A Ton of Luck
Encyclopedia
Soñar no Cuesta Nada is a 2006 Colombia
n black comedy film directed by Rodrigo Triana. Based on a true story, the plot follows a group of anti-guerrilla soldiers, whose lives are turned upside down after finding $45 million hidden in the jungle.
While cleaning up after an ambush by guerillas, one of the soldiers makes a surprising discovery — several tubs buried in the jungle which hold $40 million in cash, hidden by drug kingpins in cahoots with the guerillas. While Porras predictably maintains they should leave the money alone and tell their commander Lizarazo (Marlon Moreno) about it, the others want to take the fortune for themselves. However, hiding $40 million from Lizarazo proves to be a difficult task, and spending the money without drawing attention to themselves is not much easier.
. When the film was released its real-life counterparts were on trial, 50 out of the 150 soldiers who took a share of the money were caught.
Soñar No Cuesta Nada was Colombia's submission to the 79th Academy Awards
for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Triana decided to treat this story in comedy mode rather than as a serious heist film, and he's certainly more talented at brushing the portrait of lovable but morally challenged figures and at filming the jungle than at staging action sequences. The result has a M.A.S.H feel and this popular piece of entertainment mostly works when you know it's based on something that actually happened; otherwise, it's too far-fetched for its own good.
, with English
subtitles.
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n black comedy film directed by Rodrigo Triana. Based on a true story, the plot follows a group of anti-guerrilla soldiers, whose lives are turned upside down after finding $45 million hidden in the jungle.
Plot
A handful of soldiers are faced with the ultimate temptation, which affects their ethical standards in different ways. Perlaza (Carlos Manuel Vesga), Lloreda (Diego Cadavid), Venegas (Juan Sebastian Aragon) and Porras (Manuel Jose Chaves) are four servicemen in the Colombian Army who are part of a counter-guerilla unit dedicated to ferreting out revolutionaries who have set up camp in the nation's jungles. Porras is married and a dedicated family man, while the others are single and like to party hard when they are not on duty.While cleaning up after an ambush by guerillas, one of the soldiers makes a surprising discovery — several tubs buried in the jungle which hold $40 million in cash, hidden by drug kingpins in cahoots with the guerillas. While Porras predictably maintains they should leave the money alone and tell their commander Lizarazo (Marlon Moreno) about it, the others want to take the fortune for themselves. However, hiding $40 million from Lizarazo proves to be a difficult task, and spending the money without drawing attention to themselves is not much easier.
Cast
- Diego Cadavid - Lloreda
- Juan Sebastian Aragón - Venegas
- Manuel José Chávez – Porras
- Marlon Moreno – Lieutenant Solorzano
- Carolina Ramirez – Herlinda
- Carlos Manuel Vesga - Perlaza
- Verónica OrozcoVerónica OrozcoVerónica Orozco is a Colombian actress and singer.-Private life:Her older sister is actress Ana María Orozco.Her mother is Carmenza Aristizábal Hoyos and her father is actor Luís Fernando Orozco...
– Dayana - Leonardo KrysLeonardo KrysLeonardo Krys was a travel agent whose 1991 heart attack aboard a Lufthansa flight prompted U.S. based airlines to install Automated External Defibrillators, or AED, on their planes.- Heart attack :...
- Judge
Reception
Based on a true story, Soñar No Cuesta Nada (aka A Ton Of Luck) was directed by Rodrigo Triana, an established name in Colombian television. The film was roughly based on actual events and became a major box-office attraction in ColombiaColombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
. When the film was released its real-life counterparts were on trial, 50 out of the 150 soldiers who took a share of the money were caught.
Soñar No Cuesta Nada was Colombia's submission to the 79th Academy Awards
79th Academy Awards
The 79th Academy Awards ceremony , honored the best films of 2006 and took place on February 25, 2007 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on ABC. Ellen DeGeneres hosted the ceremony for the first time. The producer was Laura Ziskin. The announcers were Don LaFontaine and Gina Tuttle.The nominees were...
for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Analysis
Soñar No Cuesta Nada offers the age-old dilemma of what would you do if you found a bag of money. The issue here is that this drug money should have become property of the government and an entire battalion kept it for itself. The film portraits of what men would do if their wishes came true — and most of these dreams are pretty basic, as you would expect from a group of poor soldiersTriana decided to treat this story in comedy mode rather than as a serious heist film, and he's certainly more talented at brushing the portrait of lovable but morally challenged figures and at filming the jungle than at staging action sequences. The result has a M.A.S.H feel and this popular piece of entertainment mostly works when you know it's based on something that actually happened; otherwise, it's too far-fetched for its own good.
DVD release
Soñar No Cuesta Nada is available on DVD. Audio in SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
subtitles.