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Vicky Cristina Barcelona |  | Director: Woody Allen
Actors: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, Kevin Dunn
Studio: The Weinstein Company
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.97
Buy Used: $3.41
as of 9/3/2010 11:07 CDT details
You Save: $9.56 (74%)
New (41) Used (41) from $3.41
Seller: goHastings
Rating:  170 reviews
Sales Rank: 835
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Running Time: 96 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 796019816724
UPC: 796019816724
EAN: 0796019816724
ASIN: B001DJ7PR8
Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: January 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When two friends spend a summer in Barcelona, they meet an artist who suggests the three of them take off for a romantic weekend.
It must be true that getting out of town can do a fellow a lot of good, because Vicky Cristina Barcelona is the best movie Woody Allen has made in years. Okay, you're right, 2006's Match Point already claimed that honor and, as Allen's first film made in England, established the virtues of getting away from overfamiliar territory (namely Manhattan). But the Woodman's first film made in Spain matches the ice-cold Match Point for crisp authority, and yields a good deal more sheer pleasure besides. Rebecca Hall (Vicky) and Scarlett Johansson (Cristina) play two young Americans, best friends, spending a summer in Catalonia. Vicky is going for a master's in "Catalan identity" (though her Spanish is shaky); Cristina is going along for, oh, just about anything. That soon includes celebrated abstract artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who's anything but abstract in his forthright proposition that the two join him in his private plane, his travels, and his bed. That he has an insane ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), who may or may not have tried to kill him is not really an issue until the wife reappears and ... well, consider the possibilities. Vicky Cristina Barcelona isn't exactly a comedy, at least not in the manner of Allen's "early, funny ones," but it's informed by a rueful wit that finds its fullest expression in reflective voiceover commentary. Spoken by Christopher Evan Welch, but surely on behalf of the 73-year-old auteur, this element of the film is neither (as some have charged) patronizing nor uncinematic; rather, it's integral to the movie's participation in a venerable European literary tradition, the sentimental education. Instead of Bergman or Fellini, this time Allen is invoking the François Truffaut of Jules and Jim and Eric Rohmer in his many meditations on the game of love. The entire cast is terrific (both Hall and Johansson get to play "the Woody part" at different points), with Bardem and Cruz especially delightful as exemplars of Old Worldliness. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe honors every drop of Catalonian sunlight and glint of Gaudí architecture. --Richard T. Jameson Stills from Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Click for larger image)
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 170
 Good August 26, 2010
Cosmoetica (New York, USA)
Some critics have praised the use of a voiceover narrator in the film, while others, like James Berardinelli, have condemned it. The truth is that it's neither here nor there. Yes, there are moments when it is needlessly recapitulative, but others where it makes for handy elisions of superfluous moments. The voice of Welch, though, is perhaps too much like a young Woody Allen's, and given that Hall's Vicky is clearly the designated neurotic Woody character, this vocal affinity of Welch's subliminally biases the viewer toward feeling a certain way toward Vicky that otherwise might not exist- i.e.- it makes the screenplay seem more about Vicky because she is seen as the Woody character- pro or con, depending on the viewer's preconceptions of the real life Allen and his neurotic onscreen characterizations. The film's strongest point, however, is its anti-climactic ending, wherein all the characters return to where they were. If only the rest of the film were as spare and poetic, then Vicky Cristina Barcelona would have been a film that could be argued for greatness.
As for the actors, the best performance was likely given by Bardem, although he also had the least complicated part- the slimeball user (best described by Vicky as a `charmingly candid wifebeater'). Hall and Messina actually had good chemistry together, which made a viewer wonder why Vicky would give a damn about the slimy Juan, except for the obvious; that Allen was pandering to the Lowest Common Denominator Hollywood ideal of romantic love (being in love) somehow being better than true love (being loved). Scarlett Johansson was again misused by Allen. Her best role was in Allen's light comedy, Scoop, where she proved to be quite an adept comedienne- surpassed in the Allen pantheon of female comic talents only by Diane Keaton. But where this idea arose of her as a sex symbol is mystifying. She's simply a rather average looking young woman, far more suited to the girl next door roles that would have once gone to Donna Reed or Doris Day than the roles she gets, which would have once gone to Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield. It's truly mystifying, as Johansson simply lacks the sexual `It' factor. But, worst of all is Penelope Cruz. Putting aside the character's stereotypes, I have seen her in a handful of films and a) she cannot act (despite claims that she is far better in Spanish language films than English ones, for over 50% of her role here is in Spanish), and b) like Johansson, she is almost always cast as a sex bomb, despite the fact that she's just an average looking woman and, in this film, looks scrawny, if not outright anorexic. Despite, at times looking like a younger, prettier Mackenzie Phillips, the best looking female in the film, by far, is Rebecca Hall, the least known of the trio. She also is, easily, the best actress.
The film also benefits from some great cinematography by Javier Aguirresarobe, and by that I do not mean merely that Barcelona was beautiful to look at. There are numerous well framed shots, and shots from interesting angles, such as when Cristina and Maria go around the city photographing sights and people. Aguirresarobe is not a cinematographer I've seen the work of before, but after this film, and given his great surname, his is work I will look for in the future, despite whatever director he works with in the future. It is because of the strengths of the film (the cinematography, Bardem's and Hall's performances, the sometimes great deployment of ellipses and narration) that I can recommend Vicky Cristina Barcelona as, at least, a good way to spend a couple of hours in filmic revery. Don't expect a masterpiece from Allen's Golden Age, and you will do ok. Go in thinking it's another Hollywood Ending, though, and you will end the film smiling. Given the lows of some of Allen's work post-Golden Age, that's as close to a rave as you will find, at least from me.
 Every man's phantasy August 21, 2010
M. Roer (Mojave Desert)
Javier Bardem is a very attractive man. Not beautiful in the Hollywood sense, but oozing masculinity and sensuality.
In this Woody Allen film he gets rewarded by getting all the girls and some pretty attractive ones too like Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall who join him in twosomes and threesomes in beautiful Spain (Barcelona). The chemistry in-between the actors is perfect not like in "Eat, Pray, Love" which I just saw and where Javier oozes too but there is no chemistry with Julia Robert at all and while the love affairs in Vicky Christina Barcelona seemed believable, the love affair in Eat, pray, love did not.
But the movie is not only about rolling around in bed, there is wonderful music, great actors, beautiful locations and an amusing story.
All in all a very funny, entertaining and sexy film
 better to have stayed home August 18, 2010
Ellis Glazier (La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
if you have a choice, do not buy this. if you own it. do not watch it.
it is the story of two very silly young girls on vacation in barcelona, and older man who just wants sex with anything that moves and looks female, and his crazy exwife. the man and wife are painters, so called, and the examples of their work will clearly make you understand why she is crazy and he is sexually obsessed.
the funniest part is meeting with his father, who will speak no other language than spanish, though catalan is the tongue of barcelona, he is a poet and he believes his poems are only to be written in spanish, but he refuses to publish them because he is angry at the world and this is his way of punishing it. bad poet , bad poems, nutty character. that pretty much describes the story.
 Delightful and Very Well Acted August 15, 2010
alittlebitofheaven (Miami, FL USA)
When you are young and on the loose in a foreign country, opportunities arise to explore your sexuality, your values, your morality. Vicky and her friend Cristina do that in this comedy with a couple of dramatic moments. Now that Cruz and Bardem are married, we may see more of their considerable emoting skills together or they may choose to keep their private and professional lives separate. If the latter is the case, you don't want to miss this excellent example of their skill working together. I have no respect for Woody Allen, therefore the 4 Star rating. If I had based the rating on the skill of the actors (all of them, especially Johansson), this film would have been rated a 5. Enjoy
Nowhere Man August 13, 2010
Timothy Donahue (Augusta, GA)
Why all this falling down and slobbering over Woody Allen? This movie was dull, unimaginative, and not connected to anything. "Distant" relatives invite the girls to Barcelona? No one seems to be at a loss for money (an unpublished poet who lives in a country villa)? It seems that Woody just wanted to get Scarlett Johannsen and Penelope Cruz in the same movie....Woody seems to be repeating himself in movies now with similar themes emerging. Larry David in "Curb your Enthusiasm" does in half an hour what Woody used to do in (roughly) two hours....Sorry, not worth buying or even renting.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 170
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