Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Doomtomylo
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
tatyshk
Paraiso Travel is by far much more than just an illegal immigrant story. I found that the story was well built and narrated with the only exception of the part about lost mother. The characters were very human in all their complexity and what i appreciated the most was that none of them were perfect or "superhero" type. Even Marlon, the main character, is not completely positive. He is weak and lost, doesn't know how to deal with his anger and sexual desires but in the same time he has a good heart and is willing to go through hell to find his lost girlfriend instead of just going back home to Colombia to his fairly well-off family.I don't agree with one of the users saying that the film director probably hated women because of the way he portrayed Reina. She is just one of the numerous female characters there and she definitely belongs to the type of women who discover early how to exploit men with their sexuality and in the end it's the only thing they know do best. She never had feelings for Marlon luring him into following her to New York only to keep her company perhaps. So in the end Marlon realizes that beneath that sultry body and pretty face of Reina, there is no soul or heart or moral values. I didn't even feel bad for her having to live in a trailer with a baby and drunkard mother because in the end she deserved all that.
almontin
I enjoyed watching Paraiso Travel. The plot line is fairly simple, about the hardships gone through by a Colombian emigrant (Marlon) trying to settle into a gritty-looking New York. Several (clever and quite gripping) flashbacks bring Marlon back to the journey from Medellin to the USA. Though it is simple, it is nonetheless shot with much enthusiasm and with an unbiased approach to the plight of emigrants trying to make it from scratch.Yes, it is on the whole quite catchy, without too many off-topic errances which frequently marr such films. The film delivers on its depiction of hard-by emigrant families, never allowing itself to wallow into pessimism despite the hero's predicaments, I believe its message is essentially one of hope.A last note: the ending was in fact very good, a good point for this movie which is worth catching.
dgsweet
Yes, one of the leading women turns out to be manipulative and appalling, but the woman at the restaurant and the woman who runs the stand next door are almost saintly, and even the woman who turns to topless dancing turns out to have a considerable heart.This is not remotely a portrait of all Latin women or men. It is a story about one fairly naive guy who undergoes a series of adventures in a land where he can't speak the language and emerges with new knowledge.Some of it is funny, some of it is heartbreaking. If I have any criticism -- and it's not much of one -- it's that the end titles are way more sophisticated stylistically than the movie they follow, and so they don't quite match. Big criticism, yes? Other than that, it's fascinating to see a film a lot of which takes place in a New York that seems to be a parallel and largely unseen world to the one Anglos like me live in. The idea that New York contains entire cultures that co-exist without much contact is intriguing.
bucklesan
I went to see this movie with very little expectations, since most of these movies are usually just depressing and unoriginal; but Paraiso Travel is VERY well made, the characters are well developed and the actors and actresses certainly get the job done! The story of two young adults (Reina & Marlon) apparently after graduating high school and dreaming of having "the American dream" in New York, but encountering the crude reality of how things really work and happen when you're illegal in an unknown country and language. The story works combining flashbacks of how they got to the US (leaving Medellin, Colombia to Guatemala, Mexico, Texas and finally New York) with Marlon's present in New York. Upon arriving to a 4 by 4 "dirt-hole" in New York Marlon has a small argument with his girlfriend Reina, he goes out to smoke and throws a package of cigarettes to the ground some policemen are around, and come up to him to let him know about littering; Marlon knowing he's illegal and unable to understand a word in English runs for his life and ends up getting lost, homeless and without Reina. His fight is not only surviving in NYC but searching for his girlfriend, working and most importantly finding himself; while the viewer sees all of what Marlon and his girlfriend had to go through to get to the United States.Great movie I completely recommend it!
