Filme da Treta

"Filme da Treta" is inspired in a previous work called "Conversa da Treta", which can be translated as "Blather" or "Foolish Talk". In fact it all begun with a radio show (with that name) where two friends, "Toni" and "Zezé", talk about their lives and their neighbourhood (located somewhere in a typical district of Lisbon!). Because of the colloquial and comic language it used to be funny. Then it passed to the stage (kind of a dialog play) and later to a TV-show. As you can see it was a success here in Portugal and the audiences applauded it…

Now, the film! "Filme da Treta" is, then, just an adaptation to the movies of this succeeded show, but it was, at least in my point of view, a regression! To be honest it was a disappointment, as I expected a lot more from it. I used to appreciate "Conversa da Treta", but now with the movie it lost all the fun!

The film pretends to be funny using all the clichés and the same kind of language used in the previous shows, but it has no plot at all, and the new characters that were supposed to add something to Toni and Zeze's adventures almost don't appear! It's almost all the movie the characters "Toni" and "Zezé" having the same blather, but this time without fun (excepting a few jokes)! This film doesn't add anything to the previous works; worse, in a certain way it can even spoil some of the work done, because it should have had some evolution in order to keep it interesting and funny!

This film is poor, very poor; I really expected more from it!

It's a great film.

A film in which two charismatic characters discuss the Portuguese stereotype in a very funny and amusing way.

It is a film that show us varied Portuguese themes and make such good links between subjects completely different, and always in an very amusing way. A film about such diverse topics ranging from the discovery by boat of the Portuguese sailors, up to today.

Not to mention the excellent performance of the characters, that can make completely normal subjects as life after death or pornography to became very amusing subjects.

I strongly recommend all Portuguese and foreigners who master the Portuguese language, to see this movie.

This movie was quite a deception for me.

The dialogues on TV and theater were so much better. It's a hour and a half abusing on jokes about the language (mis-spelling Portuguese) together with a story that is "by all means" absurd and that's all. I know the situations around "Toni" and "Zézé" must be funny and unusual, but the script could have make more sense. But this is a reflex of our problem, here in Portugal: script writers (specially in comedy).

The fantastics Marco Horácio and Maria Rueff were misemployed, reduced to characters with no contents.

The level of humour should have been raised. Didn't happened and these two (good) characters deserve better.

It was with high expectations I went to the nearest cinema and caught "Filme da Treta" the premiere of Toni and Zeze in the big screen.

Unfortunately "Filme da Treta" is a bit of a disappointment. The usual sketches are there, the expected jokes and situations are still funny, but this movie could have been so much more.

First, there is a set of supporting characters (specially Maria Rueff (Zeze's wife) and Zeze's friends) that are given almost no chance to speak at all. And what characters! Second, there is really no plot. All we see is a series of flashbacks, through which we should be able to understand why Zeze joined a monastery. But not even that simple goal is achieved.

Third, the jokes are all there, and, as in the TV show, are very simple and easily understandable. The problem is, in a movie, with real sets and characters (as opposed to the black cloth and imaginary characters of the TV series) the jokes lose some of their strength, there is to much "noise".

In conclusion, "Filme da Treta" had all the ingredients to be a great movie: strong main characters, diverse/funny secondary roles, good sets and photography, but ends up being really nothing more than another episode in the adventures of Toni and Zeze, as all the other TV-show episodes (but slightly worse).

One final word to all of you: after watching this, you can't help to wonder if a new TV series was made, with real sets and this wonderful secondary characters, what would the result be? Pretty amazing in my opinion.

Those who remember the comedy TV Show "Conversa da Treta" should recognize the main characters at a glance and pretty much know the sort of comedy beforehand. Those who don't will, most likely, be delighted to meet the slob/scoundrels Toni and Zézé, two life-long friends from a lower-class neighbourhood. These two will have you in stitches with their antics, both evading danger and running headlong into it, lined with funny, albeit in a nonsensical way, dialogs, spiced with mispronounced, and often plainly mistaken, catchphrases. Their tale, while having no consequence whatsoever to the world around them, has quite an epic feel, which only helps to accentuate the silliness of the comedy. Not to miss if you're a fan of the so-silly-it-becomes-funny sort of film.