Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 29
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 18
More Hellish than it is Heavenly, Agustín Díaz Yanes' black comedy about the Earthly duel between two angels doesn't have enough genuine laughs to support its far-fetched premise.
Average Rating: 5.2/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 5
More Hellish than it is Heavenly, Agustín Díaz Yanes' black comedy about the Earthly duel between two angels doesn't have enough genuine laughs to support its far-fetched premise.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 5,286
Get your friends' movie recommendations by adding Rotten Tomatoes to your Facebook Timeline.
Two of Spain's biggest female stars headline this offbeat comedy about the battle of wills between good and evil. Heaven is not getting its fair share of business for the afterlife, so Lola (Victoria Abril), an angel who sings in a nightclub located beyond the pearly gates, is sent to Earth to drum up business by her boss, Marina (Fanny Ardant). Her first prospect is Manny (Demián Bichir), a prizefighter with an injury that could take his life at any time. As Lola tries to claim Manny's soul for
Aug 22, 2003 Wide
Feb 17, 2004
Casa Nova Films
All Critics (32) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (18) | DVD (3)
It's all harmless fun, I suppose, and mercifully free of all the cant usually associated with fantasies of Heaven and Hell.
Manny is so uninteresting as a pivotal character that he's a black hole who sucks away our investment in the film.
A sultry, pretty thing with a few good ideas: in other words, stuck in limbo.
Consistently clever and inventive on a level a little below the inspired.
It's only sporadically entertaining.
An unfocused, overplotted, painfully derivative comic fantasy.
Bendito Infierno's characters crack and pop off the screen; you're caught up in their tussle even as you acknowledge its artificiality.
...undoubtedly a silly premise, but writer/director Agustin Diaz Yanes imbues the film with enough style and humor to keep things interesting.
As tempting as it is to describe the level of humor in Don't Tempt Me as hellish, that's probably giving the movie more credit than it deserves. Although describing anything in this dark comedy as heavenly is even more of a stretch.
A train wreck of half-developed ideas without a unifying thread.
Sometimes nothing is more irritating than forced wackiness. Especially forced wackiness with a supposed deeper point.
A barely comprehensible mess ... Fun is something in very short supply in this would-be comedy.
This doesn't intend to be a mystery but it sure makes one out of why the investors didn't require a re-write.
Bernal can't decide if he's making a Tarantino homage or an Almodóvar riff or an Albert Brooks tribute... and the wobbly sensibility finally knocks the movie's legs out from beneath it altogether.
The relative surrealistic element of the movie is what made it interesting. The rest was ok. I like it when Cruz doesn't play the pretty girl.
March 13, 2011Super Reviewer
Victoria Abril and Penelope Cruz get sent by heaven and hell respectively, to win the soul of a sad, weak woman-beating loser. Apparently heaven is a bit like black & white Paris filmset and rather empty, and hell is like a giant multi-storey prison with lots more people in it, and there's a Checkpoint Charlie between
March 13, 2010
Super Reviewer
| 29% | The Vow |
| 93% | Mission: Impossible Ghost Protoc... |
| 87% | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |
| 28% | Underworld Awakening |
| 85% | Chronicle |
| 65% | The Woman in Black |
| 25% | This Means War |
| 94% | The Secret World of Arrietty |
| 36% | Red Tails |
| 88% | Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) |
The Avengers stays strong at No. 1
Trailer: In bed with Zoe and Bradley
Video: Your friendly four minute preview
Latest trailer from Michel Gondry