From PASTO, COLOMBIA-Via: L. A. CA; CALI, COLOMBIA+ORLANDO, FL ----------------The ONLY Tony Kiss Castillo on FaceBook!-----------------

Syriana, certainly supremely somber and dark, both in focus and in execution, with a cast replete with A-Listers like George Clooney (also listed as one of the executive producers),Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer and Amanda Peet, had a budget of 50 million dollars.... All for the purpose of presenting a striking vision of the troubled state of the world in which we live.

To dig a little deeper regarding Syriana, a film nominated for several Oscars (which were quite well deserved, in my opinion) is the kind of psychological-political thriller where you, the spectator, is forced to put your brain into hyper drive in every scene, every line from the movie, from start to its final seconds....

If you do not want to end up with gaps in the arc of the story, you'd best not let down your mental guard, even for the briefest of moments! So, if you prefer your films "Light & Breezy", Syriana may not be the most appropriate option. The story development is not linear. Constantly changing location, focus, characters and, especially, chronology! Syriana is akin to taking a cinematic rocket ride. Beginning its journey slowly, deliberately, but with a huge explosion from the ignition of its engines. Then, there is rapid and constant acceleration throughout its entire trajectory! Gradually, one begins to feel a constantly building imminent danger.

To the extent that Syriana approaches its climax, there is a pervasive sense of impotence that is transmitted to the viewer and to each character and each entity in the story. It is as if each and every one involved were all cells in some Gestalt organism with a separate life all its own, yet, unable to change course and detain the inevitable. Syriana is a most convincing portrait of a coolly calculating, complicated & Machiavellian world

9********* ..... ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

Any comments, questions or observations, in English, o en Español, are most welcome!......

Have you ever seen a movie that left you feeling very, very cold? Well, this is certainly the case for me and "Syriana". Now my problem is not the film's politics. I don't care if a movie has a far left or far right bent--if it's a good film, it's a good film. So the film's criticism of US foreign policy, paranoia and the oil industry didn't bother me. What bothered me was the film's style. Again and again, the movie could have been emotionally involving but wasn't. Even when a terrible tragedy occurs to a child early in the film and someone is tortured, I felt oddly disconnected. Because of the VERY sterile style of the film, I just didn't care about the characters. And, because I had no idea who were the good guys and who were the bad (I suspect there were NO good guys in this one),I also didn't care much about the film. It's sad, as there are a lot of good actors in the film--most of which are given very thankless and dull roles (such as Matt Damon who seemed to almost be sleepwalking at times through the role). One of the only ones who came off well was Chris Cooper. While a nasty character, at least he had character! Most were just dull automatons. And, this made we wonder how George Clooney (an accomplished actor) got an Oscar for this! He's done so many deserving roles--but here he isn't all that interesting--just another automaton. I don't get this film--and can't see how they could have made a potentially interesting topic less interesting.

Connex loses its access in Kazahkstan by its Emir which is then given to the Chinese. Connex is merging with the smaller Killen to get back into the region. Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon) is an energy analyst in Geneva. He attends the Emir's party where his son is accidentally killed. Reformer Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig) offers him reparation and eventually takes him on as his adviser. Meanwhile, there is a secret missile sale in Iran that ends explosively. Bob Barnes (George Clooney) is a hard-nosed CIA operative trying to stop the arms smuggling. He clashes with his superiors and then assigned to assassinate Nasir.

It's an ambitious movie that would confuse the most fanatical of conspiracy theorists. It's a complicated interconnected series of stories. It's tough to keep it all straight. In this case, the confusion adds to the appeal of the movie. It highlights the murky nature of dealings within that region.