Before The Fall (Tres Dias – 2008)
IFC / 2009
Directed by F. Javier Gutierrez
Written by Antonio P. Perez, Antonio Banderas
Cast: Victor Clavijo, Mariana Cordero, Eduard Fernandez, Daniel Casadella, Ana de las Cuevas, Elvira de Arminan, Juan Galvan
Review by Brian Harris

When the end of the world is announced and worldwide panic ensues, Ale finds himself alone and fighting for the lives of his brother’s children when an escaped child murderer sets out to even the score.

I’ll be damned! The Earth faces impending doom from a life-extinguishing meteor and F. Javier Gutierrez’s main character Ale instead decides to battle a madman for the lives of children that won’t live to marry, have children and grow old. That’s intense. Before The Fall is a fantastic sci-fi thriller, one which I’ll purchase the minute it sees release on retail shelves!

Not content to just end the world or just offer up a psycho thriller, F. Javier Gutierrez combines the most terrifying and thrilling from both and the result is every bit as tense, disturbing and original as one could hope for. The character of Ale is hard to like but even harder not to admire when he places himself at risk for the safety of others. You find yourself disliking him for being an asshole and loving him for showing such sacrifice and bravery.

Before The Fall is deep, emotionally-charged and captivating. It’s so refreshing to see genre cinema with this kind of heart; it’s a damn shame Hollywood won’t stick its neck out to fund anything this original. I know there’s an English language remake, with Wes Craven attached, on the way but that just don’t count as original.

First Timecrimes, now this? Before The Fall wasn’t flashy or bloated with CG, its thought-provoking sci-fi with stylish touches of two-fisted American western and action cinema combined with the beautiful aesthetic we’ve come to expect from Spanish cinema. I highly recommend Before The Fall, as a rental and/or purchase.

Timecrimes (Theatrical – 2007)
Magnolia Pictures / 2008
Directed by Nacho Vigalondo
Written by Nacho Vigalondo
Cast: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Bárbara Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo
Review by Brian Harris

Hectar’s life is about to be drastically altered when he happens upon a naked young lady lying in the middle of a forest. Instead of being hailed as a hero for coming to her rescue, a terrifying figure with a bandaged head stabs him in the arm and chases him into a classified science facility. Unsure of where to hide, Hectar hops into a strange pod and allows an off-duty facility worker to close the pod until the assailant is gone. Unbeknownst to him, Hectar has been thrown back in time, nearly an hour before climbing into the machine! Unwillingly to let the timeline correct itself, he sets out to “remove” the “other” Hectar from his household and away from his wife, only further cluttering time. Can Hectar stop the vicious cycle he started before all of the new timelines converge into one horrific crime against nature?
Forget those pseudo-science fiction films that simply dress action-adventure fare up in shiny clothes and fancy environments, true sci-fi is thought-provoking and intellectual without all of the slick bells and whistles. If you’re like me, you love sci-fi cinema and chances are you’re tired of the shit pawned off as sci-fi these days. Nothing but nothing compares to films like Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, The Man From Earth, Primer and Donnie Darko; if ever a film followed in the tradition of the examples above, Timecrimes is it! Karra Elejalde is one of the most unassuming leading men I’ve ever encountered, yet he still bowled me over as one of the best sci-fi characters since David Lee Smith’s John Oldman from The Man From Earth!

Instead of flashy, trashy, techno-action, Timecrimes is a daring, thrilling and, at times, deliciously confusing genre entry! While that may not always be a good thing, I found myself loving the questions and loving the fact that I had to pay close attention in order to keep up with “Hectar-1,””Hectar-2” and “Original Hectar.” There’s nothing I hate more than a film that has to hold your hand in order to command your respect and earn your loyalty. Trust me, keep your eyes and ears open and do your best to stay focused and your concentration will be rewarded with one of the best damn science fiction films to hit cinema in years. Sorry Matrix, this is the real deal.

Timescrimes will definitely appeal to die-hard sci-fi fans, obviously, but genre fans shouldn’t be too quick to write it off, don’t forget, there’s a scissor-wielding, head-bandaged, trench-wearing maniac chasing Hectar through the time lines and his origin is going to blow you away! I cannot recommend this enough to time-travel junkies and sci-fi nerdlingers alike, it’s truly an engaging film.