Best movie ever!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

After a small break, we are continuing our exploration of Spanish cinema, this time with a thriller that we might label as supernatural, although it seems that it isn't. Is there such a thing as luck, and are some people luckier then others? I think that most of us asked these questions at some point in our lives, but for Intacto the thing is quite clear. There is such a thing called luck and some people are luckier than others, but only because they steal that luck by touching others. A quite interesting concept that led to this movie, and I am sure will lead to its remake sometime in the future. Directed and written by a talented Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and starring Max von Sydow and Mónica López, Intacto questions the basic human beliefs, although this depends on how you perceive the world around you.Tomás is the only survivor of a horrible plane crash, suffering only minor injuries. As it turns out, Tomás isn't just a lucky survivor, he's also a bank robber, wanted for an armed robbery. Before law enforcement got to question him, he is approached by a man claiming to be working for an insurance company. He offers him a way out of his current predicament and into something much larger, a game with huge stakes, explaining that he can actually can control his luck and use it to his benefit. Actually, there is a whole underworld of people who consider themselves lucky and gamble with it. The rewards are enormous, thrills unparalleled and eventually, consequences can be lethal. In this hierarchy, there is a king, and his name is Samuel, an undefeated ruler of luck, reigning for over thirty years. Love, fear, death and gambling, a perfect combination… The movie itself might seem a bit stretched, but this is only because we are used to fast paced thrillers that leave no time for thinking and further pontification of story. Although, I must admit that the story could be a bit more coherent, because it seems that the glue that binds the scenes was relatively scarce… As a final note, my opinion concerning luck and the whole concept of it in this movie: I don't believe that there is such a thing as luck, its all just a statistical coincidence. At this time we must make a distinction between different perspectives, lets say that we take 100.000 people and throw them from a plane without a parachute. Then we take people who survive this and make them run through a minefield. If we don't have a winner at first we repeat the experiment. The guy that survives all this to us as neutral observers is a statistical probability and reality, but from his perspective he is lucky. The thing that instantly classified this movie to fantasy is the fact that you can rob someone of their luck by touching them. But thats just me, feel free to form your own opinion and enjoy…Movie recommendations Rabbit-Reviews.com - Only movies worth watching

I really liked this movie. I think a lot of people didn't because they got hung up on the potentially confusing aspects of the concept. It doesn't come out and hit you in the face with the rules for this game that the characters play which is a good change for people who like smart, understated stories and don't need everything spelled out for them in suppositional monologues from secondary characters. This is a great movie for just collecting data about the story until the end. Has great themes of sacrifice and redemption and pretty good cinematography too. Lots of other movies have tried to be serious about quantifying "luck" and where those movies failed, this one succeeds because it doesn't hang itself with specifics. There's no way to guage how "special" you are. Just spin the chamber and hope for the best. You will get a lot more out of this movie if you don't try to "figure it out". Just accept what you see until the movie's over, then appreciate the poetry of it.

I've found the best way to view a film is to know absolutely nothing about it prior to first watching it. I put on Intacto, knowing only that it had faired well in some very well known film festivals, including Sundance, and that there was a man running with a blindfold on on the cover. That said, I found this film captivating. It was interesting from start to finish, giving the viewer just enough information to understand the film, yet leaving some questions for the viewer to think about days later. In Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's world, luck is something that certain people in the world have a power over, and those with that gift have the ability to steal luck from others from just a mere touch on the arm. What really makes this film exciting to watch, is the extreme lengths that those who have this gift will go to, gambling on who the luckiest person is. There were a lot of things I liked. For starters, the film-making in general was perfect. Everything looked beautiful, the pacing was great, and the actors were phenomenal. With the script at hand, they could not of done a better job. By not being straight forward with all the information, it's very fun trying to watch and figure out, what's coming next. There were, however, a few things I didn't like, or understand. I was a little confused by the inconsistencies in the language. It seemed like half the time the characters were speaking Spanish and other times they were speaking English. It didn't do anything to effect how enjoyable the movie was, I just didn't understand it. More importantly the movie was missing something in the plot area. The premise of the movie was very original and intriguing, but the central story line lacked compassionate characters, and a certain amount of believability even within its own implausible world. For instance, if these people are so lucky, how did they get stuck gambling there lives in underground casinos? Why is our main character forced to succumb to a life of bank robbery if he's one of the luckiest men in the world? Ultimately though, the film leaves you with a lot to think, and talk about. It's very entertaining, and at times, you'll be emotionally drawn to it. For me, that's all I look for in a good movie.

This film is worthy of a re-release, I don't know what I was doing when it hit the screens here in the US but with all the independent films that are coming out this one deserves another look. It is true, some people do have more luck than others, and it can be transferred from one person to another by touch, it reminded me of the Lindsay Lohan film Just My Luck. But this isn't a film that spells things out and is as simplistic as that. Very early in the film we see Federico win several rounds of roulette in a row, betting on single numbers. He goes to see the owner of the casino, Sam (Max von Sydow), who hugs Federico (taking his luck) and then throws him out of the casino. Federico wants revenge, so he begins to look for a very lucky person to help him. He finds Tomás, the sole survivor of a plane crash. This becomes a brilliant game of odds and of wild gambling not seen in todays films. I do enjoy a good thriller like Intacto and I am going to be sending it around to all of my friends to see and enjoy.