gavin6942 Jose Luis is an executive at his parents' underwear factory where his girlfriend Sylvia works on the shop floor. When Sylvia falls pregnant, Jose Luis promises her that he will marry her, most likely against the wishes of his parents.What this movie is probably best known for, if known at all, is for being the debut film of Penelope Cruz. For those who want to see her early work, and in this case without a shirt on for a while, it is a decent debut. You cannot go wrong appearing alongside Javier Bardem.But for me, what stands out is the quirkiness. The interviews of male underwear models, the way an underwear factory works. I have no idea if it is accurate, but it seems authentic. And this is quite likely the first (and last) time a movie featured a pig getting a suppository. Very odd.

Christopher Liu Many of us do not think of ham and sex having any sort connection. But never before will you witness a film that so strategically intertwines the two. The film's director, Bigas Luna does a wonderful job of mixing these two elements together, making many of the scenes quiet hysterical. In one of many strange and awkward scenes, a fight between Jose and Raul erupts, fighting with slabs of ham for Silva's (Penelope Cruz) heart. Even though we are flooded with absurd comedy, sex has to do with everything; it is what drives the film. To many viewers who have never seen a similar Spanish film, Jamon, Jamon will appear pornographic. There is an abundance of skin shown by the actors and actresses, such as the naked bull fight scene. The sex scenes are awkward and comical, throwing our own idea and perception of sex into question. Bigas Luna does not attempt to balancing, romance, sex, food, drama, and comedy. Had he done this we would be confused about our own emotions, leaving us unsure of how to feel. There is certainly a sense of drama in the film, for example when Silva (Penelope Cruz) falls in love with Raul, the man that was hired whisk her away. Instead of the audience feeling emotionally saddened for Silva, Bigas Luna decides to make us laugh, instead of cry. Turning the whole situation into a sex circle with everyone involved.Overall, the film was very entertaining the entire 95 minutes. Anyone (adults) who watches the movie on a literal level will laugh hysterically.

lastliberal Bigas Luna is being touted as the new Pedro Almodovar in this Spanish comedy. I don't know about that, but the film is funny and interesting and a chance to see a lot of Penolope Cruz in her first film. Thae fact that you get a bonus with Italian beauties Anna Galiena and Stefania Sandrelli as the mothers just makes it more interesting.The story is basic fare of the telenovella: Rich boy falls in love with prostitutes (Stefania Sandrelli) daughter (Penolope Cruz) and gets her pregnant; boy wants to marry her, but can't tell his domineering mother (Anna Galiena); boy's father is one of mother's biggest clients and doesn't want to get involved; when mom finds out, she pays her lover (Javier Bardem) to break up the pair; lover falls in love with girl; rich kid goes crazy; big fight with ham bones; death.Let's see, there is a nude bullfight at midnight, some unnatural act with a pig, lots of references to ham, and lots of underwear modeling - male, that is - since that is where they make their money. In fact, it is Javier Bardem's filling out of the underwear that attracts him to momma.Some really weird stuff - almost surreal at times - makes this a must see.

rewind_mind Jamon Jamon... And yet another Spanish sex comedy. This one tries to satirize macho dominance, although at times one wonders if director Bigas Luna is just using the film as a card announcing that he's coming out of the closet, from the opening shots of Javier Bardem's rear and crotch. Too many elements seem familiar (pregnant unmarried girl, a disapproving mother, a love triangle that turns into a quadrangle that turns into a more complicated geometric figure), as if the story was coming out of the Manual for Writing Foreign Films That Get Played In the USA. Actually, despite the familiarity, this part is charming and captures your interest... if you are into romantic/erotic comedies. Many good jokes fly by. Some genuinely erotic moments happen. Then Bigas Luna tries to make it as offbeat as possible by displaying many scenes of cruelty towards animals, incessantly buzzing flies, a dream sequence, slow-motion shots, the occasional pretentious "repulsion" shot (e.g. a lizard crawling out of the eye socket of a doll), anti-erotic close-ups of lips during erotic scenes, and taking many psychodynamic twists that Freud would have been interested in. The deeper you get into the film, the more these scenes happen. Unfortunately, it is mostly badly done and pretentious. Some of it is due to low-budget limitations and lame editing. But some of it is just plain bad film-making and lazy writing. Please, everyone involved in Spanish-language "art" wannabe films, be you Spanish, Peruvian, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Venezuelan, or from any other applicable country: you do not qualify as an art film just because in the end you randomly kill off one of the main characters and lazily dodge writing a resolution to the complicated scenario you created! And no, it does not make it better if this happens in the middle of a desert! Stop killing off people in the desert! Most people don't live in a desert, much less live there, hence its name! Sand does not make art! Besides, the death is not even believable! Also, if your name is not John Woo or Brian DePalma, I'm sorry, you should not use slow-motion, because you don't know how to use it. As for the film's main satirical point, it seems that at one point Bigas Luna wanted to show women dominating men who pretended to be strong macho guys, but at the end if you re-examine it, it seems that Bigas Luna is really showing older people dominating younger people sexually, regardless of gender. If anything, at least the actors are game, particularly Bardem, Galiena, and Cruz, although Penelope Cruz fans should know that she doesn't look as pretty here as she does in other films. People who are just watching this for erotic value should quit half-way into the movie, as in "Betty Blue", as the latter part of the movie leaves an anti-erotic taste.In the end, all of the interesting scenes and ideas are ruined by misguided aspirations towards art. A shame.