Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
Bluebell Alcock
Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies
Orla Zuniga
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
spencergrande6
A Spanish horror-comedy in which a group of bank-robbers stumble into a witch coven. Hijinks ensue, comedy is had. The theme of this one is about how the robbers (all men) have woman issues and have all but renounced their kind as villainous, deceptive and bitchy (*cough* witchy--get it?) The witch coven has done the same thing (there are no warlocks; though one witch has a son she keeps locked up in an underground vault).Some lessons are not really learned, and there's a hulking monster witch with enormous boobs at the end the men have to contend with (one woman takes their side, alas). There's definitely some fun to be had here but it's fleeting and I'm not sure it's anywhere near as progressive as it thinks it is (if it does, I don't know).
Sandy Petersen
Years ago I saw Alex de la Iglesia's film, Accion Mutante, and I really liked it, despite the poverty-row budget. It had interesting, though unsympathetic characters, whose antics were fun to watch and an amazing artificial world full of surprises. Witching & Bitching is an absolutely terrible title for a movie. I blame de la Iglesia's unfamiliarity with English. In any case, it is clear from the start that Mr. de la Iglesia's style in this film is the same as Accion Mutante. He has his signature whacked-out, borderline insane, outside-the-law bunglers, alongside seemingly minor characters that turn into major pillars of the plot line. He has his lame running jokes that rarely work, but are somehow comforting nonetheless, and, just like Accion Mutante, the movie has enough plot twists for three or four more conventional films. Accion Mutante kept you surprised every minute. Witching & Bitching (man, I HATE that name) can't do quite as well, because the title, as well as the title screens both give away the fact that, at some point in the film, witches figure prominently. I was thrilled by the fact that the film managed to mingle fairy-tale witches with earth-goddess shenanigans. Some of the scenes were spectacular. Many directors, when they get money, don't seem to know how to spend it to get the best results. But de la Iglesia sure did. You got to see every penny on the screen, and as a result, this movie was, in my opinion, superior to my beloved Accion Mutante. I love the way that his films attack both the status quo as WELL as the revolution. He subverts the subversives. His witches are (obviously) aggressively feminist, but it is clear that if they controlled more of society, the world would not be a better place. If you've not seen Accion Mutante (which probably most people haven't), then perhaps the closest "type" of movie to Witching & Bitching would be something by Terry Gilliam, or perhaps City of Lost Children. If you like that kind of anarchic, fantasy semi-comedy, this might be for you.
carbuff
A really freaky, really unconventional, Spanish film. "Witching and Bitching" is an offbeat mash-up of comedy, thriller/action, fantasy, and horror. To me it plays like a much more intelligent "From Dusk to Dawn", trading some outright gruesomeness for a lot smarter script, which consequently makes it more psychologically disturbing. Some women (obviously) have commented that they consider this film to be very anti-female, depicting the fairer sex as being brutally castrating; however, I would guess that these no doubt extremely dour, stone-faced, feminists don't just read Jezebel.com, they probably also write for it. I'd allow that it wouldn't be shocking if the creative force behind this movie was a heterosexual guy who had recently exited some kind of highly dysfunctional relationship, but the perceived negativity towards women is obviously satire and/or just plain and simple humor, and, most importantly, it's pretty damn funny. These narrow-minded critics also don't seem to have noticed that the male characters don't exactly come across as bright and shining examples of their sex either, so they should just lighten up, and you should ignore them. This movie is perfect for people who are looking for something other than the same old, same old. The plot just keeps chugging along in entertaining, unexpected, and often nightmarish directions, although it starts to come off the rails as it approaches its final destination. Fortunately, at the end, it finds its way back on track and finishes strongly, albeit pretty creepy/funny.
Radu_A
In the first ten minutes of this, you see Thatcher and Merkel in a line-up of famous witches throughout history, a silver-sprayed Jesus holding up a gold pawn shop, Sponge Bob shooting a cop and a woman, then getting riddled with bullets, and the 10-year-old son of Christ double-shooting at police while piggy-riding. Alex de la Iglesia is back. Once the wunderkind of Spanish genre cinema with successful and over-the-top schlockers like 'Accion Mutante' and 'Day of the Beast', he declined into respectability after his arguably best work 'The ferpect Crime', becoming the most connected and well-funded film maker of Spain apart from Almodovar. Since then he has directed expensive but lame flicks like the terrible 'Oxford Murders' or the hopelessly exaggerated 'Last Circus'. 'Witching and Bitching' at long last ends this streak of drivels by going all-out bizarre and pushes lines on you like 'My daughter loves me so much, she put my picture on the wall next to Justin Bieber'. It also has a consistent theme: women are incomprehensible and scary, and feminists are witches whose only goal is the total destruction of men (which may be seen as offensive by those who are able to take this seriously).To be sure: you better watch this drunk or stoned or at a party or better yet all of this together - otherwise it'll strike you as complete and utter nonsense without an inkling of coherence. But given how incredibly dull European cinema has become, it's a desperately needed breath of fresh air. It's also one of very few European films of the past years to make a profit.
