La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón

The Adventures of Mortadello and Filemon is one of those guilty pleasures you never admit seeing (even twice) or enjoying; but surely most of your friends did the same.

Based on a successful Spanish comic, and transformed to the big screen for a J. Fesser, a guy whose previous credit,several years ago, was another mad comedy (with different stile) called `The P Tinto Miracle' . It was a light comedy about two completely innocent people and how the world barely affected them.

This time, Fesser created the funniest movie in years; and I am not talking smiles but gross, uncomfortably, belly laughs. If you are in for sophisticated comedy, look elsewhere. This movie has only one goal, to make you have an excellent time and mostly succeed.

The most amazing thing here, is that this movie relays heavily on special and digital effects which are perfectly used and of excellent quality. Hollywood and George Lucas please take note, this is a Spanish production with a budget about one tenth of any Hollywood project.

The hundreds of special effects are use to create visual gangs, some of the absolutely brilliant. There are so many in the first fifteen minutes, that when the movie tones down you are already addicted.

The story (not really important) is something like this:

A small time crook robs an Army Depressive Gun (applied to soldiers, they get so depressed that they do not want to fight any more) and tries to sell it to a dictator on a country call TYRANNIA. The ultra secret organization TIA (this means aunt in English) assigns a French (or American) secret agent (played by Dominique Pinon from Amelie) to recover it. Jealous, Filemon and Mortadello try to do the same, creating a lot of absurd situations. This is A COMIC, logic is out of the equation. Every situation is a gang (darker, lighter, childish or plain stupid) and most of them really deliver.

As an additional note, the movie, just premiered in his homeland, Spain, classified like PG or General Audiences. The humor is dark sometimes and a few times sexual oriented, but I do not think any kid could understand most of those jokes; so cleverly the creators made, a movie that could be see by kids and adults all of them having a fun time in a different level.

However, probably because European kids seems to be more prepared than American, I wont be surprised if this movie (if ever distributed) gets an `R' rating or several cuts.

I note this, because most good or at least "commercial" foreign movies usually get the worse ratings ("R") or released "UN-RATED" which limit their commercial success. This is done by the MPAA in order to protect Hollywood industry and market, but also limiting culture and knowledge coming from another countries. As an example, a movie like "8 FEMMES "(an important success almost any country) was classified as `R' even when there is no sex, or violence not even dirty talk. However a movie like CHICAGO (a really good movie ) were sex, betrayal and no moral message got a PG-13 (I guess because is musical).

Final advise, release yourself of the crisis and pay a visit to `Mortadello and Filemon' you wont regret it

Just remembering of my childhood when in front at Theatre a lot of children and teenagers used to be trading comics books, Mortadelo Y Filemon was quite famous at 1975, and had a Brazilian's version, now surprise me entirely this funniest Spanish characters to be adapted to screen, their humor is rough and surreal, although it probably won't satisfy everyone, how l did read several comic books in the past, I know what to expect and I really enjoy it, this picture has ups and downs, has many smart gags, others not quite, another point to concern is about an Spanish culture, we must recognized that every country has their peculiar taste, I've been respect it, the fabulous world of the Francisco Ybanes, a true genius!!

Resume:

First watch: 2013 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD / Rating: 6.5

It is amazing to see all the things you have read all your life in the big screen. It is not only the characters, but also all the background is related to the comic (and all the little details you can find).

I had seen no movie where you could find so few differences between the comic and the film (much much better than Asterix and Obelix, where the things look quite strange).

And the best of all: The actor playing Mortadelo is really Mortadelo (same face, same voice, everything!! is like the comic).

This movie has surprisingly good visual effects for a low budget Spanish movie, compared to Hollywood productions, but it is a very boring movie. It is a good adaptation from the comic book as most of the elements of the "tebeo" actually are well depicted in the movie, but the characters are lifeless and somehow you do not get attached to them. I just sat back and watched how those readings that I used to like in school came to life visually but I hardly laughed at the jokes and gags, they were too childish and repetitive. Another misconception was that characters, specially Mortadelo, should talk rapidly and with an unvaried tone (actually, acting was kind of poor). During the film, I didn't even understand what they were saying and I guess I should wait to see it in tv to get most of their lines. I prefer P.Tinto, Fesser's first movie, it has the same good visual effects, but, at least, there is some heart in the characters and you get a little more interested in the plot.

If you like the Comic, you will like the film. Javier Fesser and Comapny have made the perfect film of Mortadelo and Filemon (Clever and Smart, etc). Benito Pocino is the perfect actor for Mortadelo because he is Mortadelo, and we can't forget Filemon, a great Pepe Viyuela who makes a great performance too. But even the Super and the Profesor Bacterio are as I have imagined them. They have done a great job recreating the inventations and all the items that are in the comics. You can see the Eskimo, and a lot of nonsense in the set, like signs, draws, etc...

The Plot is very funny, the seed of the film is the comic El Sulfato Atomico, one of the masterpieces of Ibañez, in where you can see the Tirania Dictator, and a lot of inventions.

A Must see for all the Real Fans.