Wonderful character development!

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Bigas Luna's film is far from perfect, but I found it a sharp and caustic portrait of a particular lifestyle and a particular time and place in recent Spanish history - the 80's construction boom, the new rich and their unabashed cheesiness, the macho ibérico...Bardem's character is spot on, and he plays the role incredibly well. In fact, all of the performances are very good; it is the directing that occasionally fails the story. It does at times feel like the sex scenes outweigh all others, but I don't feel that they are gratuitous. Other than expensive accessories and a lust for skyscrapers, it is what Bardem's character spends most of his time and energy on. Maria de Medeiros and Maribel Verdú are excellent, especially the latter, who delivers a pretty brave performance. The cinematography is really beautiful and well conceived for each stage of the story. And it contains what must be one of my favorite cinematic moments in a long time...Bardem doing a Julio Iglesias karaoke number in a leopard-print robe, black speedo and Catalan barretina.

HUEVOS DE ORO (Golden Balls) is a 1993 film by writer/director JJ Bigas Luna (best known for his 'Jamon, Jamon' and 'Son de Mar') that suffers from defective promo/packaging. The cover of the DVD (probably released only of late because of Javier Bardem's growing popularity in this country) suggests an edgy comedy: Bardem in a gold suit is seen grasping his crotch! Nothing could be more misrepresenting as this is a drama of lust, greed, power, and ruthlessness. Get past the promo and settle in for a drama and the result is not bad.Benito Gonzalez (Javier Bardem) is a construction worker with a dream: he is obsessed with power of building and owning the tallest building in Barcelona and of becoming the richest man who can own gold Rolex watches and have all the women he wants. He is a lustful lover, first with his best friend Mosca's (Francesco Dominedo) sister Rita (Elisa Tovati) whose body and scent are a passion for him. Yet he dreams of his tallest building (the possibility of his achieving this is not unlike the ease of getting an erection!) and he focuses his life on his greed. His co-worker Miguel (Alessandro Gassman) is to help him fulfill his dream, but when he discovers Miguel is sleeping with Rita he is incensed and leaves his lowly construction job for the promise of riches in Barcelona.Through stepping on people, using devious means to get backing and money for his 'Gonzalez Tower', Benito gradually destroys all of those who want to help him - his new girl Claudia (Maribel Verdu) with whom he has another sexual obsession then talks into sleeping with one of his money source prospects, the banker (Albert Vidal) who has slept with Claudia becomes his father-in-law when for monetary gain Benito marries daughter Marta (Maria de Medeiros), a wily but wealthy film producer 'Gil with the Chickpeas' (Ángel de Andrés López), and more.By breaking the law, abusing his 'friends', and lying in general Benito's building is nearly completed. But a series of tragedies involving Mosca's accidental death, and an auto accident with many permutations for Benito, and the ultimate loss of funding result in Benito's multiple losses of his dreams, betrayals of his pitiful sex life (this time a lowly gardener Bob (Benicio Del Toro) steals his paramour) leave Benito destroyed. The story is actually on the order of a Greek tragedy - but sadly without the impact.Though Javier Bardem is a brilliant actor and is in the company of other exceptional actors, the script by JJ Bigas Luna is weak, paying little attention to character motivation and emphasizing instead gross caricatures. But if the film is taken as a recreation of the driving, greedy, power obsession of the 1980s then the message makes its impact. And it is always good to see early work by such actors as Bardem, Del Toro, and Verdu! Grady Harp

Bigas Luna has the interesting distinction of having, since his breakthrough movie LAS EDADES DE LULU, a storyteller of erotic tales of sex and power with that particular Spanish spice. Starting in 1992, he began a loosely-based trilogy of sorts with JAMON JAMON which starred the rising young actor Javier Bardem in a co-starring role. However, in this movie Bardem gets the main role: that of an extremely ruthless Lothario who is undeniably a Spanish machista and wants to construct building so tall he can see his own house sitting on top of it from the ocean, who winds up getting in a huge amount of trouble once his sexual escapades and his shady dealings come to an awful head.Bardem, being the lead with the "huevos de oro" which he proudly fondles, plays Benito Gonzalez, a young officer of humble beginnings who is on military service in Melilla and has high hopes as well as a taste of young love in Rita. However Rita eventually leaves Benito for his studly friend, breaks his heart, and mashes his spirit, to which we cut to some time in the future. Benito has apparently moved quite a bit in the construction business and is enjoying an early success. However, his morals have become corrupted and he can only see women as objectified harbingers of lust and a means for him to get ahead as well as mirror images of his feminine ideal.He first encounters Claudia (Maribel Verdu), an aspiring dancer whom he is quick to flash out his jewelry while at the same time mocking her needs to please. She's "a little past" his ideal weight of 47 kilos, but she's sultry enough to capture his attention. However, such attention comes with warning signals that this won't be an easy road -- he draws abstract ideograms that depict etchings closer to that of a plastic surgeon's mappings that will dictate how a client will look after body reconstruction. They quickly fall into a relationship, but since he needs sponsors for his ambitions, he pimps her out to an older man whom she initially loathes because she wants to be faithful to him.Benito, however, has no intentions of staying where he's at. Ana (Maria de Medeiros), the daughter of the banker backing him up, becomes his wife, and now Claudia becomes his mistress. Things threaten to get out of hand, and reach an anticlimactic head when Benito brings Claudia home and shocks Ana, but left alone, both females bond in recognizing how objectified they've become for the love of this man (who sings his favorite song, Julio Iglesias' 1970s hit "Por el amor de una mujer/For the Love of a Woman". They even recognize Benito's etchings on their body... and fall into a threesome.Some events take place that bring Benito's inconsiderate hedonism down like the tower of Babel. Once that happens, his life spirals totally out of control: he loses everything, including Claudia to a car crash, and Ana due to an affair with a prostitute that takes her over the edge. Interesting, Bigas Luna has an epilogue that is fitting to such an antihero -- bringing him into unfamiliar land, with a woman who is his equal in every sense (and who refuses to conform to his needs of the ideal), and robbing him even of his own masculinity with the help of a young Benicio del Toro in a sinister yet equally erotic performance. Bigas Luna widens his erotic tale into a morality play that exposes the negative, ugly side of Spanish machismo (also inherent in Latin American countries), and Javier Bardem, oozing an overwhelming masculine presence, is perfectly cast as the stud who becomes a dud.

Thank God I have fast-forward. I think this is a movie about a guy who rises and falls. Whatever: It's a stupid cliché. It doesn't make any difference. There's this guy, javier Bardem, who constructs buildings or something. It doesn't matter. He is handsome, this Javier Bardem. Who cares? I think there is a car wreck but I watched this in fast-forward, so ...who cares? Car wrecks and handsome heroes who struggle back from them smells like a melodrama to me. Javier likes someone , but he marries Maria de Madeiros instead.She is magnificently, poetically beautiful, with a heart-shaped face. Then Javier has an oral-interface with Maribel Verdu, who washes her vulva, beforehand, for some reason. You would think Maribel Verdu, with her hand-washed vulva would be sexy. No, she is not. This is a tedious story about a bunch of people who don't interest me. Javier, Maribel, and Maria have a threesome: How boring. This film is annoying. I think this might be a minor THEME of (some) Spanish-language movies: The rise and predictable fall of a little guy who succeeds against the odds. Let me just clear this up: this is a high-class melodrama or perhaps soap opera. It is not worth your time, except for a laugh.