Andres Salama This homage to Spaghetti Westerns (those films made mostly in the 60s in Spain under Italian directors and actors using English names) could have been a bit better. Directed by Spanish director (and infant terrible) Alex de la Iglesia, it starts as the story of a boy who leaves his home in order to search his paternal grandfather, Julian (Spanish veteran actor Sancho Gracia), a former movie stuntman who worked in those westerns and whose main claim to fame is to having been Clint Eastwood's double in some of those movies (he even had speaking parts in some of those, he claims). Spaghetti westerns are long gone, but the grandfather still ekes out a living working as a stuntman in a decrepit theme park in southern Spain dedicated to the American West. However, as the park attracts few visitors, developers (including the boy's mother, played by Almodovar regular Carmen Maura) are planning to bulldoze the place and build a new park. Julian, who originally received his grandson reluctantly, decides to fight back among his coworkers, with 800 real bullets, and a real gunfight erupts. The movie is not bad, but it becomes less interesting at times, and it fails to hit the right tone. Best bit: "Clint Eastwood"'s cameo at the end. Note: the film contains a scene where the boy is fondled by a naked woman that would be considered illegal in most countries (I don't know how they did get away with that).

sergio choren "800 Balas" is another funny and cool movie from Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, the guy who did the absolutely wonderful "El Dia de la Bestia", one of the best comedy/terror movies ever made. But I must tell you, people, if you don't speak Spanish, no matter how accurate the subtitles will be, you're missing half of the fun. And I mean Spanish from Spain, literally, because here in Argentina we speak Spanish too but in a complete different form and mood. Spanish people are hilarious when they insult each other (and there's a lot here) using some expressions that just can't be translated, like "me cago en la puta leche". But it's a funny and well delivered film no matter the language. A kind of homage to spaghetti westerns and all those little cheap movies from the 60's done with an excellent cast. Recommended.

Vivaelhotelplaza2005 Clint Eastwood made history in La Tierra Española, when he made his three Films of Fistfull of Dollars and A Fistfull of Dollars More as well as The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly; with those Films being made in Provincia de Almeria, and at a place called "Texas/Hollywood" today. Clint used a Poncho that he wore every day and night when he made Fistfull of Dollars and lost a bit of weight in that moment, of which Clint also left so many memories in this immortal part of Andalucia as a Region and Land of La Tierra Española, or Tierra de Iberia as it is also called. The fame of these Films and "The Magnificent 7" as well as Patton, which were also made in Almeria, made ALex de La Iglesia want to make this classic Film, with the tale being about the Stuntmen and what they face when they are forgotten and have to just live on the Tourists who come. The tale is innocent for it is about a Child who dreams and wants to know about his Father and runs away to see his Grandfather, but his Father is really dead for he died in a horrible accident while making a Film. His Grandfather is a drunk and washed up person, but the comic feel of the tale and the crazy life that these Misfits live, gives you the idea of how surreal the world of Almeria is, especially when instead of hearing songs of Cowboys in a Bar one hears Hondo Sevillana, which is the traditional music of Andalucia; while others may hear Castillano but not the type of that is spoken in Texas or Mexico, for instead one hears the strong Lisp Andaluz as well as the Gypsy Dialect of Iberia that is Callo. The town of Almeria is similar to those of Peru and the Andian highlands of Argentina, with the comedy of the town being that when Los Muchachos of Texas/Hollywood drive into the town they always crash into the makeshift wooden steps of this one old woman, and smash it to pieces while still driving away. This Western even has a full out Battle and a Shootout in between two rivals, when it also has Brothel Girls and a trek with the heroes being on Horseback and riding down the highway from Malaga, where the Grandfather is incarcerated at one time for theft. In the end, the Grandfather dies tragically and a funeral occurs where he is buried next to the makeshift wooden Church of Texas /Hollywood, in which all who loved him are at his funeral, as well as those who tolerated him but hated him; and one tall man is there whose face one does not see, but in the end one sees that it is to be someone as Clint himself, but it is a Spaniard actor who looks like him. I adore this Film and it is an amazing tribute to how and where those grand Westerns were made at Almeria.

Roland E. Zwick In the wry, quirky little comedy,"800 Bullets," a young boy named Carlos goes in search of his paternal grandfather, a former movie stuntman whose claim to fame is serving as Clint Eastwood's double in the heyday of the spaghetti western - a fact he has been trying to parlay into a lucrative career for well over thirty years now, long after the western -spaghetti or otherwise - disappeared as a viable genre. But, oh, how the might have fallen, for when Carlos arrives, he finds Julian barely eking out a living working at what is little more than a broken down tourist trap - a long-abandoned western set stuck out in the middle of the Spanish desert where he and a small band of likeminded misfits put on a tawdry gunslinger show for the few paying customers who happen to wander their way. Carlos is, of course, thrilled with what he finds there - a world right out of the past replete with hangman's noose and functioning brothel - but trouble begins when his mother, a real estate developer who holds Julian responsible for the death of her husband in a stunt accident years earlier, buys the place and threatens to bulldoze it to make way for a spanking new theme park she's planning to build. It is at this point that Julian chooses to make a stand, buying 800 real bullets, gathering together his forces, and turning the site into his own mini-Alamo where he gets to participate in his very own shootout on main street with real guns and real ammo."800 Bullets" is fun right up until the moment when the actual shooting starts, then it turns heavy-handed and silly, trotting out that old chestnut about how only a fine line separates reality from fantasy - or, more accurately in this case, real life from celluloid life - and how only truly eccentric people ever get to cross it. But Sancho Gracia gives a wonderful performance as the craggy old has-been determined to prove himself a hero to his adoring grandson. Moreover, the setting is novel, the concept original, and the execution lighthearted and fast paced. It's true that at 121 minutes the movie is longer than it needs to be, and the closing scenes smack of last minute desperation on the part of the screenwriter. But director Alex de la Iglesia conveys a real affection for the conventions and style of those pasta-filled westerns from thirty and forty years ago - an affection that many moviegoers past and present frankly share.(One caveat, however: there is a scene in the film in which the young boy fondles a prostitute's breast that would probably be considered child pornography if it were made in the United States).