Marcin Kukuczka

When the Polish cinema was developing in the 1960s and the 1970s, comedy was a genre that shone among the rest. Sylwester Checinski's trilogy from the 1960s and 1970s (SAMI SWOI, NIE MA MOCNYCH, KOCHAJ ALBO RZUC) became cult movies in my country. This was the time when Polish people had no access to most of the American movies and all we could get from abroad were primarily Russian films. But when a Polish new movie was made, it relied on one significant factor: the convention of the society. Yet, in the last years when the world cinema is popular in my country, the Polish films, in many cases, appeared to be hardly original forgetting about the society's preferences, which in time imposed some "model" of behavior among viewers. People started to accept the films made with no aim, no effort, no logic, films filled with silly script and meaningless action. The example of such a movie is DUBLERZY (2006) by Marcin Ziebinski. The movie has many drawbacks but the most serious one is the lame connection of a hardly original action movie with a silly comedy.It is true that the film's content, at first, seems interesting. A couple of friends, Max (Robert Gonera) and Leo (Andrzej Grabowski) spend some time in Sicily, the island that is associated with mafia. Strange events on one wedding of a mafioso's daughter near the city of Trapani, bring them back to Warsaw. Yet, the criminal leaders, particularly Don Antonio Gambini (Konrad Imiela), are also in Poland where they have a job to do. Unintentionally, Max and Leo are brought into a plot. The action goes in pairs with more or less funny situations that they experience... Although the content is similar to many films of endless action, the film-making style is barely original. The script and many scenes rely on the style of such films as an interesting Italian production from the 1980s LA PIOVRA or PITBULL (2005) by Patryk Vega. So if you expect a great action film, you had better not waste your time on this one.It is true that the cast are good. The film has a pack of the best Polish actors and comedians, including Andrzej Grabowski and Krystyna Feldman as well as Robert Gonera and Zbigniew Zamachowski. Yet, there is no good use made of their presence. Their performances are difficult to evaluate since the majority of scenes contain one primary thing - shooting. Sometimes, there is so much of it and shooting is just for its own sake that it becomes funny in itself not serving the purpose of an ambitious comedy, indeed. Many scenes may have been played by anybody and it would be absolutely O.K. So if you expect to see great comedian performances, you had better watch Grabowski in some TV series.It is true that some texts are funny. It is intensified by the Polish accent in Italian. Yet, when in Polish, they are wrapped with so many vulgar words (which is still not well perceived by many viewers in Poland) that the film turns into a "swear-film." Humor is sometimes revealed in "dark humor", particularly in the final sequence of grandma having a journey in a coffin. This humor reminds me of Tarantino's style. Nevertheless, although I am no Tarantino's fan, I am certain he would not fancy DUBLERZY. So if you expect DUBLERZY to be equally entertaining as PULP FICTION, spare your time.It is true that the film was shot in the idyllic island of Sicily. Even the Sicilian sequence was directed by Denis Delic, the second director. I felt motivated to see the film partly due to this aspect. I thought that it would be a comedy about Poles exposed to living among some mafia leaders near Palermo. Yet, the sequence makes only 20 first minutes of the film. The rest, which makes about 100 minutes is nothing more than a silly criminal story set in Poland. So if you expect to see Sicilian landscape in the film, you had better watch LA PIOVRA, a magnificent four- part mini series about the Sicilian mafia.Finally, it is true that there are beautiful women in the film. Except for the singer Kayah who has a minor role of a Sicilian bride, Magdalena Czerwinska looks great as Sophia, the daughter of Don Gambini. She even looks Italian and sometimes reminds me of ultra popular sex bomb Monica Bellucci. Yet, she does not do a very good job at acting.Difficult to say this about a Polish film while being a Pole and dreaming of more and more good and internationally popular Polish films; but DUBLERZY is one of the weakest films I have seen recently. Nothing special as a comedy, nothing special as an action movie, nothing special as a film in general. 2/10

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