VIDEO: The trailer for Rudo y Cursi
In 2001, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna teamed up in Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también, and that exuberant coming-of-age romp suggested that Mexican cinema might be the next New Wave.
Eight years later, as the two actors reunite in this tepid buddy comedy from Cuarón's brother Carlos, it seems whatever wave there might have been has since seeped away to Hollywood along with its top talent (and that includes Alfonso). Beto (Luna) and Tato (Bernal) are a pair of raffish brothers working at a banana plantation when they're spotted playing soccer by a sleazy scout (Guillermo Francella).
He quickly shoves the pair into the big leagues, where they earn the title monikers and experience the usual rise and fall of naive athletes, the fall taking in dope, gambling, bad investments, the mob, and golddigging TV hostesses. Alternately as crude and prissy as the title suggests, this film avoids any real comedy and drama by means of Francella's inescapable and pedantic voiceover.
