Airbag

A hallucinogenic three day trip through the Vasco country side (Spain). Juanma Ulloa helmed this little jewel of filming. The characters are quite odd, grotesque and weird, but must of all: FUNNY. Drugs, religion, sex, soccer and a very awkward rivalry between Spaniards and Portugese are the principal elements of this rich palette of European cinema.

Well, this is a fast crazy road trip movie with lot of funny situations and with a bunch of very hilarious characters. Everything starts with the wedding preparatives of a wealthy vasconian couple from northern Spain. The father of the man, who gambles his life on a poisoned omelette "roulette", to get the money to keep his honor in front of his haughty ex-wife and relatives. The four guys who decide to have their bachelor's party on a whorehouse where the engage ring disappears under suspictious circumstances, after a crazy night of delirious party with a beautiful cuban dancer.

This is the starting point of a hunting of the four guys after the ring, a "fraternity" that steals a test Volvo from the garage and runs after the mob's goodfather who found the ring, all over the northern coast of Spain towards Galicia.

Taken by the gangsters as drug dealers, pursued by the Guardia Civil and the mob, everything that you can imagine is far from the stupid things that may happen to these guys.

It was a great hit in Spain, and lots of funny words and phrases perdured in the joke slang of many spaniards.

Favourite characters: Pazos: The mob's lieutenant who's cell phone call to his wife made hundreds to jump out their seats in laughter: "Qué pofesioná" Bachelor's father: Famous Spanish chef takes the role of authentic vasconian who's love for good food and red wine is only comparable with his gamble addiction to "Pelota Vasca". His speech in the pre-wedding dinner is great: "... Here my son, a lawyer, just finished college at 30 years old ..." ... "Con dos cojones !!" :-D

This outlandish and ironic film was a big commercial hit in Spain . This is a fast crazy movie with lot of nutty situations , antics , bemusement and with a bunch of very hilarious roles . It deals with Juantxo (Karra Elejalde) who is engaged Araceli (Raquel Meroño) and he is about to celebrate the wedding . Dragged to a wild party by his friends Konradin (Fernando Guillén Cuervo) and Paco (Alberto San Juan) , he loses his valuable wedding ring inside the ass of a whore called Vanessa (Vicenta N'Dongo) . Mafioso whorehouse owner Villambrosa (Francisco Rabal) finds the ring and blackmails Juantxo . Meanwhile , Villambrosa's rival mobster , the mean dope lord Souza , (Luis Cuenca) sends "femme fatale" Fatima (Maria De Medeiros) to check things out . Juantxo and his friends are attempting to get the ring back and in the process get involved in a dangerous war among several factions that fight for a drug smuggling and a huge cash . As three Spanish suspected felons soon find dangers themselves in over their heads when they stumble with a bunch of gangsters and a violent war between two powerful bands of prostitution and drugs .

Big-budgeted action film results to be a hilarious hallucinogenic comedy , with plenty of parody , surrealist events , bad taste , extreme spoof and gross-out but also with some brief moments being bold and funny . This disconcerting and overlong film includes various bizarre ironies that are fun , diverting and sometimes shocking . It is a comical and sometimes embarrassing account of a trio of unfortunate young people who set out in a bachelor party with unexpected consequences . Sitting in a strange middle ground between the completely absurd and the stylishly cool, this one is one of a hundred and one movies to try and capture the vibe of America's Quentin Tarantino . It turns out to be pleasantly fun that offers no intellectual stimulus whatsoever ; an exercise in pure amusement in which entertainment and fun are guaranteed . The characters are all odd , grotesque and weird and the film races on at incredible speed . Humor turns out to be sometimes cheesy and gross-out with numerous naughty and picaresque situations such as ridiculous jokes , blasphemy and adult scenes . However , it also contains uneven comedy , piggy humor , profanity and grossed issues . ¨Airbag¨ is followed by ¨Año Mariano¨ realized in similar style , also written and starred by Fernando Guillen Cuervo and Kara Elejalde , full of quirk roles , amazing events , abundant craziness and strange situations ; but there was also a larger theological question about ¨people manipulation¨ . The ensemble cast has some nice moments in the film , with three attractive and sympathetic players : Alberto San Juan , and Kara Elejalde , Fernando Guillen Cuervo , both of whom writers along with Juanma Bajo Ulloa . The secondary interpreters are pretty good and full of cameos , such as : Ramón Barea , Rosa Maria Sardà , Javier Bardem , Pilar Bardem , Luis Cuenca , Albert Pla , Santiago Segura , Vicenta N'Dongo , Manuel Manquiña , Manuel Tallafé , David Trueba , among others . And Francisco Rabal , a notorious and prestigious actor , he is one of the best reasons for watching the movie and the rest responded pretty well .

The cinematography is glimmer as well as evocative , shot in several locations from Portugal , Madrid , Pamplona , and Gran Casino of Santander , Cantabria . This adequate photography was well made by Gonzalo Berridi , a good expert and deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameramen . In his long career , Gonzalo has photographed successes such as ¨El Viaje De Carol¨, ¨Amantes Circulo Polar¨ , ¨Ardilla Roja¨ , ¨Camaron¨ and ¨8 Apellidos Vascos¨. Director Juanma Bajo Ulloa had a lot of success in the way the film satirizes the peculiar roles ; however here abounds absurd and ridiculous moments . Juanma Bajo Ulloa is a nice but little prolific filmmaker . In 1989 he filmed his first movie in 35 mm , "The kingdom of Victor" that won the Goya of the Spanish academy to the best short movie . His first long film was the successful ¨Butterfly wings¨ in which appears a brief cameo by Karra Elejalde as a neighbour , this movie achieved numerous national and international prizes . As it won 3 Goyas of the Spanish academy , such as best first movie , actress and original screenplay . In 1993, he realized his second picture , ¨La Madre Muerta¨ or ¨Dead mother¨ , it won prizes in several Festivals like Venice and Montreal and considered to be his best by many of his aficionados . As it was released in the Festival of Cine of San Sebastian it won the first prize and subsequently won awards in many international festivals . In 1996 , he shot his third movie , "Airbag" , an action road-movie , became the biggest Spanish box-office hit of all time , being a real international success . However this success , he has been unable to make any other movie in the last 8 years . He attempted to adapt the Spanish comic hero "Capitán Trueno" but the producers turned him down , and being finally realized by Antonio Hernandez . Others projects couldn't be financed due to creative differences with producers. In 2004 he filmed in secret, and with his own money, his fourth movie, "Fragil", that will be released in 2005 but was a commercial flop . ¨Airbag¨ , rating : 5/10 . Acceptable and passable but excessive .

This film contains many bizarre elements of spanish life including what single men get up to, and especially whorehouses, a central feature of this film. Higlights of this film include Juantxo's dad who is a spanish TV chef, Santiago Segura as a child molesting politician, and Rabal as Villambrosa, afflicted by the portuguese's voodoo magic. The film is also permeated with the bizarre relationship between the spanish and portuguese, and both countries love of football. My particular favourite is the galician whorehouse manager, Manuel Maquina, whose henchmen walk around the brothel in Deportivo shirts and listens to english for business tapes in his bar. Apart from this odd things about this film include american cars.

This movie doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but like culture classics like Animal House, National Lampoons Vacation, this road trip Spanish movie has what it takes to be a great classic if they decide to re-reprint the film. The plot basically is a bunch of friends trying to break in their best friend with a prostitute before his weeding, but in this case a very expensive family heirloom gets stuck inside the working girl.

Now all they have to do is track the ring, because the whorehouse is a traveling one. On their quest to find the ring they get mix in with the mafia, Pimps, and a lot of cocaine. This movie is like a mix between Porky's and national Lampoons. hahahaha enjoy this movie is a fun one.