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#724 – Dame Un Poco De Amooor…! (1968)
Dame Un Poco De Amooor…! (1968)
Film review #724
Director: José Maria Forqué
SYNOPSIS: The lead singer of the band Los Bravos is kidnapped by an evil mastermind, who seeks a formula for a potion to control the world. The band try to rescue their singer, along with the daughter of the professor who invented the formula, who believes that he is a superhero.
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Dame un Poco de Amooor…! (Bring a Little Loving) is a 1968 film starring the Spanish rock band Los Bravos. In the same vein as films starring 60s bands such as The Beatles (Help!) and the Munkees (Head), this film serves primarily as a vessel for the bands songs and to extend these bands popularity across all media. Mike, the leader of the band, is kidnapped by the evil master mind Chou-Fang, who wants to take over the world using a secret formula for mind control developed by a retired scientist. Sao-Ling, the daughter of the scientist, helps Mike escape, believing him to be a superhero who can help her Father. It’s rather basic and silly stuff, and it’s never taken too seriously: like I say, it’s just a bit of fun to promote the band and make them seem like heroes in a way. As you might expect, the plot is interrupted every few minutes with a performance from the band of one of their songs, and while I’m not familiar with their music, I have to say they’re all catchy, fun songs that fit the times. There’s even a mix of Spanish and English songs. Just one look at the film makes it plain to see it revels in the 1960’s aesthetic of pop art and comic book style, as you would expect, and the whole design and choreography of the film is very nicely done, complete with sets that have a good amount of creativity and expression baked into them.
As mentioned, the story is very silly and never really gets to be taken too seriously: it’s just riffing on b-movie sci-fi plots about scientists and their formulas. The main issue with this film is that there’s a lot of stereotypical portrayals of Southeast Asian culture and people, and the common practice of the time of making people “look” SE-Asian with makeup. Perhaps explains why you won’t see this film around much these days. It’s a product of it’s time for better and worse, and is full of fun and catchy songs to keep things entertaining and to appeal to it’s audience.
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#723 – Nexus 2.341 (1994)
Nexus 2.431 (1994)
Film review #723
Director: José Maria Forqué
SYNOPSIS: In the far future, where the Earth has been all but forgotten and humans has settled on other planets, the daughter of the head of the planet’s government is kidnapped by the evil empire, and only a young man who sees the princess in his dreams, can journey to the faraway planet of the Empire, and start and uprising to rescue her.
THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Nexus 2.431 (Sometimes just Nexus) is a 1994 Spanish/Czech/United Kingdom co-production. The opening scene tells us that long ago, the Earth was destroyed by its own pollution and the sun blew it up as well or something, and humanity settled on other planets. On one such planet, the daughter of the head of the government is wanted by the head of an evil empire to marry, and when the proposal is rejected, Shaina is kidnapped. The only person who can rescue her is Tarn, a young man who dreams of Shaina for some reason, and heads to the empire’s home planet to lead an uprising. This film clearly wants to be a Star Wars like film; with a young man with magic powers fighting against the evil empire to rescue a Princess. Perhaps it should be easy to follow, but no: it is nigh incomprehensible: there’s too many characters, some people have magic for some reason, and it’s near impossible to tell where scenes are set. The world building is really poor, and there’s no real sense of what things are actually like in this universe outside of the headquarters of the empire, or this isolated camp where Tarn lives. On top of that, I don’t know where a lot of any of the scenes are set; there’s a lot of planet hopping and teleporting, and everything just looks the same. Also if you’re not convinced it’s a Star Wars derivative, the film even has a garbage compactor scene.
Something that maybe stands out is the use of a lot of miniatures for spaceships and scene setting. They’re nice enough, if not too convincing, but again there’s no real sense of scale or location in any of them, so I’m still not sure what is happening. The performances in this are so cheesy and ridiculous; no more so that Tarn who is constantly talking about how he loves Shania even though he has only seen her in these dreams, and is really hamming up any sense of emotion. The dialogue is also so completely unnatural you’re not going to be convinced by anything they say. There’s also the fact that every woman in this film is subject to violence in some way: kidnapping, mutation, getting shot. Clearly a fetishization of women on someone’s part that is barely disguised.
Nexus 2.431 is a mess of a film that fails to establish any kind of setting or stakes beyond the magical whimsy of it’s airheaded protagonist. The failure to tell any kind of coherent story that’s not ripped off from Star Wars makes it dull and confusing, and the whole production fails to impress. While I can appreciate there is some effort in creating all these unique costumes, effects and models, none of these things really help make the movie worthwhile.