Simply A Masterpiece

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I read the plot and it made me watch this movie. World learning that it's going to end in 72h? Sounds like a good Armageddon movie - see people's reaction, masses going panic, overall decay and destruction. Unfortunately - this movie is nothing about it. It's a story about child serial killer who wants to finish what he has started before imprisoned mixed up with the end of the world.Why would someone mix these two events - I really don't understand??? Maybe the idea in the beginning was to make an Armageddon movie, but then the budget did not allow the creators of the movie to realize all the ideas, so they came up with the child serial killer idea.I'm really disappointed with this movie and I would not recommend anyone to watch it. The two ideas that fuel the script could be very good if separated, but watching them in one movie is really confusing.

Great photography. Good acting (within the Films very limited range), including that of the kids. It's the best Spanish film I've seen in 2 years. The film is pathetic. In a deserted village 72h before the end of the World, there's fire, a 4 year-old girl plays with a broken and dirty doll…? Wow, we're already in absurd cliché land. But then comes… a man's hand, offering her… a candy. Yes, a candy, can you believe it! Because we are supposed to understand that a few hours before the world ends perverts roam deserted villages in search of 4 year-old girls. Oh dear. Who on earth are those responsible for such Hollywood-influenced narrative stupidities in Spanish films? Maybe the director lives too long in the States; maybe he was seeking to fulfil the necessary dose of superficiality and gratuitous sensationalism in order to secure USA distribution. Is it a thriller? An apocalypse movie? A romance? A horror movie? A child abuser story? It's trying to cover as much territory as possible and manages nothing. Unmotivated and repeated cruelty towards children, child killings (by hanging), child rape, …my God, there is serious narrative prostitution to the service of the easy manipulation of audiences 'fears'. It is inexcusable. Shameless in fact. It seems they complained in the Spanish press that no one went to see the film in Spain, and they had the gall to claim the film was not at all a copycat version of American models. Oh please. This is omitting to detail the enormous gaps in the script, in-credibility (a girl playing the flute under the andalucian summer heat at midday?!), ridiculous coincidences, completely illogical moments (they still have lights after the apocalypse has smashed onto earth?), but all so useful when one wants to avoid having to work over a script. False synthetic music (but OK effects), clichés ad-vomitum, I tried to hold on till the end but... When in the final scenes the unknown 'pretty woman' shows up out of nowhere and for no reason, I just turned the thing off. There is a limit of ridicule that medium intelligent people can bare in one session. There should have been a new edit made of the film, in which 93 minutes was removed.

Before watching this movie, I've looked through several IMDb comments and became even more interested. I almost enjoyed watching this movie. Really, it was not boring at all and it kept me interested in it, interested in how it will end, and suddenly a saw a list of cast. I mean, the movie ended but everything was still mysterious for me. This movie left more questions than impressions. What was the reason to kill before death? What was the reason to die? Why did he try to help children of his brother, while brother himself left them alone? Well, I can't say that I completely didn't like it. But I was expecting more. Movie doesn't have "happy end" and it neither has "happy moments". But still the actors play is very good, even young actors impressed me much. So, I can advice you to watch this movie, cause as I think someone will like it very much, but not me

The 72 hours before a comet strikes is just enough time to launch a cult film about the struggle of good versus evil. This film may not go far with the Euro-Film-Fest Seventh-Art crowd, but it will definite have legs to stand on for a long time.3 Días or Three Days (US title) or Before the Fall, (international title), examines the actions of a man stressed almost to the breaking point by outrageous fortune. It is directed by F Javier Guttiérez, and written by him and Juan Velarde. This is a period of three days before the end of the world, in a small town in Spain. What would the general population do if they knew the Earth would be destroyed in three days? You'll have to do most of the imagining yourself, because the film only gives a glance at what is happening in the outside world. This film focuses on one man's efforts to save his family from evil of others in the microcosmic environment of an isolated area of the Spanish interior.The film is very well made, but the philosophical incongruities of this film's premise undercut the experience for me. It is an odd study of human nature, that this man has no time to ponder his own life, his own personal disappointments and philosophy, but must spend the last 72 hours of existence in this primitive struggle against evil. However, despite the peculiarity and perhaps improbable behavior of the protagonist, it is filmed with subtlety. The land seems timeless, the sun searingly close and the wind explosive. The direction is also excellent, not only for the major characters but for everyone that comes before the camera, and the people are dangerous and inscrutable and very cinematic. In keeping with the apocalyptic theme, there are some bloody scenes, though none are particularly gruesome. The scenes of violence against young children, however, are difficult to take.Victor Clavijo plays the part of Alejandro with amazing energy and emotional involvement. This is acting that is worthy of award attention, but although the film was considered in the pre-selection for the European Film Awards in 2008, it did not make it to the final round. It is the kind of acting that usually gets ignored at the European Film Awards: physicality and pathos don't play well across the European cultural divide. It was also produced by Antonio Banderas, an important figure in international cinema with the smell of Hollywood about him, not exactly considered an eau de cologne at EFA. Add to that its aura of genre film, kind of sci-fi, fantasy and El Mariachi cultish. It is easy to see why the film has been totally ignored for EFA awards in 2008.The screenplay, written by the director Guttiérez and Juan Velarde, won the Best First Screenplay award at the Málaga Film Festival, and that, I would say, is about as far as the awards should go for this script, since the script is probably one of the weakest elements here. It effectively sets up the situation and develops the tension in an exciting way, but there are the usual lapses of logic that occur when a European auteur film has not gone through a thorough review. Who are the violent criminals in the early scenes? Why does the grandmother wander away? Why would the children accept this situation without question? These are irritating problems that could have easily been fixed with some more careful scripting.In general, it is a satisfying genre film, an action-slash-slasher film in an unusual setting, and it serves to introduce Clavijo, a well known Spanish TV actor, to the international cinema. Though it is not my cup of tea, I think this film will continue to attract viewers for years to come as it spreads beyond Europe just below the radar.