403. Manolito Four Eyes (1999)

Starring: David Sánchez del Rey, Adriana Ozores, Roberto Álvarez

Director: Miguel Albaladejo

Running Time: 86 mins

Manolito Four Eyes (Manolito Gafotas) is a Spanish film about a young boy who, after fearing another summer holiday stuck at home in his flat in Madrid, is taken on a road trip with his father, a lorry driver, where things go a little wrong…

Well, for a simple comedy that really does make you happy, you can’t go wrong with this film. A charming main character who is easy to sympathise with, and a fun story with the usual ‘unexpected’ twists and turns all the way through, this film is easy to enjoy.

The problem with the fact that it is so simple and usually overly cheery is that it becomes occasionally a little boring. The comedy is a little too juvenile to be hilarious to all, and there are a lot of repeated jokes, annoying secondary characters that make this often quite an irritating film to watch.

The usual mishaps are also not the most fun thing ever. In principal, the story is indeed quite funny, with the premise of a young boy getting into all these situations seemingly entertaining, but the problem is, it happens so much, at nearly every second throughout the film that it is in the end, not as enjoyable as you might hope.

Nonetheless, the film is overall simple enough to enjoy if you look past the annoyances littered throughout the story, and because of that, I’ll give this a 6.7.