1824. The Champions’ Cup (2016)

Starring: Massimo Boldi, Max Tortora, Massimo Ceccherini

Director: Giulio Base

Running Time: 98 mins

The Champions’ Cup (La coppia dei campioni) is an Italian film about two vastly different men who embark on a journey to watch the final of the Champions’ League in Prague, but their voyage is disrupted by an endless slew of mishaps.

This is a really annoying film. Despite the fact that it’s got a couple of chuckles from time to time, its brand of comedy is generally completely idiotic. With two infuriating lead characters who shout their way through the movie at every moment, there’s very little to really enjoy about The Champions’ Cup, making for a very frustrating watch.

Let’s start on the mildly bright side. As poor a comedy as this is, I have to say that there were a good few moments with some big laughs. They’re few and far between, but when everything is a little bit calmer than normal, the charisma and flamboyance of the Italians when stuck in the middle of Slovenia or the Czech Republic makes for some entertaining mishaps.

Despite that, however, the majority of this movie is a loud, unfunny mess. Firstly, the two lead characters are incredibly annoying. There’s so much wrong with them, ranging from the fact that one of the men is absolutely disgusting, to a point that’s just not funny at all, to the constant shouting that goes on at seemingly every single moment.

Road trip movies are always difficult to get right, generally centring around a couple of characters getting annoyed with each other in the most awkward and claustrophobic environment, and The Champions’ Cup falls to all of the genre’s worst tropes.

It’s not a juvenile film, despite all of the toilet humour and worse, but a film that seems to have no real comedic brain, with the seeming desire to just let the two leads scream at each other and everyone around them instead of going for anything slightly wittier or more intelligent. There are a few bright moments of calm, but on the whole, The Champions’ Cup is a pretty infuriating and very unfunny film from start to finish, and that’s why I’m giving it a 5.6 overall.