Campeones / Champions (2018): Brief Review -

Fun, emotions, adult humour and inspiration galore in this intellectually disabled but hilarious comedy. The idea of making this one unique by keeping the ground level massy elements bound together has misspelt a few things here, but there isn't anything so bad to hate it. A basketball coach is sentenced to community service and forced to work with a team of mentally disabled players. He is not serious about his own work already, but he learns to put his soul and passion into it while teaching basketball to those intellectually disabled people. This movie is inspired by the Aderes team in Burjassot that won twelve Spanish championships between 1999 and 2014. Those true events provide it with a concretized storyline, and then the director's efforts to use cinematic liberty make it an entertaining popcorn flick. But could it have been better? Yes, it could have. Easily. Especially in terms of emotions. It could have been more powerful and sentimental, but it misses that due to its out-and-out hysterical treatment. You think you should have felt bad or pity for those disabled people, but you don't feel it because the film does not try to do this regular sentimental stuff. You see everyone laughing and joking around, so you become accustomed after an hour or so, but that causes a disconnect with the human strings of emotions as the climax goes flat. Rest, it's a fine, watchable movie and it has enough human-driven content too. It's just that it's not perfectly placed. Campeones is made for entertainment purposes more than anything else. Just put that in your mind before watching it. I didn't know that Nitesh Tiwari's Bollywood Super Hit 'Chhichhore' (2019) took a lot of references from here, but now there's talk about an official Hindi remake as well. It can be better, indeed. Overall, a fun ride with plenty of hilarious moments for those who understand urban/foreign humour.

RATING - 6.5/10*

By - #samthebestest.

One of the best movie made.. realistic and heart warming. It shows how disable we are judging people by looks and behaviors.. Pretty sure whoever watches this movie won't get disappointed..

This very amusing film deals with Marco, Javier Gutierrez, is the second coach of an important team in the Basketball league ACB, when at a party he makes a strong discusion, being fired out of the stadium . Later on, a drunk Marco drives his automobile, then he has a car crash against a police car. After that, he is detained, really arrested, judged and condemned. As a judge woman sentences wether 2 years spend in prison or 90 days making community services. There Marco is forced to train a team of botcher mentallity disabled players, they are called Los Amigos or The Friends. And their principal objective : to get create a competent team capable to win the Spanish league . As Marco and his players with the unexpected help of his separated wife Sonia : Athenea Mata , try to win the national campionship and to become themselves the Spanish champions.

This above average charming story packs basketball sports, entertainment, humor, emotion, good feeling and lots of fun. The sympatheic roles and funny script use bewildering incidents to give us an attractive flick and that keeps you entertained for the almost 125 minutes of duration. Following the amusing and hard preparatives of the bungler team formed by naive players and eventually the final competing match, tournament taking place in Tenerife, Canary Islands, though the film was actually shot in Huelva and Madrid . The most part of the film concerns in the elaborate process to train them, including a great number of laughters, myhem and confusion. Main and support cast provide enjoyable intepretations. Real starring is Javier Gutierrez as a trainer seeking redemption, he gives a terrific acting, as usual. Javier has already a long and successful career as cinema : Marshland, The motive or Autor, The olive tree, Plan de Fuga, 1898 los ultimos de Filipinas, Retribution, Truman, Assassin's creed , as TV series : Aguila Roja, Verguenza, Estoy vivo. He is well accompanied by a good support cast as Daniel Freire as a trainer, Luis Bermejo a a seller, Luisa Gavasa as his mother and Juan Margallo who long time ago he played the fugitive man in the classic Espiritu de la Colmena. Along with a fine plethora of secondaries, actually mentally disabled, such as : Jose Luna, Gloria Ramos, Sergio Olivo, Carrascosa, Julio Fernandez and special mention for Jesús Vidal who won Goya award as best newcomer secondary actor.

Being well financed by two important producers : Gabriel Arias Salgado and Alvaro Longoria. The motion picture was competently written and directed by Javier Fesser. He is a comedy and humor expert who has written and directed a few fims and shorts, such as : Mortadelo and Filemon contra Jimmy el cachondo or mission implausible, The big adventure of Mortadelo and Filemon, Candida, Camino, The miracle of P. Tinto. And shorts as Invictus, Bienvenidos and 17 year together. Rating 7.5/10. Better than average. Well worth watching. Fun for the whole family.