El Estudiante (2009) Online

This is a very nice and refreshing film. I like it because there is no need to talk about the wrong things to attract the public. Mexico is a wonderful place to live, plenty of values.

The main attraction in this film is the everyday life which can be enjoyed if only you can see from certain perspective. Love, solidarity, hope are great values This film changes a little bit the parameters: in this case when the freshman at the University is an old man who follows his dreams and get into the University. He learns and teaches at the same time.

Don Quixote and Guanajuato. Love and hopes seems not to be a coincidence to be blended in this film, is how it is in real life.

This is a Universal film that I think will be remembered and awarded.

Nice photograph, music, script, acting, message, a round film, perhaps little bit exaggerated.

Last but not the least the location. It was filmed at the beloved city of Guanajuato. I lived there for several years and the colonial and world heritage city, is a silent and beautiful actress of the film where a lot of details are captured, so as the beautiful jacaranda flowers.

In brief, it's a beautiful and highly recommended film.

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Message to the Mexican film makers: No need to deploy our mistakes there is a lot of chances in our virtues. Congratulations for this novel director for doing so.

First of all, this movie is amazing! From the trailer, I didn't really know what to expect. I was sort of expecting one of you typical 5/10 star Mexican medium budget film. Boy, was I surprised.

The acting was top notch, the jokes were perfectly executed and I could really identify with various characters. The DP work was amazing and I fell in love even more with the beautiful city of Guanajuato.

The only problem I had (which also prevented me from giving this movie a 10) was that this movie tried to deal with too many stories for its 90 min length. I sometimes felt like the subplots were a little bit rushed and that some scenes were missing back story or were even a little bit pointless.

Aside from that, (I won't give away spoilers) but I was crying and going through the same emotions as the characters towards the end (and I sincerely almost never experience that nowadays).

Final Verdict: You have gotta see this movie!

This must be one of the best Mexican movies I have ever seen. Actors are top-notch, specially the performance of Jorge Lavat. There were many young actors and actresses that really have done a great job. I really don't know what I liked more, the movie or the music. All the songs were composed or selected perfectly to transmit the correct emotion. The official theme for the movie is Mirame_Bien performed by Sofia Maqueo. The direction was done flawlessly, incredible for a first time director. I was crying and going through the same emotions as the characters towards the end (and I sincerely almost never experience that nowadays). You have gotta see this movie!

Regardless of its country of origin, a movie that promotes values, life, and respect the way "El Estudiante" does, is truly hard to find these days. The film is truly remarkable and a hard departure from today's mostly trash-filled films. A film you can see with all the family without worries. An uncompromised masterpiece.

I am to see a better-made, better-acted, heartfelt piece of art. My best wishes to Gaston Pavlovich, its creator, and may this movie be seen and rewarded for all years to come.

Specially remarkable is the work of Mr. Lavat, whose artistic origins and past work are well known to most Mexicans.

The new crop of your actors, their fresh if ordinary looks are worth of representing a new cinema wave for people tired of cheap acting roles of would be's like Gael Garcia's or the like who act based on foulness and cheapness.

Good Job!

Highly recommended by some people I really respect I went to see this movie. The main argument behind the recommendation was "the message" this movie delivers. After 90 minutes of excruciating pain, I can tell you: the message are bad news. This movie takes back Mexican Cinema more than 40 years - at least- and it looks like the movie was made right in the 60's, along with some Mexican Marga Lopez' classics such as La Edad de la Inocencia or La sombra de los hijos. With a cast of unknown actors -just three recognizable faces - and a generic soapy theme, it is pretty hard to expect great deliverance and quality in acting, yet the amateurish use of cameras and obvious lack of direction results in a total fiasco. However, the main problem here is the screenplay that reduces Don Quixote novel to mere phrases or quotes recited with childish style by the actors. The interaction between the old character and his much younger counterparts is never truly developed and ends up being totally unreal and not believable - not to mention the lack of modern language that clearly sets this movie as an anachronism. Trust me there is no college educated Mexican young person who speaks like the characters or who does not know Jose Alfredo Jimenez - for Christ sake , being Mexican and not knowing him is a blasphemy !!

Probably the decision of not including crude language has to do with the intention of creating a "family movie with high values", well if that was the intention, the result is a pamphlet or a brochure ...mere propaganda, and as you know...propaganda is no good.

On the other hand if the goal was to make a movie about bonding, friendship and the continuous learning despite the generations gap, they may had take some lessons from other sources. Grand Torino or UP rings a bell, don't they ???

I watched this movie because the buzz was too much already and I thought something good had to have. Big mistake.

"El estudiante" has a good idea of a story but the script is so bad it makes good actors (like Jorge Lavat or Norma Lazareno) sound and look false and overacted. With cheesy and prefabricated dialogues it's nothing more than a very sad try to do a Hollywood film but in Guanajuato, MX. Some scenes are such clichés that you could literally translate them to English and name the movies they are in.

The director obviously has no experience directing actors or he is very bad at it. You can see how very talented actors struggle with scenes and end up giving a very poor performance. There are acting shortcomings one can't believe a director could let them make it to the final cut.

The only thing they did good was to merchandise the movie and build buzz around it. How they did that? Publicizing the fact that the writer and director were unexperienced (amazingly in México that's a box office booster) and then using easy and shameless emotional manipulation in the movie to make everyone talk about it.

Very good work by the DP but, then again, wrapped by the rest, it's sad.

This movie is incredible. Incredibly bad that is. It is pompous, preposterous, unrealistic, naive, a postcard-like, in the vein of the famous, so much criticized and ridiculed t.v. "sopa operas" or "culebrones" coming out of Mexico. It presents Mexico and its people as some caricatures of what the film director would like them to be. The old fellow preaches to his much younger fellow students and they just nod, there is a lesson about drug taking, u see, u should not because then u will have no money to pay so the bad drug dealer will have u beaten up. U should try to read verses from Don Quijote to the complete strangers, it will make their day and yours. The old man preaches to others about life but when his equally old wife dies (and the best possible kind death it was - in her sleep) he despairs and asks the Lord the most naive and senile questions. It is all too schmaltzy, too sentimental, to corny. The student pregnant with her teacher's baby baptizes it Alicia, like the old men's dead wife. He bursts into tears at hearing this. How touching, how true. They are true friends u know, him and a group of 20 year olds, because they have known him for a few months, he is only 40 years older and he preached to them. Like in real life. The old man talks to the statue of Don Quijote and admits he has learned a lot at the university. I wonder what, a few words that the young use these days? Because nothing else. Neither do we, we learn nothing true and real about the students in Mexico these days, nothing about the old days and passing away, nothing about the differences between being young and old. In addition the cinematography is poor, the fim has a grainy transfer, the photos are poor, we see very little of the supposedly beautiful Guanajuato. I like "feel good" movies, nothng wrong with them from time to time. But they must be made in a clever, intelligent, convincing way, not like this. The most amazing of this cinematic "experience" was to watch it in a full cinema in Mexico. The room liked the film, the room found it good. Which says a lot about the state of mind of a typical Mexican person, who is polite, polished, smiling and pleasant, but apparently also superficial.

This movie lets us see that learning has no age limit. The older generations learn from the younger and vice versa. Chano learned to be opened minded and to handle new technology while reminding a group of students the importance of romance and values. The main message of this movie is to not forget our values, that we should always respect one another and that the old romance ways don't age. Friendship is a strong point in this movie and we learn that it has no age limit. When Chano's younger friends see his suffering, they want to be there for him.This movie was filmed in Guanajuato and I really enjoyed watching the scenery and the culture of the town.

No!! This movie is absolutely questionable in that it's anything but spontaneous, it's so full of commonplaces!! It praises conventional values in such a way that it ends up being not only unrealistic, but truly pretentious and corny -not to mention predictable. A very poor example of Mexican cinema, which has struggled so much to build a good reputation. Plus, leitmotif music is used "ad lib", not when it really enhances a scene!!! Awful. I don't think a movie has to resort to the "easy weep" to make a point. Honestly, for this kind of films, a Power Point presentation would be more than enough. Undoubtedly, better options, with better plots, can be found effortlessly.

It's quite difficult to judge or value this Mexican film without being moved by the human emotions it intends - and succeeds - to convey.

The story is quite simple but anybody can sympathetically understand the sudden ambition of the film's main personage. He seems to be a happy retired man living in a home where is loved and well considered by his wife, his daughter and his lovely little grandchild. But he wants more and dares to challenge the unusual initiative to start a new career in a local university where he will be in contact with young students in their twenties.

The intergenerational confrontation between him and the bunch of young students is well depicted with scenes of a common daily life, inside and outside the classroom where they attend the school hours.

The acting, the photography and the varied musical score are quite appropiated. The film is a surprising success for this opera prima of its director. The final scenes of the movie are quite sentimental but genuine in a very positive way.

This is a movie to be seen by all who seek in a movie a beautiful human story and a nice exposition of human values in terms of respect, appreciation, friendship and true loving sympathy.

Don Quijote, the fictional personage of the famous Cervantes's novel would be delighted to see this film, and obviously his faithful companion Sancho Panza.

This is a most to see movie, for all those - students and teachers - who are in search of human values in people who are living close to us. Roberto Girault has realized a nice film worth of a second vision.

I choose to see this movie expecting to see either of two, a comedy (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) or a touch in the heart movie (Death poets society, with honors) but I found neither of those.

At first it seems to be a comedy, an old man going back to school, entering the classroom he finds the students believing he is the teacher until the teacher arrives. But that's the only fun part in the movie. The other "fun" parts are boring and predictable.

The seriousness of the film starts, with predictable ultra moralist scripts, and non believable performances, forced histories, not related to each other, is like seeing a Mexican soap opera. --SPOILER ALERT-- The death of the wife was so forced and stupid to the story is like trying to force the audience to cry so pathetic.

The end of the film is one of the worst things. It sucks big time, but people are praising the story because is ultra moralist, and church friendly, not because is a good film, is the kind of story moms want to show their kids to "teach them" some good things.

This is just another good example of what I consider a bad Mexican movie... It cheaply pretends to achieve a strong motivational score based on ethics and values, but it's simply Utopia and does not reflect reality at all.

In a futile attempt to paint a perfect world, the movie simply goes from one twisted story to another one and yet, another more, where life suddenly and magically turns right at the influx of the "profound" philosophy literally taken from Cervantes' "Don Quixote".

Sorry, but no more than another Mexican soap opera taken to the big screen...

In my opinion, the worst thing a movie can do, is try to be something it isn't or try to give a message by forced and melodramatic actions, this film does all this, not only is the story corny, but it tries to reach the audinece by presenting corny and "sweet" situations but it tries to hide the fact that is doing all this just so you can "feel" something while watching it, so please let me warn you, don't be fooled by this hoax of a film, but watch the quality that Mexican cinema has brought on the last years, films like "El Infierno", "Malos Habitos", or "Desierto Adentro", look for authenticity and real emotions, not this film. ; )

PD: Two stars out of ten, one for the acting lead, who does a nice job, even if the script is a letdown, and the other because the film was made in Guanajuato, a beautiful mexica city.

This film is full of emotions. Despite the fact that the plot feels "empty", it manages to center your attention on things people don't really care about anymore. It successfully adds comedy elements to what seems to be dominated by drama. Although it seems to try to hard to make you feel emotionally engaged to the film, that doesn't make it less pleasant. The acting was better than descent; so was the filming. The only flaws would be the ending, which keeps you waiting for something that never happens and how some characters start with few importance and end with a lot of importance, and vice versa. Overall, this is an excellent Mexican movie that does not involve drug cartels or criminals as protagonists (which was about time).

Someone I trust recommended this film to me. I was really surprised. It was really bad, and got worse with each and every minute. Basically, it is a Disney movie, only the bad American actors were replaced by bad Mexican actors.

Maybe, as years pass by, I might be able to forgive the friend that enticed me to spend valuable time watching this sorry piece of wasted celluloid. Time that I will never get back.

This is not just one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but the worst Mexican movie I've ever seen, without any doubt. If they have the Razzies in Guanujato, this movie would walk away with all the prices.

For the first reviewer: I would like to say that yes, maybe in Mexico we don't have the experience of Hollywood, the best directors or writers, but I think it's a lot most important to consider before such other characteristics form the movie like the message and with that, what impact it will have on the society, and those are the best cualities from this film. Maybe I don't know a lot about acting, or movies but one thing I know is that you can not say this is a bad movie, generally talking, when in my country it is consider by many as the best Mexican movie ever made, and it was liked by many other people in America (and by saying America I am talking about the whole continent, not just United States), and other Spanish talking countries, so it doesn't matter how much you know and can review about movies, you can't go against the opinion of the mayority, unleast they are mistaken, what I think it's not the case, so I would like you to think about not saying the whole movie is bad for those detalis, instead saying it's considered a great movie by many, but it has those deficiencies. Thank you Pd: I apologize about my bad English, but as I said my First language is Spanish.