tradition which has become really popular among kids and teenagers in the last twenty years, especially among poor children who see Halloween as an opportunity to get free candy. (Something they can't get every day.)

But why do grown-ups don't celebrate the occasion? The first reason would be that the 31st of October is also the National Peruvian Music Day. (Día de la Canción Criolla in Spanish.) Adults, being more attached to their own country, prefer to celebrate the 31st of October in a more Peruvian way. Also, since Halloween as a custom was brought to Peru fairly recently, most adults weren't able to experience trick or treatin' as a child, so they're not actually accustomed to the idea of Halloween.

It's also pretty fun to talk about the way Halloween has been "Peruvianized." Since most Peruvian children don't know how to speak English and have absolutely no idea what the word "Halloween" means or how to pronounce it, they normally mispronounce it, and come up with very funny words. It's not uncommon to hear children screaming really weird, Halloween-sounding words while trick or treatin' in the streets; words such as: Hallorbeans, Hawerlin, Habellin, Hayofeen, Halloseens, and others. Additionally, instead of screaming "trick or treat'" when arriving to a house (for obvious reasons) they just scream the word "Halloween", either in its correct form, or in one of the mispronounced ways I've already mentioned. I bet my grandparents would have never imagined an American custom such as Halloween arriving to Peru and, more importantly, being Peruvianized in such a way that makes it less and less American every year.

Anyway, Halloween is here to stay. As long as big companies continue promoting candy and Halloween products and costumes, and as long as poor or everyday children keep going out the streets looking for free candy, the "celebration" will never disappear. There'll always be some adults and conservative grown ups (and some younger people, I guess) supportign the Dia de la Canción Criolla, though, so I guess every 31st of October we'll have a mixture of cultures and customs. Is that such a bad thing? I don' think so. Besides, I bet dressing up as devils or superheroes is much more fun to small children than going to a "party" with adults and listening to criolla music. For my part, I support both celebrations.

Sebastian "GG" Zavala

Coming a little late? - 10/27/07

As the majority of you may have noticed, this week I really got into reviewing and wrote articles for thirteen movies. That's a lot. Many of them I wrote of memory, while others I actually saw during and the week and others I had notes of. The good thing this week's reviews have been pretty varied: animation, action, horror, crappy films... I actually love to write reviews about bad films. There's something cool in saying bad stuff about a movie. I don't know, maybe it's not ethical or something, or maybe it's actually weird, but I enjoy writing reviews for movies that suck more that for good films. It's not that I think of myself as an expert - I mean, maybe if I try to make a film myself, It'd end up being crappy! - but maybe I also enjoy watching those films. There are also some movies that are too painful to watch, though. (For example, I wrote my Alone in the Dark review after seeing only about half the film and the ending. Is it fair? Don't know, but I just couldn't watch more of the crap.)

Anyway, I just hope that doesn't change the perception of my readers towards the website. I love movies, and that's the reason I write reviews about them. There's nothing else. Now, the purpose of this commentary is not to talk about my taste in films, but to write about the release of American (and, in general, all foreign) movies in Peru. (Which is, of course, the country where I live.) The thing is, if you're gonna become a reader of this website, don't expect all the recent films to be reviewed the week they're released on the States. The problem is that in Peru, many high-profile films arrive about a month of so after they're released in the U.S., and that's why many of my reviews will arrived kind of late. Only the most famous films are released at the same times as in U.S.A., and the majority are sequels or part of well-known franchises. (The Spider-man films, Harry Potter, etc.) The majority of films arrived late in Peru, which brings me to yet another subject.

Piracy. Peru is one of the countries where you find the most piracy. I mean, you can find pirated copies of films everywhere, and there's virtually not a soul who hasn't bought a pirate film. Hell, some people my hate me after I admit this, but I also buy these films. It's the only way to have a decent collection of films here in Peru. Original, studio-approved copies normally cost about ten freaking times more than the pirate copies, and these illegal ones are exactly of the same quality as the original ones. (They're copies of original discs, after all.) Yeah, well, they sometimes lack special features, but the film itself normally looks great, unless you've bought a film that's still playing on theatres. (In those cases, it means the DVD was recorded inside a theatre and is not a copy of an original disc.) So, what does this have to do with films being released late in Peru? Everything. The government complains about piracy, they make campaigns to fight against it, but do nothing to make sure films arrive on time. If films would arrive on time, people wouldn't find them already on DVD, and would be obliged to go to theatres. I mean, sometimes films arrive here on theatres when they've already been released on DVD in the States... that means pirates can copy the original discs and sell them.

So, what is my opinion about piracy? I hate to say it, but it's become almost part of our culture here in Peru. (And in many other Latin-American and "third world" countries.) The thing is, pirate discs have many advantages over original copies: they are ten times cheaper, you can find a wider variety of films, they are sold virtually everywhere, and the image quality is exactly the same as in an original copy. If, for some reason, the government decided to actually do something and ensure that films arrive here on time (making original DVDs a little cheaper wouldn't hurt either), maybe, just maybe piracy would start decreasing in popularity. As long as that doesn't happen, though, I'll keep buying both pirate and original copies of my favorite films.

Sebastian "GG" Zavala

My style of writing - 10/15/07

Now that the site has been "alive" - so to speak - for a week or so, many of you - hopefully, all of you - have been able to read all the reviews I've been posting. The majority of them are about pretty recent films, most of them big summer movies (you know, Knocked Up, Spidey 3, Transformers, etc.) but I'm also trying to review more "obscure" or maybe not so popular films. (My reviews for The Fountain and the Peruvian movie Una Sombra Al Frente are perfect examples.) But what I'm wondering the most - since I haven't received any e-mails so far - is what my readers think about my style of writing and, in general, the way I review films.

Firstly, I guess most you know - at least if you've read my FAQ - that I'm pretty young. Actually, I'm in my late teenage years right now. Does that make me less of a reviewer when compared to more experienced or older critics? Also, there's the fact that I'm a Latino... yeah, I live in Peru, I'm a Peruvian but, again, does that give me a handicap? I'm not saying I can be compared to the likes of, for example, Roger Ebert, but I think there's no reason for me not to be taken into account. Now, that's not all that one has to consider when reading a critic. There's also, of course, the content of the actual reviews, and sometimes the content of commentaries or articles such as this one. Race, ethnicity, origins or age don't actually matter if the style of writing of the reviewer is horrible. Is my style horrible? I don't think so, but I don't think it's perfect either. It's far from perfect, actually.

Now, I've you've been following my site for more than a year, I'm pretty sure you read my early reviews. Any piece of written work I published between the beginnings of my site and early 2006 is pretty crappy. Yeah, I accept it. My English is not bad, but there are loads of grammatical errors, and overall they look pretty amateurish. Well, they are amateurish. Anyway, most of my work from late 2006 onwards is much better, and I think the majority of the reviews I've published this week are pretty decent. There are less grammatical errors, presentation's much better, and overall they look more "professional." (Even though they aren't.) I decided to publish my Star Wars reviews, though, which are available in the Star Wars part of the site too, and were written two years ago. They're crappy. Actually, when you read them for the first time they're not that bad, but when you compare them with my recent work they're crap. I'll have to take some time this week to re-write those reviews.

But in terms of style, how did I learn to write my reviews? I'm basically a fan of James Beradinelli and Roger Ebert. (If you've ever visited Berardinelli's site, you'll notice that my layout is very similar to his. It's not coincidence. I just hope he doesn't sue me...) I actually prefer Berardinelli's style, believe it or not, and I guess I based my style on his. It's no copy, of course, but I find them pretty similar, although we sometimes differ on opinions about certain films. (He hated the Transformers movie, while I gave it a pretty good rating. It's not masterpiece, but I don't understand his hatred towards it.) Regarding Roger Ebert, I didn't base my style on his too much, but I admire him nonetheless, and find him a really good reviewer; I normally coincide with his opinion more than with Berardinelli's.

So, is my site and style of writing original? Not really. The site's layout is pretty similar to Berardinelli's and, although my reviews are 100% mine, there's always some trace of similarities between someone else's opinion. I don't care if there's people who don't like my reviews. I don't care if others think I'm a copy of someone. I don't care if people think I'm not original or if they think my film taste sucks. All I care about is films, and all I want to do is to review films, not because I want to rip them apart and influence other people, but because I enjoy writing and I enjoy watching movies. There's nothing like going on a Sunday evening to the movie theatre and watch a good film. I just hope my site will be able to transmit that kind of feeling. Any movie lover is welcome here.

Sebastian "GG" Zavala

The "grand" opening of a new site - 10/06/07

Hello everyone! Ever since I started to write reviews as a hobbie of mine, I had the idea that they should be published so that more people - apart from my friends, family or people at school - could read them. I had a Star Wars site, of course, and because of it I had an idea: why shouldn't I add a "film review" section to the site? It would be separated from the Star Wars site, of course, but it would be a place to post my reviews. So basically that's how GG's Reviews site came to life, so to speak. It's a pretty simple site, for the moment, but it's gonna grow steadily and I hope I'll be able to publish as many reviews as possible. Now... what will the reader be able to find in this site?

First of all there's, of course, the actual reviews. I'll be writing and posting film reviews from time to time. Now, many of them will be about movies currently playing in theatres, but the "negative" side to this is that, since I live in Peru, films playing in theatres are not always the same as the ones playing in the US... meaning that some of my reviews might arrive a little late for American readers. (My review for The Fountain is a perfect example.) Apart from those, since I have a considerably large collection of DVDs (about 400) I'll also post reviews for films that aren't playing in theatres. For example, now that Knocked Up has been released on DVD - even though it hasn't played yet in Peruvian theatres - I'll be able to post a review for it in a couple of days. For the moment, I only have... let me see... four reviews, but the quantity of written work will be gradualy growing. No worries.

But is that it? Not really. Apart from posting reviews, there's this very section: commentaries. In it, I'll post from time to time commentaries about anything concerning films or the movie business. Film rumours, celebrity news, topics concerning the MPAA... who knows, there's a large variety of subjects I could talk about. Now, I won't post in here that frequently because I also have to post in the Star Wars site, and since that site is older and larger and has a bigger amount of readers, I think I should make it my priority. As time goes by, though, I'm pretty sure I'll have more readers in here, and I'll be able to post more frequently.

So... it can be said that this site is still in its baby years, but I think it's gonna grow into a fine young man in a couple of months. It's not perfect, its design is simplistic and I bet there are still some errors to be found, but I'm pretty proud of it. Now all I have to do is to make it known, get some readers... and everything'll flow. Are you a movie geek? Do you like to read reviews, commentaries and news concerning the world of movies? Then this site is for you. I hope you will all enjoy it, at least as much as I enjoyed creating it and writing my reviews.

Sebastian "GG" Zavala