Technically, “Vecina” is not a sequel to Mircea Bravo. I mean, the characters seem to be the same, with the same actor playing Bunica, and none of the actors seem to break out of the roles they play in the webseries, but Mircea is called Andrei. Yeah, so it’s another universe, where Andrei is a teacher with the same grandma and the same friends and the same significant other and THE SAME JOKES!
I liked the first film better. That said, it wasn’t the worst film in the world. The trailers before the movie proved that you can have much worse. Vecina has jokes about trying to teach kids math, little one liners and gags here and there that seem a little funny. Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Abbot and Costello, Mr Houlot, Les Trois Freres, and even Chaplin made mediocre films in their time. So, I will probably still see the next Mircea Bravo film. But this one was, well, disappointing.
The audience did laugh on occasion. If you only speak Romanian at B2 or below, you might have got about three or four visual gags, but you’d struggle to follow the plot. If you are fluent in Romanian, you might have understood every word, but have struggled to see the point.
The basic plotline is this. There is a new neighbour, and she is annoying. She calls the police for the tiniest thing, like someone peeing too loud. At first, Mircea “Andrei” Bravo and friends try to not irritate her, but eventually after she keeps calling ther cops over every little thing (and worse) give up and try to get rid of her.
One of his friends runs a yoga studio. Another, an ageing womanizer, is a police man. Another “works” in a shop without actually doing his job, parties, plays loud music, smokes weed, and tries to pick up the yoga lady. He is one of those classic Hollywood screwball characters, like the rat you’d scream at in real life, but somehow you root for in a film. I think making that guy so likeable shows some real talent, like the creators of Tom and Jerry. Then there are minor characters who may or may not have jobs.
Spoiler and use of the film.
The screwball pot smoker could have his own film, really. We feel sorry for him when (spoiler alert) the evil new neighbour makes him lose his job.
This is a good talking point. I mean, do people deserve to lose their jobs for something they did outside of the workplace? If it doesn’t hurt the customers, or the business, then does it really matter?
And another talking point is about being a good neighbour. Do some people push the rules a bit too much? Sure, there are rules about noise, but those exist so we can sleep better and live in peace, not so we can call the police every time we feel a little annoyed.
Also, where is that block? No one except the new neighbour seems annoyed at the noise of the parties. I mean, at least a math teacher would want to get some sleep on occasion.
And finally, why didn’t they get the neighbour ear plugs instead of a candy bar? We at Hey Cluj sometimes take earplugs with us to films, because when the projectionist doesn’t understand the language the excessive noise causes a distortion that creates extra distracting echos. They are cheap, you can get them at Auchan. But I guess that means you can’t have a product placement.
Strangely, during this film, it seems Doina (the neighbour) got her way with the projectionist. The sound level of the movie at cinema city was just right! I would recommend the sound team for some kind of award, just not original music.
Soundtrack
There was some music, related to the characters. One was a video made by Haiduc, and the other was the stoner who listens to loud party music. The only beat I can remember is that sleezy stereotype song that they had when “Mircea’s wife” (Andrei’s girlfriend?) was dressed as a nurse and they were doing their weird romantic thing. (No, you didn’t see this “Vecina” film five years ago, they have been recycling jokes.)
But yeah, the soundtrack is entirely forgetable. I forgot it on the way home from the cinema.
Script
I think it was written with AI. But, as I said, other comedy greats had off-films. So, if they don’t write with AI, I will give them another chance. However, the web series does not seem as funny, recently. Maybe they replaced their writer with AI.
Audience reaction
Okay, so how did the audience react? The cinema was full, and there were quite a few moments of laughter. Maybe less than ten, but more than two. Not everyone laughed, but if you see it with a full cinema, someone will laugh.
When the end credits came, almost everyone started walking out immediately. No one seemed interested in watching the end credits, or waiting for one last joke at the end. The ending was, well, disappointing.
No one had that satisfied look on their face the way they do in other comedies. No one was quoting lines from the film. People just seemed to be shuffling out to hurry home. Perhaps they liked the film though, maybe they were just afraid of making too much noise and offending Doina!