Spanish Movie

The Spanish Movie is a spoof -Leslie Neilsen-movies style- that uses as a main background the stories of The Others, The Sea Inside, and Open your Eyes, with some references to Alatriste, Pan's Labyrinth (by the way, a Mexican film), among others.

The movie has a good atmosphere and cinematography, and is decently acted. In fact, you get a few chuckles on the way, but they are very few and this is, basically, a silly movie that does not make you laugh enough.

Silvia Abril, Alexandra Jiménez, Carlos Areces, and Joaquin Reyes play the leading roles, and there are cameos by Leslie Nielsen himself, former child-star Joselito, surreal Spanish comedian Chiquito de la Calzada (in fact I was waiting for his appearance during the whole movie), and Spanish film directors Amenabar and Alex de la Iglesia.

A forgettable movie, entertaining at times, a bit too long. You'll enjoy it if you are a fan of Leslie Neilsen's Scary Movie, though.

I've watched this pure junk a few hours ago, first desperately looking forward into something to laugh at but after the first 10 minutes I couldn't wait for it to end. It was an absolute torture, there were about 2 or 3 funny lines during the movie, do not waste your time or money (god forbid) on this.

Do not get me wrong, I love well produced and fun spoofs, but this is absolutely out of Scary Movies or Not Another Teen Movie's league. It is just another addition to the obvious failures like Meet the Spartans, Date and Disaster Movies. Giving it 2 instead of 1 for an effort.

The clumsy Ramira (Alexandra Jiménez) is hired by Laura (Sílvia Abril) to work as housemaid and nanny of her two children Simeón (Oscar Lara) and Ofendia (Laia Alda). On the arrival, Ramira locks Simeón in the sun but the boy has photo dermatitis and dies, burnt by the sunlight. Ramira hides from Laura what she did to Simeón. Meanwhile, she meets Laura's paraplegic brother Pedro San Antón (Carlos Areces) and they fall in love with each other.

I like brainless spoof movies and I had great expectations of laughing a lot with "Spanish Movie" since I have watched most of the movies used as reference, such as, "El Orfanato" ("The Orphanage"); "Mar Adentro" ("The Sea Inside"); "Abre los Ojos" ("Open Your Eyes"); "The Others" ; "El laberinto del fauno" (Pan's Labyrinth"); and (REC). These movies are Spanish or directed by Spanish directors. Unfortunately "Spanish Movie" is unfunny and even boring and does not satisfy the fans of this genre. The conclusion with the spoof of "Superman" is totally out of the context. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Todo Mundo Hispânico" ("Everybody Hispanic")

Absurd as well as disconcerting spoof with a lot of Spanish stars parodying known films . It deals with the botcher Ramira (Alejandra Jimenez) is contracted by Laura (Silvia Abril) to work as maid and to care her two photosensitive (it is very strange with roughly a thousand people in the world that have it) children , Ofendia and Simeon . But clumsy Ramira accidentally kills Simeon and decides to lie about his death . As bungler nanny Ramira in charge of caring the children then she meets paraplegic Pedro (Carlos Areces) and they fall in love with each other , but he wants to commit suicide himself , asking for help housemaid Ramira .

This is a hilarious parody , surrealist , extreme spoof and gross-out but also is intelligent and bold , especially parodying ¨Los Otros's Alejandro Amenabar¨ and ¨El Orfanato's Juan Antonio Bayona¨ . This is a slightly funny film with entertaining events , giggles , profanities , and amusement but also very embarrassing . The film moves in fits and starts most of which would be desirable , with more traps the viewer resists any kind, and some moments of enjoyment and others quite a few ridiculous . The characters are quite odd , grotesque and weird and the film races on at incredible speed . Dirty humor is sometimes cheesy and gross-out with numerous naughty and picaresque situations such as sex jokes , bad taste and adult scenes . My feelings are extremely mixed but I must admit there are things I haven't been able to stop laughing about ; however , it also contains uneven comedy , piggy humor , abound sexual scenes , profanity and grossed themes . A few of the scenes are amusing , they elicit chuckles but no very enjoyable laughters . The films references are numerous and provide silly laughs from start to finish , the amusement is to guess what movies result to be parodied such as ¨The Orphanage¨, ¨Mar Adentro or The sea inside¨ , ¨Abre Los Ojos or Open your eyes¨ , ¨Alatriste¨ , ¨Lunes Al Sol¨,¨Laberinto Del Fauno or Pan's labyrinth ¨ , ¨Rec¨ by Jaume Balaguero , ¨Volver¨ by Pedro Almodovar and many others .

The picture contains loads of fun here and there and a passel of cameo appearances as Belen Rueda of The Others , Leticia Dolera of REC , Michelle Jenner , Andreu Buenafuente , Berto Romero , Eduardo Gomez , Joselito , Nacho Vidal , Jordi Vilches , Fernando Gil , Chiquito De La Calzada and filmmakers as Alex De La Iglesia , Juan Antonio Bayona , Xavi Gimenez , Sergio Sanchez , Jaume Balaguero , Paco Plaza and Alejandro Amenabar . And special appearance by Leslie Nielsen who shot his scenes in 2 days. All the Muchachada Nui series (2007) crew made a cameo appearance in the bar scene. Xavi Gimenez cinematography is excellent creating an adequate atmosphere , he's expert on sombre photography (Fragile , Agora , Red lights , Nameless) . Atmospheric musical score by Fernando Velazquez (Mama , El Orfanato , Lo Impossible) .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera . He was born in Barcelona and is a good director and editor , he realized some Shorts and being expert on comedies , especially known for Spanish Movie (2009) , Promoción Fantasma (2012) and Tres Bodas De Mas or 3 many wedding (2013) . Furthermore , he is preparing Anacleto Agente Secreto (in post-production) and SuperLopez . The motion picture will appeal to lunatic humor and absurd comedy enthusiasts

In the tradition of Scary movie and all those other "movie"(s), this does take on the Spanish language movies. Interestingly enough it is produced in Spanish too. Which is a nice touch and one thing I liked about the movie. It is very silly and it is very weird to say the least. And you might not enjoy it, if you don't get the references. Or even if you do get them, it might feel like a waste of time.

In the end it does seem to depend on your frame of mind. I wasn't laughing throughout, but the movie got a few chuckles out of me. And that's more than I can say from recent efforts like "Date Movie" and other so called spoofs. All in all, a nice try.