User reviews

Horseplay is just a remake of Taekwondo, but with more nudity and homoerotic moments. There are identifiable themes emerging from the horsing around, but none of these were explored. Therefore, it leaves the film lacking in substance. I believe the person who made Taekwondo is responsible for Horseply, so I am at a loss as to why they would make a similar film without building the characters or explore the hinted themes to build a narrative that is relateable and teachabe! To be honest, I have seen adult films with better plots. So watch for the eye-candies and not for the storyline because one doesn't exist.

This was a disappointment, a film of Marco Berger that i dnt like.. Taekwondo at least have managed to established the plot and was successful to portray great sexual tensions between the characters without being harsh to each other, this was painful to watch as I'm in disbelief if straights really acting like this in real life i bet there will be gay jokes but not to the extent of playing it lols.. There are few good conversation coming from the old member of the Hockey team as being open, also the other male actually cleared that he's into sex only.. He's clearly just horny and obviously the long hair guy has internal homophobia and closeted for sure.. The dicks did not even save the movie, also what's with the rape agh, this is just pure vice.. Taekwondo should get more love than criticism as its true to the Marco Berger's genre (Tensions, tensions, tensions)..

The eye candy is fantastic! However there was no movement in the plot in the first 90% of the film. Random talking, silly conversations that go nowhere. Need to do more character development and movement of the plot line. The last 5 minutes were the best, and many of the actors have potential to show their depth, such as in the ending, but the entire movie was overrun by useless conversation of a bunch of tough guys. These are honestly talented actors, and some are extremely good looking, but need to show more one-on-one interactions, thoughts, feelings etc. They are there but in very minute quantities.

A new Marco Berger film is always an occasion so I sat down yesterday evening to treat myself to what I hoped would be an event. I needn't have bothered with the little saucissons, cherry tomatoes and box of chocolates beside me - what was presented on screen was crass and uninteresting.

We were regaled to a veritable eyefest of horny, attractive, semi-naked or naked hunks on screen for 100 minutes. Yes, for those who find lads like this attractive, this was eye candy to the extreme. But what they were doing was neither credible nor interesting. The whole time, apart from when some girlfriends turned up, was spent getting into homosexual positions, pretend humping of each other, dares that random guys would snog each other with tongues, taking photos of each others willies. Yes, yes, straight guys muck around but this was relentless. It's not crédible at all.

A previous reviewer has alleged that this particular film at least has a plot, unlike previous films from this director. My assessment is that the film is virtually plotless unlike several of the more recent films he made. There were little things happening but never followed through on, such as the probable rape of one of the girls. And there was the theme of the two closeted guys (one of whom rejects reality) amongst the multitude of alleged straights which was so barely touched upon that the first time we see them making out, it's impossible to discern who one of them is. This plot line is the one that leads to an act of violence that is not explored further in the film and to whose build-up is not plausible.

OK, I watched it all. Apart from drinking in the bodies on display, I was waiting for something consequential to come about. It didn't, not even at the end.

I'd marked this as a four. Reading back on my review, I've reduced it to a three. Watch if you like, but with very low expectations.

One of the worst movies I've ever seen. There is zero plot. The characters aren't believable and frankly it's just boring from beginning to end. It could have been so much better if the perspective of Poli and his (maybe unrequited) relationship with his friend had been explored. Instead Poli is mostly mute and we get no sense of how he thinks about himself and his sexuality in this setting and friend group.

The dialogue is extremely repetitive and not credible. Almost half the movie is just the characters calling each other 'homo'. I think even homophobes would get bored of this chat pretty quickly.

I really don't understand why this is being considered a queer movie. It's a movie about straight men. It's not even homoerotic, the nudity is sterile and not sexy. Much of it is actually disgusting (one character vomiting on another in a shower). I found it to be deeply unsexy. Ultimately it's a movie about a group of unpleasant straight men with one closeted character who barely speaks.

Do yourself a favour and avoid this.

How is this not "Taekwondo" all over again? Marco Berger's gay male gaze is still here, not as facefront as it is in "Taekwondo", but there's still plenty of that in here. Something that's not very prominent in here is his usual slow-burn sense of longing. There are some characters that struggle throughout the movie but their struggles are various, not only same-sex attraction. Or are they? I enjoyed watching this, I love everything Berger does, he owns me, but for me it's one of his weaker films. "Horseplay" is what straight dudes do to fool around and it's not that exciting of a movie. Marco Berger still needs to make more movies.

Horseplay

In a post gay world where pornography is ubiquitous only gay characters strongly imbedded in a believable story evoke any homo-eroticism. This was like a throw back to any Andy Warhol movie of the 60's.

The camera work was good but I could see much believable acting.

It's juxtaposition of laddish behaviour and suppressed sexual desire lacked heft or direction. The story was at best vestigial. I saw little to laugh at at and any reason for why this group of boys were imprisoned in this house.

Quite frankly I was bored from start to finish.

It a 2 outta 10 from me, meaning skip this drivel!

I thought of Marco Berger in quite a positive light after seeing two of his films, The Blonde One (2019), and Hawaii (2013). Both were excellent. Both were mature works, and visually interesting, with very engaging plot lines.

Having since watched The Carnival (2021), Young Hunter (2020), Taekwondo (2016), and this film, I've pretty much changed my mind about this director.

I thought Taekwondo was extremely slow moving and boring, with little to no discernible plot. Horseplay follows in the footsteps of Taekwondo, but with a bit more sexy visual confection (which is really the only reason I even assigned it the extra star.). There are definitely some sexy guys, and sexy scenes. But it doesn't offer much more.

Okay, actually, the vacation house where all this horseplay takes place is pretty to look at too.

But the movie seems to go on and on, magically making 1 hour 40 minutes seem like about 6 hours. The dialog is vapid, and repetitive.

It's filled with testosterone, but has virtually no substance.

There might almost be a couple of plots hidden in this film, but they're so well hidden that they cannot be seen. When you think there might be a story line starting to materialize, it invariably turns out to be a red herring that goes nowhere. A quiet gay man amongst a group of rambunctious young friends who constantly insult each other by calling each other "homo," while taking endless pictures of themselves engaging in gay sex (horseplay, I guess)? The sexual violation of a girl visiting the house, against her will, by one of the guys? Nope. The leaking of an embarrassing "homo" image of one of the guys whose wife sees it and worries her family will be defamed on social media? Those didn't go anywhere.

There is one searing moment at the end of the film that might hint at a story line. But hey, everyone's gone home, and the credits are rolling.

If all you're looking for are some glimpses of young guys at their sexual summit, you might enjoy this. But even there, there's just so much boredom in between that it's not really worth it.

Unlike the bad reviews I read here, I could not disagree more w them. This film is by far is my personal favorite from Marco Berger! I've watched and followed all of his films since Plan B and this one is my favorite! Marco Berger knows cinema, Marco Berger is a master at portraying the intricacies of male relationships and sexuality. This film just goes to show you how complicated men are as a species. The subtleties and nuances depicted in this film are displayed in a true and organic way - the highs and lows of hanging with friends and how quickly things can evolve or devolve from play to serious business. There is the mirage of having a good time vs at times the hidden secrets and emotions that go with the undercurrent of toxic masculinity that has been bred in the Latin culture subverting feelings and true emotions. I rented this film but after watching it on amazing I decided to order the dvd for my collection. It's the kind of film you must see many times to better connect the relationships and unravel the mysteries these men share below all that horseplay. On the surface it's all horseplay until someone's feelings get hurt. Seek this one out because it's a MUST see!

I was extremely disappointed after watching this film. The plot and character development do not exist at all. There isn't any tension or climax, it seemed that the film had to end and the director rushed to invent something out of the blue. Do yourselves a favour and do not watch this stupid movie. Some actors are handsome, but you should watch porn movies instead, some porn movies have better plots and scripts than this ridiculouness. The director has developed great stories and films, this is not one of them, unfortunately it is a huge failure. The film could have been great, the idea had potential.

Seen at BFI Flare in London (wonderful festival!)

Quite a let down. Inevitable comparisons to Taekwondo, but whereas that film succeeded because of the development of the characters and the building of tension between them, this failed. The narrative is s-l-o-w, yet (with one exception) the relationships between the characters aren't properly explored, even though there is plenty of time for that.

The ending is unexpected, but lacks impact because the audience doesn't feel anything for the characters involved.

Sure the.guys are hot, and the photography lovely - with those slow drawing shots on male bodies. But the whole film felt like it had been created from pieces off Taekwondo's cutting floor.

Usually I like Marco Berger's films, especially the ones where there are just a few characters, and the story is about the subtle, sexual tension between two guys (like "Hawaii" or "The Blond One"); these are often extremely slow-paced, with sparse dialogue and an almost dreamy atmosphere. In this "Horseplay" however the atmosphere is everything but dreamy: a large group of loud, basically heterosexual guys gathers in a sun drenched villa for the holidays, doing nothing but yelling and boozing and bickering and fooling around; the latter for some reason constantly in the vein of imitating gay situations (riding each others back, touching and fondling, walking around naked) and then roaring with laughter about it. Hence probably the English title "Horseplay".

The original Spanish title "Agitadores" means by the way something slightly different: "troublemakers", so apparently Berger intended not so much to picture careless playfulness, but a deliberate stirring of the emotions. Such an intention could have resulted in an interesting movie, maybe if there had been fewer characters and longer, more serious dialogues and interchanges. But now the whole movie is made up by very short bits of conversations, with only vague hints of interesting topics, all ending as blank as they are started and leading nowhere. Sure, there are some innuendo's of greater issues: homophobia, machismo, promiscuity, fear of coming out as gay, but they never come to anything conclusive and stay dangling in mid-air, overblown by all the juvenile pranks and tiresome fooling around. There is, as usual in a Berger movie, lots of naked male skin to enjoy (if you're into that, and I humbly plead guilty), but that doesn't help making it a good movie. In fact it impressed me at many times as redundant and just added to titillate or provoke the viewers.

So summing up all the above: a disappointing experiece.

I've followed the career of Marco Berger for quite a while , even though some of the earlier movies seemed somewhat immature and suffered for it as movies but there was a progression which reached a very satisfying pinnacle with El Rubio (the Blond One) . It is very disappointing , therefore , that this is such a significant step backwards into the territory Berger had already visited in Taekwondo . If there's a plot here other than to show these somewhat handsome men pranking each other , pranks of a sexual nature that it is difficult to imagine such a large number of straight or bisexual men agreeing to perform in front of each other then that plot is well hidden. It's like a very unsatisfying gay porn . Let's hope that the next one is a progression from El Rubio and not this.

'Horseplay', (HP) is a forgettable film out of Argentina. It centers around a bunch of hetero knuckleheads, all friends ,who converge upon a country villa for fun and frolic. Throw in an ample dosage of homophobia and you pretty much have the essence of this cinematic garbage. Marco Berger, the writer, director and co-producer, is chiefly responsible for creating this unfortunate nonsense despite some impressive work he has done previously. I'm not sure what motivated him to even bother with his seriously flawed screenplay. Perhaps he felt he could create something meaningful out of something awful. Unfortunately for the viewer, this was not the case. What we see is young grown men acting like teenagers, testing the limitations of their friends. One is gay, one is bi, and they, regrettably, are the most repressed of all the characters.

There is some nudity, frontal and otherwise, that the viewer should know about beforehand. However, it in no way detracts from an already terrible movie. In fact, it enhances it somewhat. The homophobic scenes are way too numerous and most likely offensive to a sizable portion of the audience. Overall, 'HP' we have doesn't even come close to creating a meaningful experience for us cinema lovers. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. I give 'HP' a DWYT rating (Don't Waste Your Time).

The film was interesting to me in the sense that sexuality has always and el always be fluid to me at least... the actors were good and their conversations were in depth fun to learn and listen to. All of them had feelings for each other from deep relationships to bromance to sexual partners or just friends being silly. I can see why people might not like it because lack of plot or whatever the case but for me, being a non verbal communicator for the most part, I loved it a lot. Now my least favorite was Nico... he's that guy that I avoid in real life because some stupid childish issue and insecurity!

The first temptation is to see it as a kind of Taekwondo II. And to appreciate more the first part.

Many guys, nude , talking, wasting time, gay, hetero, looking for love or define their sexual identity, girls, a lot of photos and a beautiful house.

Some homoerotism.

Real good looking guys.

And a very - very-very gentle suggested story if you have not impression of self illusion.

I can not be very critic about this film but its basic virtue is to send the thoughts to Taekwondo , working just as precious kick to see that , again.

Is it enough ?

I suppose so. I appreciate Marco Berger job and I respect his perspective about a theme who seems very closed by him. Cinema represents experiments and Los agitatores is one of them.

For me, Berger's best film is still "Hawaii". Maybe because there's less background noise and he can focus on two characters and delve into their desires, emotions and challenges.

I am not a fan of Tae kwon do. It was full of hot bodies but there was no substance...yes, there was something lingering there but it wasn't explored in depth.

I think this movie at least gives us (for the first hour at least) the opportunity to understand some of the characters through the eyes of others (as "el viejo") and puts into question their contradictions. But as some of them leave, we get a very slow story that ends with a cliché which has no punch whatsoever...as someone mentioned before, by then, we don't really care about those characters. You end up needing more of a reward after watching it all.