Sunday, April 21, 2013

Rhythm, Betrayal, and Death in 2012.

In 1991, legendary Mexican director Christian Gonzalez shocked & amused the hell out his country with an epic & sleazy movie Ritmo, Traicion y Muerte: La Cumbia Asesina. La Cumbia Asesina tells the story of a promiscuous woman torn between 2 fucked up men. Also, catchy as fuck Cumbia songs play through out the entire movie. La Cumbia Asesina surely became the cult classic it was meant to be.

22 years later, Christian Gonzalez (with the convincing words of a producer) remade his epic & sleazy movie but with a new cast, new set of cumbia songs playing, and even changing some of the screenplay. Did this remake turn out okay? Continue to read and you will know.


Like the original movie, La Cumbia Asesina tells the story of promiscuous & sexy Carmen (Tania Robledo) who after being kidnapped by corrupt cops, ends up falling for the main cop Dracula (Tomas Gordos). Dracula and Carmen exchange harsh words to each other, but afterwards they end up having kinky sex. From there, a sleazy little romance blossoms for these two. From then on, Dracula takes Carmen out to fancy restaurants and shopping at a luxurious mall. They also of course have plenty of kinky sex. When Dracula puts work before Carmen, she decides to give up on him and move on with her life. After getting harassed by a street gang, Carmen then meets the leader of the gang "El Combi" (Alan Ciangherotti). Combi and Carmen also exchange harsh words to each other and then end up fucking in a cheap motel. Yet again another sleazy little romance blossoms for Carmen and Combi. When Dracula finds out Carmen is with another man; he forces her to get back with him, but she refuses to do so. Carmen's best friend (Lorena Herrera) tells her that she must pick a man to marry already.. Marry a man with a bright future (referring to Dracula). Carmen however won't decide for herself on who to end up with; she will let 'fate' decide for her.


So the remake pretty much sounds like the original movie, eh? While the story remains the same, there are minor changes with some of the characters and key scenes.

- The 1st change would be Carmen's job. In the original she worked at a shoe shop. In the new movie she's a hair stylist. Not a big deal really, but I figured I'd bring that up anyway.

- Dracula is still a corrupt cop, but in the remake we get an explanation on why he's the way he is. Our favorite corrupt cop Dracula became the man that he is because of his father. His father was a mean man, and in the beginning of the movie he appears to him in 'ghost' form talking shit & everything. Dracula is pretty much haunted by his bitter ass father. The father appears only in a couple of scenes. Pointless & lame scenes..

- Then there's El Combi. *sighs* He's just not the same like in the original! I mean sure, he is still a ghetto ass gang leader and even says "I just want to continue being El Combi", but being played by a handsome looking actor just didn't seem right. The new guy playing Combi was too pretty boyish. Not a ghetto brute like Jorge Luke appeared in the original movie. Jorge Luke was born to play El Combi, not Alan Ciangherotti.


With El Combi being played by someone too good looking and Dracula being haunted by a pointless 'father', the remake also lacked the memorable key scenes the original movie had.
Remember the fellatio morgue scene? That doesn't happen in the remake. Dracula and Carmen do have sex in a morgue (not a real morgue like in the original), but sadly no crazy fellatio happens in there *sniffles*.

Remember the famous "Boquita De Caramelo" (caramel mouth) scene? That doesn't happen at all! I was hoping the remake would have something similar to that, but sadly it didn't. By far the most disappointing thing about the remake was the lack of that particular scene *sniffles again*.


Well, that's all the 'negative' things I can say about the remake. Now to point out the good of the movie because it did have plenty of good stuff to keep me watching it.

- Tania Robledo (actress that played Carmen). Oh. My. God. Tania is seriously the hottest chick I've laid eyes on. Good lord, this woman is just absolutely sexy. The way she talks and moves is just.... just... amazing. She played Carmen very good. As good as Eva Garbo? Honestly, it's tough to say because Eva too played that character wonderfully. Either way though, Tania was amazing in this movie. She will definitely keep your attention as she did with me.

- The famous opening credits from the original gets the remake treatment! And I must say, Tania sure walks very good. She even flips off a bum cat-calling her and prays to the Virgin Mary. Tania pulled off that scene quite well just as Eva did back in '91.

- Carmen's friend from the original was played by Diana Ferreti. In the remake, she's played by Lorena Herrera. Yes, that Lorena Herrera (not her twin). It was quite the surprise to see her in this movie and even more surprising when we see her dancing with Tania in the beauty salon (oh!).

- Tomas Gordos (the actor that played Dracula) was great. I liked him as much as Sebastian Ligarde. Both men can play corrupt cops very well and always appear serious no matter what.

- Like the original movie, the remake has plenty of intriguing sex & nudity. Tania Robledo is pretty much topless through out the entire movie and she moans in pleasure so wonderfully as Eva Garbo once did. So yeah, that should definitely get you boys & girls very excited and glued to your TV screens.


With the differences and new faces, the remake of La Cumbia Asesina is overall watchable. It's honestly not a bad movie; but it is however not the same like the original. Like I told Christian Gonzalez, "the original movie had a spirit that made it so fantastic. The remake however lacked a spirit. It's just a quicky remake and nothing more." As a fan of the original, I do recommend other fans to give it a shot. Other fans would honestly think it's okay as well, and will probably agree with me that the original has a spirit to it whereas the remake doesn't have any spirit at all.

Give it a shot, people. Don't judge it already. 6/10.


P.S.
I'm still a tad clueless on the availability of the movie. Here in the USA its already for sale at Walmart, but it doesn't appear to have been released in Mexico yet. With Walmart's weird policies with music & movies, the DVD I have is ridiculously censored in the language area, but the sex & nudity is all there (thank heaven). Hopefully the Mexican release won't be censored in any way.