Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Personally, I don't like bullfighting, but I don't hate it either, and that's what sort of happens to me with this film. The real story -with generous amounts of fiction, I suppose- of Mexican bullfighter Luis Procuna, from his childhood dreams to his initiation and consecration in the arena, from the terrible hazards of the job to the overcoming of the adversities and triumphal return. Half fiction, half documentary, it has a good mix of both, but otherwise is a simple story of success without interesting twist. The best parts are the ferocious spectators that are much harder to tame that the bull itself, and the sequence of the bullfighter's fear that keeps him far the bulls for a long time.