Safe Sex

Although you get a bit of a TV feeling watching this film, it's been a long time since the Greek audience had a laugh like this watching a Greek movie or even a foreign one, as good comedies are hard to find these days.The film explores the sexual fears, problems and orientations of the modern Greeks heterosexuals, homosexuals and bisexuals in very witty way as it tells the story of many different couples that not all of them know each other but another couple is the connecting link between them.The only time they all meet is in the end.It's very difficult to bind together all those different and parallel stories without confusing the audience but the writers - also directors - of the film succeeded not to do so.

Indeed "safe sex" was the biggest hit in the history of Greek movies.I've heard a lot of people who went to see it again and again...and after I saw the movie I asked myself why???? I don't believe that by swearing or by making insulting pervert jokes a movie can be made funny.I am not old fashioned and I am not against swearing.I've seen many movies with even more swearing than "safe sex", but the difference is that in these movies people didn't swear for no reason at all.There was some serious background to it.Check out Kevin Smith's movies for instance, or southpark the movie.

Furthermore, the directors (which have created some really clever t.v. shows in the past) tried to fit eight different stories and almost every actor in Greece(there were almost forty of them) in a single movie.It didn't work out, so they forced the stories to merge.The result was a terrible cocktail.It seemed to me that they were more interested in casting all the actors they had in mind than making a solid story.

As for criticism, well this movie was supposed to comment on contemporary relationships and their problems.Well it did not.

To conclude, "safe sex" is the definition of a bad film.Profitable? Yes.Funny? No.Absolutely tasteless.

Greek cinematography passed through many troubles before approaching the modern era of comedies.Spyros Papadopoulos in the role of a company director brings the concept of sexual abuse on secretaries.Anna Panayiotopoulou portraits the jealous wife chasing her husband,a doctor.Pavlos Haikalis plays the hungry-for-telephone-sex guy. Many laughter moments can be created by a pleiad of actors.It's all about sex: homosexual scenes that try to disgust or entertain the viewer,watching Koulianou in a soap opera,a professor analyses the love of Aretousa for Erotokritos and the company director sends emails for seduction.Exchange of spouses, eye closing,sexual lust and a lot of hardly interrelated events constructing a mosaic of the sexual life in contemporary Athens.Papathanasiou and Reppas as directors try to build a comedy based heavily on script manipulation and fast change of dialogues.The result is an amusing movie.

I really-really enjoyed that film. The directors are highly-intelligent persons. They also have great sense of humor. Well done. Don't bother sending comments like "there is no plot" and things like that. If you want to see films that really have a plot,then go watch "Rambo" with Stalone.You will enjoy his acting. "Safe sex" represents the greek way of life. That's all.

The movie is simply excellent. No wonder it was an absolute hit in the Greek theaters. It has great humor (although sometimes a bit vulgar), everything is said as it should be said, and with a set of parallel stories, the modern Athenian society is criticized. One recognizes all figures in the immediate community. The cuttings are excellent, the casting simply the best comedians available at the time and the lines hilarious.

I find it one of the best comedies of Greek cinematography, and everyone loved it. The only exceptions were "cinephils" who expected high class cinema, and refuse to accept funny everyday situation as art. I believe the art of making your audience laugh (a task in which both creators Reppas and Papathanassiou are masters, and very well known and appreciated from the Greek TV) is not only considerably more difficult than to sell any crap as wrapped art not to be understood by the average audience, but it even dares to put a mirror in the face of every spectator and have them encounter their own reality.

Many critics didn't like it for it was not artistic enough. The audience loved it and simply made an unprecedented box office hit out of it. If you like sitcoms than, the movie is a must.