Overrated and overhyped

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The really attractive aspect of this movie is the sympathy for all the characters, not just the two boys who form the mainspring of the action. This covers familiar territory - adolescent growing pains, sexuality, friendships, etc - without once being condescending. I showed to this to a Thai friend and his comment was simply, 'this is a true story. it happens to so many boys in Thailand" Not just in Thailand I might add. The film is fluent, unsensational and quite superbly acted in a very naturalistic style. It is more explicit than the not dissimilar Amice Per la Pelle (Friends for Life) from Italy, but in a similar league. I won't bother with the details of the story since many reviews cover them: but the person who found it offensive and only about sex must have seen another movie. This is a film about growing up, about real relationships boasting super locations, tender moments, a few amusing ones and above all no false emotions. BB

This delightful film, which the Spanish seem to excel at making, just looks at a section of life of two teenage boys sharing a summer together. Good friends, they are at an age where their hormones dictate what they are doing and Nico, who thinks he's much more macho and attractive than he is, wants to lose his virginity before he reaches 17. Very cute Dani likes his friend's company and like many teenage boys discovering their sexuality, these two masturbate each other when female company is lacking. However, two girls Elena and Berta turn up at the beautiful little coastal town and Nico's interest is piqued. Dani, who feels a deep attraction for his friend wants to spend more time with Nico and resents the interference of the girls presence. It's a summer of learning and acceptance for him that he is gay. The acting is superb, so natural and human. Many European films capture this humanity that American films find it difficult to do, because the latter are generally ruled by making money, not for the art form. In Nico and Dani no judgments are ever made, no sensitivities hidden or prejudices espoused, just the sincere and objective exploration of the human condition shown as natural as it occurs in life. People are people, not ridiculous super-heroes in contrived situations. There is also a maturity in European films, with excellent acting that draws you to believe these things are really happening, and the audience is expected to be a mature one too. It's a fresh, happy little film, well photographed and the subject matter intelligently handled. I recommend it.

The film is just a story, but it's very, very good storytelling, and I'd be hard-pressed to explain why it's so good. It has to do partly with the fact that at first we think we know right where it's going, and that the worth will be in how it gets there -- we're amused by Nico's interest in girls, he's obviously gay (right?). What makes the Dani and Nico characters so believable is in the handling of the material, and the very smart decision to not really define anything. It's very realistic about the first sex between boys, and how it so often has to do with sex games (here, masturbation tips).Before we have a clearer handle on the (differing) sexuality of the two characters, their sex seems to play like this: they see girls, they get aroused, and they take out their sexual frustration on each other. And that works because of the two characters' subtle manner -- Dani's creepy preening, Nico's goofy charm, and how at first it's Nico who seems to be the most "gay" of the two boys, simply because he has precise features and is abnormally skinny. (Like "Edge of Seventeen" or "Beautiful Thing," two of the best gay self-discovery films, the boys here look real.) The emotions, and the past histories of the characters -- like the man whose house Dani goes to, or the woman who, too, had a special girl friend when she was young -- are kept appropriately inexact.Aside from the talent at passing along this story, there is also a nice feel the film has -- something like a cross between the accessibility of a Western and the human interest of Ingmar Bergman... It's like a funky road trip, with that harmonica music and the very apt photography, as well as the suggestive intertitles of dialogue that will occur later in the film. A comparison between this and "Y tu Mama Tambien," of the following year, would not be in vain. 8/10

Krampack is a straightforward depiction of the sexual experiences, and personal friendship, of two Spanish boys. The young actors do well (though the supporting cast is less strong), and real, human characters are depicted without resource to cliche or over-hyped melodrama. But somehow the film lacks a bit of zim. There is a plot, but there's little change in the mood of the piece as it develops, the film beings engagingly but fails to subsequently raise our involvement. The odd separation of the work into 'chapters', interspersed by funny quotes taken from the subsequent action, is also a wholly unnecessary device in a story that is not at all episodic, and doesn't help the film attain climax (no pun intended). Still, there are also many positives in this film - it's humourous, unmoralistic, and fundamentally optimistic too. With a little more drive it could have been great.