The Last Circus

Grotesque for grotesque's sake. This wildly incoherent film is ugly to its core and is a painfully forced and poorly developed political allegory.

Though some critics mentioned Fellini b/c of the overall strangeness/circus iconography, this has far more in common w/ Asian style cinematic violence like Ichii the Killer. No ambiguous farting around here; there's a narrative (however crazed) & meaningful subtext. The film posits 2 contrasting ideas on masculinity: b a tyrant or b demeaned & tho the meaning gets lost in the zig-zagging middle, once the film resets its characters 4 a final collision it's a thrilling batsh-t ride 2 the climax

There are great scenes in it. But at one point it start to go crazy, in a climax of WTF moments without that b-movie self-irony you can see in Machete, for example. The film has the ambition to be allegorical, politically allegorical, and that's a big unaccomplished ambition. The horrible CGI doesn't help to be satisfied by the final. Maybe doesn't deserve a bad vote, but in the end i felt only disappointment.

Nothing about this clicked with me. The whole thing felt like a barely concealed power fantasy, and the entire prologue (which was the most interesting part of the film) felt tacked on to preload sympathy onto the otherwise overly-self-pitying-turned-utterly-psychotic protagonist. It's humourless in its attempts at humour, presents a ridiculous false dichotomy of masculinity, and treats the female lead like a stupid, confused animal. The bizarre latter half misses the mark by miles.

A psychotic sad clown and an equally psychotic happy clown embark on a rivalry for an acrobat that reaches absurd lengths. It got me in the opening with the line "A clown with a machete. You'll scare the shit out if them." The clown then runs headlong into a Spanish Civil War battle wielding a dress and wielding a machete!!! The film is beautifully shot with great imagery. If you've ever wanted to see a clown hoist two assault rifles and go to town, this is the movie for you.

There is something deliciously weird about this movie. Much like Delicatessen, I liked this movie a lot because of the weird paths that it goes down. When I saw the poster, I thought this movie was a horror movie. When I started watching the movie, I thought it was an off-beat love story. I now know that both of these are true but there is also a lot more beneath the surface if you want to dig deeper. I have so much more to say about this movie. I want to watch it again. I want to dig deeper.

In no way would I call this a comedy. This is bizarre like Miike's Gozu but never as entertaining or fun. At most I find this grimy and mildly interesting. I won't lie I wanted to know what would happen and how the movie would end.

I really don't know what they tried to do with this movie. I starts by setting the interesting historical background of the Spanish civil war and then does nothing with it. Then it just get more and more crazy. The characters don't make sense. Poor CGI. Very big continuity errors. A waste of a good chance. Honestly, una puta mierda.

It would be better, if it was better.

(Viewed on 29/06/12): Fellini meets Tarantino is a common description for T.L.C, but it doesn't completely capture the sheer insanity of this ultra violent, grotesque, extreme genre bending exercise. De La Iglesia's references are extensive (art, religion, culture, politics) and T.L.C doubles as a wild allegory for the Spanish Civil War, where fascism dovetails with dark desire. His willingness to let the story fly off the rails keeps the film unpredictable and thrilling.

'El día de la bestia' fue excelente, pero esto es en última instancia, desastre!

Starts out interesting, goes on forever without going anywhere.

Utterly bizarre film. I can't say it isn't interesting but seems to feel as if it's trying a bit too hard at times.

lol look at the cover of this movie and then prepare youself for the insanity. I loved the visuals you get and the idea of what would you thinik if you saw this in real life. Im being vague because i dont want to give to much away but i loved how bizzare this movie was. The ending was a little to muddled for me and there could have been improvements in certain areas of the plot but overall it was a memorable watch and i enjoyed it.

it was good for what it was, but it could have been so much more. too many canned screams and not enough psycho clown murders.

Hard to rate, aesthetically not my cup of tea and not my cup of tea in general... but it's batshit insane, which is always refreshing. Especially the first 30-40 minutes had some great dark humor. And Carolina Bang is hot.

Overall Enjoyment: 15/40, Plot/Themes: 10/20, Cinematography/Direction: 15/20, Acting/Writing: 10/20 This film had an interesting premise and some great imagery, but ultimately the main plot was weak. Not really worth a watch unless you are easily amused by clowns participating in violent antics.

"Álex de la Iglesia holds back nothing, a strategy that generates a compelling sense of the phantasmagoric nightmarishness of Franco's Spain." - Nick Schager

Well that's peculiar...

Unnecessarily violent, chaotic script and badly written characters in an overambitious mess with a few moments of pure brilliance (e.g. the prologue).

26 mart 2011, 22. ankara film fest., bati sinemalari salon1 & keske son yarim saatinde daha az aksiyon olsaymis. ama guzel anlatilmis, politik imgelerle orulu bir grotesk- disavurumcu film. ayni kadini (devleti) farkli sekillerde seven (sagci-solcu) iki farkli karakterdeki adamin sonunda siddet kullanarak birbirinden farki kalmamasi ve sevdigi kadini (devleti) oldurmesi / zarar vermesi. yine de tekrarliyorum, keske son yarim saatindeki aksiyon daha az olsaymis. bir sure sonra absurd bir hal aldi