I’m Gonna Explode (2008 aka Voy a explotar/IFC/MPI
DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
Almost 50
years after the French New Wave began and Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), there are still
those trying to imitate the films and the movement that changed world cinema
forever. Most have been forgotten and
most were not that good. Joining that
fray and especially qualifying for the latter is Gerardo Naranjo’s awkward,
uneven I’m Gonna Explode (2008, aka Voy a Explotar) which wants badly to be
the Mexican equivalent, but has no new ideas despite an obvious love for the
original films.
Roman
(Juan Pablo de Santiago) and Maru (Maria Deschamps) are two classmates who are
not integrated into the social scene and are not happy, so much so that he
pretends to kidnap here to go on a wild run with guns, robbery and risk-taking
as they run amok all over Mexico. Despite having some energy in all this, there
is only so many things they can do here that has not been done in hundreds of
road movies, gangster movies and imitators.
Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal (of Y Tu Mama Tambien) co-produced hoping for another such hit film,
but it never works out that way and is an amusing distraction at best with a
lame ending.
The anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is shot in Super 35mm by Director of Photography Tobias
Datum, making a somewhat good imitation of the older French films, but nothing
new or memorable, plus this is much softer than expected with color that is not
always good either. The Dolby Digital 5.1
mix stretches out what is often a quiet, simple stereo film, with the results
sounding watered down at times and no palpable soundfield, reusing music by no
less than Georges Delerue. The only extras
are a making-of featurette and original theatrical trailer.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
