''Santos'' is a 2008 Spanish-Chilean comedy film directed and written by Nicolás López which stars Javier Gutiérrez,

Elsa Pataky Elsa Lafuente Medianu (; born 18 July 1976), known professionally as Elsa Pataky, is a Spanish-Australian model and actress. Pataky is known for her role as Elena Neves in the ''Fast & Furious'' franchise. She has appeared in the films '' Snake ...

Leonardo Sbaraglia Leonardo Máximo Sbaraglia (; born 30 June 1970) is an Argentine actor, with extensive credits in both Argentina and Spain. He has also worked in Mexico, and was cast in his first English-language role in '' Red Lights''. Biography Sbaraglia was ...

, and

Guillermo Toledo Guillermo "Willy" Toledo Monsalve (born 22 May 1970) is a Spanish actor and producer. Besides his stage career he is also noted as polemicist and for his political activism. Biography Guillermo Toledo Monsalve was born in Madrid on 22 May 19 ...

. Billed as a "romantic comedy about the end of the world", it is López's sophomore feature after ''Promedio rojo''. Boasting a budget of around $6 million, it turned out to be a "monumental bust".

Plot

An interdimensional traveller known as Antropomosco discloses to comic book artist Salvador Santos the real identity of the latter's friend Arturo Antares as that of the

supervillain A supervillain or supercriminal is a variant of the villainous stock character that is commonly found in American comic books, usually possessing superhuman abilities. A supervillain is the antithesis of a superhero. Supervillains are oft ...

Nova. Santos undergoes the

hero's journey In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, or the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed. Earlie ...

to rescue love interest Laura Luna from Nova's grip.

Cast

Production

''Santos'' is a Boomerang Cine,

Telecinco Cinema Telecinco Cinema, S.A.U. is the film production division of Mediaset España. It produces both feature films and television films. History Telecinco Cinema is a subsidiary film company of Mediaset España. Formerly known as Estudios Picasso, the ...

and Sobras Producciones production. and Eduardo Campoy were credited as producers. The film boasted a reported budget of around $6 million. Shooting locations included

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Release

The film made its

world premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its f ...

at the Austin-based

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Gi ...

on 20 September 2008. It also screened in competition at the

Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...

on 4 October 2008. Distributed by

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan *Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

, it was theatrically released in Spain on 10 October 2008. It opened in Chile on 18 December 2008.

Reception

Alberto Luchini of '' El Mundo'' rated the film 1 out of 5 stars, considering that it brings an "interesting visual proposal", on top of "a story that borders on the embarrassing", featuring "a frankly unpleasant preadolescent and scatological sense of humor", with jokes that are not only unfunny, but "repugnant" too. Jordi Costa of ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'' wrote that ith the film"it seems that Nicolás López places his omnivorous voracity of popular culture references at the service of a kind of unbridled and (self-)caricatured autobiography". Acknowledging the failure of the film (in the wake of devastating reviews and underwhelming box-office numbers), Nicolás López deemed the reception to be "a blow to isego".

References