I must admit that this was a big disappointment. All the fuss in the news and the social media, all the marketing, and all the discussions around this film have made me very curios about it, and the trailer made me think this might be a good film. Well, unfortunately, that is not the case. For many reasons.
One of the reasons why this movie is bad (in my opinion) is the bad humor, which is weird because there were about four of five times that I actually laughed, but it's too little compared to the many cringe and awkward moments that this production has delivered. It was full of bad, childish, stereotypical jokes gone too far, which for us Romanians are not funny anymore, they have been used too much over the years and they have been overused here. People talk about the foul language. Well, foul language can be great if it's well used, but here it was just a poor attempt.
Second of all, the story itself. While the story of a corporation and corporate life is a great story for a comedy, this has been taken too far away from reality and made into a parody of the actors, writers and directors of the movie, not the subject itself. The corporate language is something that can be exploited in a comedy, and it was well done to a point (example: the scene in the bus) but then it went too far again. The relationship between the colleagues, the boss, the team leader, the cleaning lady, the other departments and so on, all of these could've been well exploited for a comedy, but this movie failed to do so. Another great trait of corporate life that could've been exploited is the way it changes people and people's mindset, the way they differ from other people in personality, thought and social interaction in general. But this was perhaps avoided, or just forgotten (although there's much talk in Romania about the way people are changed by corporations). The interaction between the employee and the customer is another great story, but here it was completely away from reality. They should've explored the frustrations of the customers and the employees and made it fun, but instead they turned it into something grotesquely false and exaggerated. There are many aspects of corporate life that could've been exploited, but they were forgotten or just simply presented very artificially. I mean, who the hell has such competitions, and how could the fate of a department depend on a cup?! No, not happening in real life. Oh, bosses and team leaders smoking weed with employees? Yeah, that is real. But again, it wasn't exploited enough.
Last but not least, the actors. Ok, Matei Dima acted well, Cosmin Nedelcu/Micutu acted ok, Roxana Condurache got the team leader role and done it ok'ish, Anca Dinicu acted good, Anca Munteanu was good and funny. But then we go to the bad batch, led by Nicu Banea. Poor guy, he was extremely cringe, extremely bad at acting and painful to watch. And he had the same effect in L-a Seral. The bad batch is completed by Adrian Nicolae, who acted as he has been told, being given a bad role and he just acted the way he was supposed to (in a very exaggerated role). Well, without naming the rest of the cast, I can say they were just not the right decision. Not even Serban Pavlu, a respected actor. He seemed to be a bit out of character and didn't deliver much.
It made me think about Miami Bici, and I'm trying to decide which one is better (or worse). But anyway! Conclusion is that these guys are not made for directing. They may be good actors, but Romanian cinema still has a long way to go when it comes to comedy.
One of the reasons why this movie is bad (in my opinion) is the bad humor, which is weird because there were about four of five times that I actually laughed, but it's too little compared to the many cringe and awkward moments that this production has delivered. It was full of bad, childish, stereotypical jokes gone too far, which for us Romanians are not funny anymore, they have been used too much over the years and they have been overused here. People talk about the foul language. Well, foul language can be great if it's well used, but here it was just a poor attempt.
Second of all, the story itself. While the story of a corporation and corporate life is a great story for a comedy, this has been taken too far away from reality and made into a parody of the actors, writers and directors of the movie, not the subject itself. The corporate language is something that can be exploited in a comedy, and it was well done to a point (example: the scene in the bus) but then it went too far again. The relationship between the colleagues, the boss, the team leader, the cleaning lady, the other departments and so on, all of these could've been well exploited for a comedy, but this movie failed to do so. Another great trait of corporate life that could've been exploited is the way it changes people and people's mindset, the way they differ from other people in personality, thought and social interaction in general. But this was perhaps avoided, or just forgotten (although there's much talk in Romania about the way people are changed by corporations). The interaction between the employee and the customer is another great story, but here it was completely away from reality. They should've explored the frustrations of the customers and the employees and made it fun, but instead they turned it into something grotesquely false and exaggerated. There are many aspects of corporate life that could've been exploited, but they were forgotten or just simply presented very artificially. I mean, who the hell has such competitions, and how could the fate of a department depend on a cup?! No, not happening in real life. Oh, bosses and team leaders smoking weed with employees? Yeah, that is real. But again, it wasn't exploited enough.
Last but not least, the actors. Ok, Matei Dima acted well, Cosmin Nedelcu/Micutu acted ok, Roxana Condurache got the team leader role and done it ok'ish, Anca Dinicu acted good, Anca Munteanu was good and funny. But then we go to the bad batch, led by Nicu Banea. Poor guy, he was extremely cringe, extremely bad at acting and painful to watch. And he had the same effect in L-a Seral. The bad batch is completed by Adrian Nicolae, who acted as he has been told, being given a bad role and he just acted the way he was supposed to (in a very exaggerated role). Well, without naming the rest of the cast, I can say they were just not the right decision. Not even Serban Pavlu, a respected actor. He seemed to be a bit out of character and didn't deliver much.
It made me think about Miami Bici, and I'm trying to decide which one is better (or worse). But anyway! Conclusion is that these guys are not made for directing. They may be good actors, but Romanian cinema still has a long way to go when it comes to comedy.