Customer Reviews

Tiempo De Valientes (On Probation) [NTSC/REGION 1 & 4 DVD. Import-Latin America]

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Tiempo de Valientes is not a spoof of buddy cop movies even though it may look like one. It's a "what if" experiment: what would a film like Lethal Weapon (which very explicitly inspired this movie) look like if made in Argentina? It's a great deconstruction of Hollywood blockbusters, as stuff just doesn't work as smoothly as it should in an action movie: normal people who attempt heroic stunts fail, cops can't automatically fly a helicopter after years without practice, spies commit normal human errors and lone heroes trying to stop vast conspiracies by themselves fail. If this makes it seem like a disheartening movie, don't panic: it's ultimately a comedy, and comedies require the protagonists to suffer before achieving their goals.

Damián Szifrón loves the tropes of Hollywood action movies and subverts them to create the most American movie ever to come out of Argentina, while at the same time providing much needed heroes for Latin American cinema (as opposed to the usual morally ambiguous anti-heroes). It makes us believe it's possible that saving the world isn't the exclusive prerogative of the Jack Bauers and John McClanes of the world. And it's also a riotously funny movie which will have you laughing from start to finish.

If you are looking for a nice Argentine movie to laugh a lot, this is the movie for you. It is about a very peculiar cop and a shrink who is forced to accompany the former wherever he goes. Needless to say the shrink gets involved in certain situations that require police action. It resembles a little to True Lies but with a complete different idiosincracy. If you are an Argentine living abroad,buy it, you will not regret it.