García y García

Hispavia, a small low-cost airline, is in serious difficulties. Their numbers don't add up, nor do their planes fly. In a desperate attempt to save the company, they decide to simultaneously hire a prestigious airline consultant (José Mota) and an unemployed expert mechanic (Pepe Viyuela) who sometimes uses a 'toothpick', that fine wooden contraption that this good worker uses to think. The latter has a peculiar family, the teenage daughter Rosa, the little daughter Blanca and Rosa's boyfriend, Prudencio (played by Ana del Toro, Alexity and Darlan Rezende respectively). Both are called Javier García, then chance and disorganization of the company will cause them to become confused and exchange their roles. Two Javier Garcías get confused and exchange roles: Javier García, an unemployed mechanic, must design a low-cost strategy and prepares a new economic line for the company in order to get out of the financial crisis. And Javier García, international advisor, has to carry out plane mechanics. Both face their tasks, until a nutty chase along the airport runways decides their fates at the last moment.

One of those films that forces us to make an effort of maximum frankness when writing about it, and to balance two facts that may seem contradictory: we cannot forget that there were moments in which some laughter arose so irrepressible and ferocious that they'll have you on the edge of your seat, you can't help but see that this is a film, let's say, not good, or very much room for improvement, in the sense that its script, the treatment of the characters, and the plot solutions do not have the gift of the delicacy. It is a comedy with a rough structure and a predictable path, but sometimes you can't stop laughing, understanding, of course, that laughter is as personal as a toothbrush and that everyone brushes. The plot entanglement consists of two Javier García, one an expert airline consultant and the other an unemployed mechanic, and both are called and confused to fix an airline and tighten some screws on an airplane. José Mota and Pepe Viyuela are two geniuses in their own way and they make their characters (and the film) a hilarious resource to enhance and fill the hour and a half in their company with fun and laughter. However, they have done better in other films or in other tasks, such as the New Year's Eve specials that José Mota usually carries out. The story is ordinary, with its mistakes, its careers, its disputes and romances, but in it there are dialogues, replies, situations and economic and social class dialectics regularly drawn, and containing some politically 'incorrect' lines. But these two well-known masters of comedy don't provide enough chemistry. And they fail in the attempt, in fact, the sentimental drama that José Mota stars in with Eva Duarte fails miserably, especially when it tries to present Mota as a hopeless romantic who will stop at nothing to get his love, even stopping a plane in some places. Frankly ridiculous scenes. Although it must be considered that the special effects of the plane taking off and almost crashing into the car are quite good. Along with these two geniuses of comedy, undertaking a task that is not very prestigious so to speak, some others who are also prestigious and who do not give up either, such as Carlos Areces or Jordi Sánchez, and ultimately all the others with the noble and crazy task of make a few drops of humor spread here or there, including the following: Mikel Losada, Eva Ugarte, Martita de Graná, Alicia Fernández, Jaime Adalid, Jesús Vidal, Antonio Resines, Ramón Barea, among others.

The film was mediocre and unevenly directed by Ana Murugarren. Followed by a sequel: ¨The Hotel of Troubles, García y García 2¨ (2023) by Ana Murugarren herself with José Mota, Pepe Viyuela, Paz Padilla, Meteora Fontana, Mikel Losada, Antonio Resines. Here the family of Javier García (Pepe Viyuela) from the first part García y García (2021), the teenage daughter Rosa, the little daughter Blanca and Rosa's boyfriend, Prudencio (played by Ana del Toro, Alexity and Darlan Rezende respectively), have not been reused for the sequel, their characters are not even mentioned. Rating: 4/10. It is a somewhat funny and sufficiently friendly film, but only aimed at fans of this peculiar comic couple formed by José Mota and Pepe Viyuela.