''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 model and actress. Pataky is known for her leading role of Raquel Alonso in the Spanish teen drama '' Al salir de Clase'' (1997-2002)'','' before garn ...

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 Toledo Monsalve (born 22 May 1970), also known as Willy Toledo, is a Spanish actor and theatre producer. He gained popularity in Spain for his television role as Richard in sitcom ''7 vidas'' from 1999 to 2002, advancing further public ...

. 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, supervillainess or supercriminal is a major antagonist and variant of the villainous stock character who possesses Superpower (ability), superpowers. The character type is sometimes found in comic books and is often the primary ...

Nova. Santos undergoes the

hero's journey In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's quest or hero's journey, also known as 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 ch ...

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.

José Manuel Lorenzo José Manuel Lorenzo Torres (born 29 May 1959) is a Spanish audiovisual producer and television executive. Life and career José Manuel Lorenzo Torres was born on 29 May 1959 in Pontevedra, to a mother and a father both working as educators. He ...

and

Eduardo Campoy Eduardo Campoy Sanz-Orrio (born 21 September 1955) is a Spanish film producer. He has also worked as director. Life and career Eduardo Campoy Sanz-Orrio was born in León, Spain, León on 21 September 1955. He co-helmed ''Copia cero'' in 1981 i ...

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 and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, and

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Release

The film made its

world premiere A premiere, also spelled première, (from , ) is the debut (first public presentation) of a work, i.e. play, film, dance, musical composition, or even a performer in that work. History Raymond F. Betts attributes the introduction of the film ...

at the Austin-based

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...

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

Sitges Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...

on 4 October 2008. Distributed by Buena Vista, 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. of ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. 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 . is the most read newspaper in ...

'' 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