El tigre de Santa Julia (2002)

This movie deals with a baby who was thrown away of his house through the window and he fell down on a `maguey' (Mexican plant) since that moment all the movie is a complete joke. It is based on a true Mexican legend. The Tiger of Santa Julia (the person) lived in Mexico City from 1908 to 1910 when Porfirio Diaz was Mexico´s president. He and three women rob rich people and gave the money to poor people. You watch sex between three women and one man. The sexy young girl is Yvonne Montero who also appears in `Asesino en serio'

Director's Gamboa is responsible for the teen saga La primera noche (The first night), La segunda noche, and the light comedy Educación sexual en breves lecciones (Sexual education in short lessons). And all this films have one thing in common: they feature mostly TV starlets; this means they can't hardly act, beyond soap opera's performances. Well then, apparently with El tigre de Santa Julia Gamboa tried to turn on a wilder side maybe in sake for his filmography. He didn't make it.I know this movie is supposed to be only a fun one, based on a character that grew on México's mind as a legend because of the way he was caught. But, it seems that the whole story is only waiting for that event to happen, and constructed a lame screenplay on it's way for it. In result, we have a film with no climax, and not capable to create in us any root of interest for the people involved. Besides, the story is not that close to what some researchers have disclosed about the myth of the guy who became an outlaw. But that's not the worst part, it´s about bad acting and a pretentious narrative that describes mainly the brave (or shoul I say macho?) and horny side of the character. One more thing is that Gamboa once said that the aesthetics in the film are intentional in order to make it look like a comic book. Bad choice. The computer manipulated skies and open fields looks silly and aged, rather than extracted from a comics atmosphere; and I sure have seen good works on this subject -just take as an example The unbreakable, or Dobermann. In resume, El tigre de Santa Julia doesn't deliver what it promises; there ain't no action, no humor and even less climax. Of any kind.Sure there´s been recently a fuss over mexican cinema, and even though there are some excellent films like Amores perros or Y tu mamá también, this one has nothing to do side to side with them. So don´t get fooled by the propaganda, and be aware if this boring kitty hits your town.

Despite its length (more than a couple of hours) the story did not find a direction; instead, you are offered to taste the characters in such manner you are forced to hate the bad guys and love the good ones.Many aspects of the film were definitely brilliant: the sceneries for Mexico in the early 1900s and the script, which seemed to be carefully written to exclude any neologism and include those seasonal slang.Screenplay, from time to time, shows a clear influence of Emilio `El Indio' Guzman and Ismael Rodríguez.A bit silly but very amusing.

One of the numerous legends that exist in Mexico is 'The Tiger of Santa Julia'. This was a man that lived in a town called Santa Julia, a town that would later become part of the enormous Mexico City by the second half of the 20th century. Tired of army and police corruption, "El Tigre" took justice into his own hands. However the most popular fact known about him is the way he got caught. Confusion and popular gossip mixed the real facts surrounding this person with fantasy, and thus "El Tigre" became a living legend.Director Alejandro Gamboa tried to capture exactly this in this movie. He tells his version of the real story behind Jose de Jesus Negrete, El tigre de Santa Julia. More than half of the movie looks fake, with many live colors, exagerated blue skies filled with the whitest clouds and an overdone narration of the story. Although Gamboa said in a radio interview that this was done intentionally, the result is not that visually pleasant.Aside from that, the movie is a lot of fun to watch. The comedy is well paced and is mixed up with robberies, sex and vengeance. The performances are sufficiently good for the movie to work."El Tigre de Santa Julia" is not by far the best mexican movie ever, but it's fun and sometimes that's what movies are all about.