The Other Side of the Bed (2002) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski) and Tuna

This is a musical comedy about the complex relationship between four people - two couples. One wag at IMDB described it as "Grease" meets "Bob & Carol and Ted & Alice", which sums it up economically, and fairly well.

All four are friends, but it seems that one of the men and one of the women are fooling around - with each other. They resolve to tell their partners. The woman breaks up with her boyfriend, but the man does not break up with his girlfriend. The resulting story is a chronicle of how they mix and match, pair up and then pair up again in different combinations.
It's reasonably charming, and there is nothing much wrong with the film, but it's just a piece of trite and superficial fluff, completely predictable, with no special insights. It is less like a Spanish film, and more like those colorful, fluffy Bollywood musicals. For some reason incomprehensible to me, it was nominated for the Best Picture Goya, which probably tells you less about the film than about the lack of depth in the Spanish film industry. I think they really have to struggle to find enough nominees worthy of statuettes.

NUDITY REPORT
  • Paz Vega - breasts
  • Natalia Verbeke- breasts and buns, brief frontal.

It is strictly for fans of musicals, and let me warn you that you may not like it even if you like musicals:

1. It's in Spanish, with subtitles

2. The music isn't much good. The melodies are bland. The women sing fairly well, but compared to the men in this film, Lee Marvin sings like Pavarotti. The one guy just talks through his songs, and the other guy makes nothing resembling a musical sound.

TUNA's THOUGHTS
El otro lado de la cama (2002) is a musical romantic comedy made in Spain. I didn't much enjoy the musical/dance aspect, as it was not a style of music I enjoyed and didn't advance the plot, but that wasn't a big enough problem to ruin what was a pretty funny romantic comedy.

Guillermo Toledo is told by his girlfriend, Natalia Verbeke, that she is ending their relationship, because she is in love with someone else. He runs to tell his best friend, Ernesto Alterio, and his girlfriend, Paz Vega about it. Then Alterio meets Verbeke for a romp in a hotel room. Toledo wants to figure out who who the other guy is, and Alterio tries to convince him it is a lesbian. As a matter of fact, I think everyone in the film at some point accuses everyone else of being gay.

Verbeke is furious at Alterio for not telling Vega he was leaving her. Eventually, Toledo and Vega do the deed together, equaling everything out.

The Critics Vote ...

  • Super-panel consensus: less than two stars. Roger Ebert 2/4, TV Guide 2/5

  • Nominated for six Goyas, including Best Picture. Won one, for Best Sound.

The People Vote ...

  • A monster hit in Spain: 2.8 million tickets, about equal in popularity to a $150 million blockbuster in the USA. (USA has about seven times the population, at eight bucks a ticket .... )
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans, while C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie although genre addicts find it watchable). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-.

Based on this description, Scoop says. "this is a C-. If you don't like subtitled films, this one is unremarkable, not worth the effort. If you're a big fan of Spanish films or of musical comedies, it's at the low end of "watchable". It was a big hit in Spain." Tuna says, "I found it a fast watch with some truly funny moments. C."

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