Cuerpo de élite

Though many people may think that all movies that foreign countries make are art house dramas, some countries do make populist cinema, Spain being one of them. This particular Spanish effort is a comedy, and you may wonder if it manages to be funny. Well, a lot of the humor may fall flat for people outside of Spain, because often the movie's humor depends on the viewer knowing a lot about Spanish culture and history. And there are some obvious gags that I think fall flat no matter what culture you come from. But while there are a number of misfired gags, there are still a number of gags that, while not laugh out loud funny, will have you smiling or chuckling a little. The actors in the cast are likable, the movie does click along at an acceptable pace, and there are no boring bits. While I wouldn't say this movie is funny enough to actively seek out, if you come across it on Netflix on a slow day as I did, it does pass the time in an agreeable manner.

Interior Minister called Boyero, Carlos Areces, creates a special team to accomplish the most dangerous assignments . They are a bungling bunch who are very proud of their origin , as an Andalucian Guardia Civil , a Catalonya Mosso Esquadra , a public guard , a Basque Ertzaina and an Ecuatorian member of the Foreign Legion . These 5 members are the followings : Maria Leon , Miki Esparbe , Juan Carlos Aduviri , Andoni Agirregomezkorta. They are gather together and trained by a tough sergeant , Vicente Romero. As a nuclear bomb fell in 1966 Palomares , Almeria (where by that time Minister Fraga Iribarne bathed at the sea) , taking place the known Broken Arrow . But this bomb has been robbed by a former cop , Silvia Abril, and things go awry .

Amusing , funny and very cheerful film filled with action-packed , thrills , hilarious set-pieces, tongue in cheek and lots of humor .The premise is simple and plain , as a misfit , botcher team from various Spanish local police forces are called , reunited and trained to undertake hard and secret missions . Director delivers a good work , his knack of getting the most out of characters and situations without ever going over the top makes for some very big laughs . This production pays tribute to several films , taking parts here and there , such as Mission Impossible , Men In Black , James Bond films with a "Q" lookalike role played by Pepa Aniorte , including multitude of gadgets , and , of course, "Academy Police" movies . The jokes come as thick and fast , hit and miss as usual and it is done in good spirit if not always in good taste . Nice picture with accent on sight gags , and humour that stems from the diverting roles established in other movies . The sympathetic cast formed by the motley band of misfits gives fun interpretation creating confusion , laughs and mayhem with their diverse languages or dialects . As Maria Leon as Lola , the Andalucian Civil Guard who preserves peace and order in the special team; Miki Esparbe plays Santi as the agent mobility who falls for Lola ; Juan Carlos Aduviri as a Basque gay cop and special mention for Andoni Agirre as the Ecuatorian legion soldier with strong Nationalist tendency providing a lot of laughter . Support cast is acceptable with brief appearances and comical cameos as Silvia Abril , Pepa Aniorte , Vicente Romero , Paco Tous , Joaquin Reyes and the Presenter Anna Simon .

It contains an attractive and thrilling score by Vicente Ortiz Gimeno , including famous song by Mecano band . And colorful and appropriate cinematography by Angel Iguacel , shot in Madrid , Barcelona, Basque Country , and Guijo de Granadilla , Caceres , Extremadura . This motion picture also titled Heroes Wanted (international title) was professionally directed by Joaquin Mazon with enough budget , estimated 4.5000.000 Euros and had success at the Spanish Boxoffice and financed by Atres Media Cine , Kowalski Films and distributor by Netflix . Director Joaquin Mazon is a craftsman who has directed several Tv episodes from series such as Alli abajo, Con el culo al aire,Doctor Mateo ; being second Unit director and assistant director in other series as Circulo rojo, Fuera control, Cuestion sexo, Los 80 and Manolito Gafotas.

It is followed by a succesful series of 13 episodes , 2018 , created by Cristobal Garrido , Adolfo Valor with Cristina Castaño, Canco Rodriguez , Maria Botto , Joaquin Reyes and Antonio Garrido

Level 1: A slap-stick, physical comedy of surprises, cleaver dialog (including cleaver english subtitles), engaging characters all well presented by the director and actors. Level 2: Lots of insider jokes, characterizations and situations for those familiar with cultural and political aspects of today's Spain. (As an American, I made good use of watching along with someone who knows a lot about Spain.) Level 3: A shockingly non-PC movie for the American viewer. The extent of political correctness in the U.S. would make it impossible to make a movie like this in the U.S. and provided this American viewer with a distinct reminder of the enjoyment factor of freedom. Refreshing! Americans should see this film even if they have to use this fast-paced presentation to learn of the seemingly conflicting cultures within Spain at the same time enjoying the rusulting humor.

I rarely laugh out loud watching a film at home. It happened many times with movie. Many times I went back to see the joke again--some were so funny, shocking and refreshing.

With a title like this I was half expecting a parody of the very popular Brazilian movies "Tropa de Elite" (also known as Elite Squad around the world, the first of the two movies winning the Golden Bear at the Berlinale). Having said that, this is a movie from Spain, so that alone should have been a giveaway, that my suspicion was completely wrong in the first place.

Someone has compared this to Police Academy though and I reckon that is a far better thing to say and expect. While this has a much higher budget than the movies from the 80s, this doesn't mean that it is way superior. I'd even argue that most have fond memories of the Police Academy franchise. Whatever the case, I've seen way worse movies than this being much more successful. So while this isn't really great, I'd say "not guilty" (when it comes to the charge of not being funny)

You don't often see these sub-titled.

After the failure of an elite squad sent into the container depot at night, Minister for the Interior Areces (the lead in BALLAD FOR A SAD TRUMPET) recruits a new team of diverse law enforcers - traffic cop Esparbé (THE ONE EYED KING), a Basque hard man, a Catalan, an Equadorian who passes himself off as a super Spanish patriot and the winning Signora Leon who only had the choice of being a whore or joining the Gardia Civil in Andalusia.

Can they prevent the destruction of Madrid? Think POLICE ACADEMY with better production values.

The cast are appealing and the film making spot on so we can forgive HEROES WANTED for all the jokes that misfire.