Olé

For 21 years the artistic duet Massimo Boldi/Christian De Sica brought out a Christmastime movie, made with the same depressing formula of lowest level comedies. In 2006 they split with mutual accusations and an open challenge at box-office: Boldi's vs De Sica's film. While the first flopped with Olé, the second had a good (unexplainable) response from the audience.

Olé, actually, is a painful, silly comedy about a school-trip in Spain by an Italian high-school class, and their two professors: Boldi and Neapolitan actor Vincenzo Salemme, long time rivals for a colleague's love. At a museum they run into a group of American female students with a beautiful Arts professor (Daryl Hannah) and the two classes become friends, detouring to Ibiza.

I can't understand why Hannah embarked in such a disastrous project, but at least she was one of the few reasons to stay awake at theater. The second could be Natalia Estrada, the beautiful Spanish-Italian showgirl here as a paparazzi's victim celebrity.

The final scene is an homage to "The Graduate" with Boldi at Hoffman's place; director Vanzina wanted to put "Mrs. Robinson" song too, but for royalties impediments he couldn't. Also, the fire-walking scene quoted another great film, Monicelli's Brancaleone at the Crusades.

Olé could have been a good light movie without the trite gags about Viagra or the crappy, improbable situations; but there's little to laugh, in every sense.