This absurdly funny comedy was an almost exact remake of a German film "Our Island in the South Pacific" of only a year or so before. Thomas Bahmann was responsible for both adaptations and also direction of the German movie. While the original movie was very good (who said the Germans can't make comedy!!) it didn't have the stellar talents of Victoria Abril and Diego Abatantuono as the harassed, battling couple who discover that their neighbours are not quite what they seem and also discover each other!!Something is drastically wrong in the Brogini household - they are just about to go on holidays to a luxurious South Seas resort when their credit mysteriously dries up. They are a family who lives on show and keeping up with the Jones - "the Jones" in this case being their young upwardly mobile neighbours, Melania and Rocco, who just happens to be after Alberto's job!! There is also another neighbour who has a really way out looking plant and even forces poor Alberto to dig up plants from his own garden if they happen not to be complimentary to his own plant!! Poor Alberto feels he is just one of life's losers!! Just before they are due at the airport he finds out his financial adviser has fled to Australia!!While the Brogini's are supposedly in the South Seas, to save face they plan to spend the holiday in their basement - they just can't face the neighbours, who while having crazy sex, doing drugs and coping with a nutty mother are planning some changes while the Brogini's are away. The "basement" family discover themselves and begin to live life on the wild side - filling up an old water tank and turning it into a resort pool, chopping down their neighbour's prize fruit and, succumbing to it's hallucinogenic qualities, storm Rocco's barbecue where after much begging and wheedling he is finally given Alberto's job. How Alberto gets even with the help of a "sex tape" of Rocco and Melania, is quite hilarious.Even though the movie isn't as funny as I remember it, it was such a treat to see Victoria Abril again - she really specialized in wacky comedy, in particular "Atame!" (1990) and "Kika" (1993).

Even though this is a 2001 film, we only caught up with it recently on a cable channel. The subject matter though, looks timeless compared to the current times the world is living. The affair of the American financier, Bernard Madoff, came to mind as Alberto, the successful financial executive, is swindled out of money he worked hard to have.The realization that he has been had leads Alberto to despair, when he finds out he has no money to pay for his vacation, and that all his credit cards cannot be used at all. In Alberto's world everything has to amount to success, so how can he justify his own lack of business acumen by letting himself be fleeced by an unscrupulous man, to his own boss, or to his neighbor, who also happens to work for the same company and wants to get his job by whatever means? The solution is to spend the family vacation hidden in his basement! Marcello Cesena, the director and co-adapter of this film, gives us a funny film about the pitfalls of losing one's credibility to his peers, as well as to his own family. The result is a movie that moves at a rapid pace. Best of all is Diego Abatantuono, an actor who we had only seen in more dramatic fare. As Alberto, he is a joy to watch; he is always resourceful, even at the worst moments. His wife is played by Victoria Abril, who doesn't have much to do in the picture.