Brain Drain (2009)

Wonderful Movie

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Excellent but underrated film

The acting in this movie is really good.

This disconcerting film packs amusement , comical as well as absurd situations , tongue-in-cheek , surrealist comedy , adding conventional pitfalls and many other things . At a humble local secondary school we find Emilio (Mario Casas) a shy , not too brilliant student who has always harbored a secret love for Natalia (Amaia Salamanca), the cutest , brightest girl in the class . Then Emilio pursues the girl of his life to Oxford , determined to win her under the total help his friends . His best outcast friends are the followings : Chuli (Alberto Amarilla) who is blind , Wheels or Ruedas (Gorka Lasaosa) who is a hunger-sex as well as paraplegic young , Cabra (Canco Rodríguez) who is a drug dealer and Corneto (Pablo Penedo) who is a hidden gay . As in Oxford is Natalia , the girl who fell in love when they were children and who rekindles his past childhood romance . After faking qualifications and scholarships by hacker skills , this band of brainless nuts land in Oxford , causing havoc in the normally peaceful campus existence . There his friends decide to help him to get closer to her . After that , the motley and misfit group of underdogs goes into action . However , for each plan that they carry out , the things go wrong . Everything that you can imagine is far from the stupid things that may happen them , as it results in an twisted ending celebration turned upside down . It is an extremely funny film with entertaining events , giggles , emotion , craziness , binge , twists and intimate love stories . This is an nice and crazy comedy starred by a varied group of young actors ; it packs amusement , slapstick , comical situations , tongue-in-cheek , surrealist comedy including conventional pitfalls and many other things . This is a fast insane movie with a lot of fun situations , antics , bemusement and with a bunch of very hilarious roles . This is another Spanish comedy romp , it is a bemusing story that contains lots of humor , entertainment , funny incidents and involving a bunch of young students who carry out a lot of frolics , do mischief , vandalism and acts of hooliganism to get their purports . The film moves in fits and starts most of which would be desirable , with more traps the viewer resists any kind , and some moments of enjoyment and others quite a few ridiculous . Humor is sometimes cheesy and gross-out with numerous naughty and picaresque situations such as sex jokes , bad taste , threesome and adult scenes . This is a typical Spanish comedy from the 2000s similarly to "Three Many Weddings" or ¨3 Bodas De Más¨ by Javier Ruiz Caldera , ¨La Gran Familia Española¨ by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo and ¨Quién mató a Bambi?¨ (2013) by Santi Amodeo with habitual ingredients , such as silly humor , embarrassing events and close relationships among people . It turns out to be pleasantly fun that offers no intellectual stimulus whatsoever ; an exercise in pure amusement in which entertainment and fun are guaranteed . The characters are quite odd , grotesque and weird and the film races on at incredible speed with the geek friends proceeding their embarrassing as well as harebrained schemes . My feelings are extremely mixed but I must admit there are things I haven't been able to stop laughing about it ; however , it also contains bad taste , piggy humor , abound sexual remarks , profanity and grossed themes . A few of the scenes are amusing , they elicit chuckles but no very enjoyable laughs . Well produced by known television producers as Mercedes Gámero , Alex Pina and Daniel Ecija . The motion picture was regularly directed by Fernando González Molina . This Spanish filmmaker Fernando González Molina has realized successful films , most of them starred by Mario Casas , such as : "Three Steps Above Heaven" and its sequel ¨Tengo Ganas De Ti¨ . He went on directing hits as the $13.5 million period drama "Palm Trees in the Snow" also with Mario Casas . ¨Brain drain¨¨ or ¨Fuga De Cerebros¨ being followed by ¨Brain drain 2¨ directed by Carlos Therón in his second feature film and in which the brainless teenagers form Brain Drain are back and this time they will be going to the Veterinary Faculty at Harvard University . While the first installment ¨Brain drain¨ was starred by Emilio/Mario Casas , here the main role goes to his the younger brother , Alfonso Carbajosa , Adrian Lastra , playing a similar role , chasing his dream girl with the same harebrained schemes his brother used in Oxford.

In Spain, the eighteen year-old Emilio (Mario Casas) has been in love for Natalia (Amaia Salamanca) since he was five; however, he has a series of physical problems and is too shy to declare his love for Natalia. His best friends are the outcast José Manuel Flash Sanchez Expósito a.k.a. Flash, who is blind but acts like a normal teenager; Wheels (Gorka Lasaosa), who is paraplegic and sexist; Goat (Canco Rodríguez), who is a hacker and drug dealer; and Corneto (Pablo Penedo), who is a womanizer. When Emilio is ready to tell Natalia that he loves her, she is informed that she has been accepted with scholarship in Medicine in the Oxford University. Goat uses his hacker abilities to falsify documentation and scholarships in the Medicine course in Oxford for the five friends. When Emilio meets Natalia, his friends decide to help him to get closer to Natalia; however, for each plan that they plot to get Emilio closer to Natalia, the result is always a great disaster."Fuga de Cerebros" is a brainless and corny comedy that follows the style of "American Pie"; therefore it is the type 'love or hate' film. The pattern is always politically incorrect with scatological and sex jokes, funny and surrealistic situations and definitely a movie that will never be indicated for an Oscar. The "good guys" are flawed, otherwise it would not be funny; and the "girl" is sexy and very beautiful. The result made me laugh a lot and I really liked it. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "A Garota dos Sonhos" ("The Girl of the Dreams")

I can't say that the movie is truly good, but it's really funny. It's the most typical Spanish humor: pretty vulgar, sex, drugs, and what you could call "underprivileged people": people with disabilities, young people that fail in school, gypsies, prostitutes.. It's true that what happens in this movie has been seen already; everything is stereotypical and plus the movie ends well. The actors in this movie are all known to the Spanish public, they can be seen on TV 24/7 on shows, ads etc. Even though i thought it was going to be really bad i went to see it, and i laughed a lot. I think it's a movie for younger people to enjoy, it's not a movie that requires you to think or to debate and there is no point in trying to find a point to it. The situations are completely unreal and the characters are unreal but you laugh a lot, it makes you feel better. I say: watch and enjoy!

I recently had my arm twisted to see this film: a new comedy, produced by Antena 3 television under the new Spanish laws that say that television stations have to make so many films a year to help keep the ailing Spanish film industry afloat. They'd said, on the telly, it was the number one film in Spain that week. However, when we went we were the only two people in the cinema. I now know why. Unfortunately, this film is a prime example of what tends to happen when a government obliges the production of creative material to meet a quota. While it tries to copy the American wave of films like 'American Road Trip' or 'There's Something About Mary,': films that shock and make you laugh at the same time. It really fails on all counts humorously. I think the only part I found really funny was when David Fernández got up and did a Chiquito de la Calzada impression in front of the English staff and family. Most of the humour is based around farcical concepts of dramatic irony, which would have been funny in the nineteen eighties, but now are just corny. There's also a trend in Spanish productions to ignore real-life premises, so they can do anything for the sake of the situation, even when it would not be possible in the real world. This, for me, is an easy way out, because you don't have to worry about how the characters will resolve a situation, because there are no limits on what they can do. A man with two degrees does not accept pills from a stranger in real life, because they could be anything. If one of the characters has a disability, then the girl they fall for, and who falls for them, does not have to have a similar disability. The situations set up are resolved in the most predictable ways, and, although they try to shock, do not create a funny situation. I have seen some very funny Spanish comedies: 'Va ser que nadie es perfecto' 'Perdona bonita, pero Lucas me quería a mí' 'La Comunidad' etc. This film just wasn't up to it.