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| Tookey's Review |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
2013 |
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| Genre: |
OVERRATED
FOREIGN
COMEDY
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| Origin: |
Spain |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
90 |
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I doubt if you will be.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar has a few genuine achievements to his name, especially All About My Mother (1999), Talk To Her (2002) and Volver (2006).
He is invariably at his worst when attempting broad comedy, and his latest is his broadest yet, though he is presenting it – none too convincingly - as a state-of-the-nation commentary on present-day Spain.
The story unfolds on an aeroplane heading - like a country anticipating economic meltdown - for a crash landing.
As the plane circles Toledo airport, the pilots drug all the passengers in economy class, while the gay air-stewards get uproariously drunk and prance around lip-synching to a backing track of the Pointer Singers’ title song.
The business-class passengers entertain themselves by having sex and confessing to financial, sexual and criminal irregularities.
All this may sound a good deal more entertaining than it actually is. Almodovar has a fine eye for tacky aircraft design, and those of a camp disposition may warm to the film more than I did. However, the acting is crude, self-indulgent and over-the-top, while the story-telling lacks any grounding in reality.
Almodovar has nothing to say about Spain’s economic or social predicaments, and his flippancy in the face of catastrophe comes across as sheer silliness. The whole film is an exercise in studied, self-congratulatory vacuity. A further, major defect is that it just isn’t funny.
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