NICOS PERAKIS

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB.5.

Original title:  Loufa Kai Parallagi: Seirines Sto Aigaio

Greece, 2005.  CL Productions, Graal, Hellenic Radio & Television, Nova, Odeon.  Screenplay by Nicos Perakis.  Cinematography by Giorgos Argyroiliopoulos.  Produced by Manos Krezias, Kostas Lambropoulos, Nicos Perakis.  Music by Dimitris Kontopoulos.  Production Design by Yorgos Papadatos.  Costume Design by Katerina Mouzoula.  Film Editing by Yorgos Mavropsaridis.  

Fun sequel to Nicos Perakis’s 1984 Loufa Kai Parallagi (or, roughly, “Loafing And Camouflage”), which returns to the hijinks among mandatory-service soldiers in the Greek military. Not much has changed in twenty years; these guys are still a bunch of goofs who think more about good alcohol and fine booty than the defense of their country. Their priorities are given a good shake, however, when a group of soldiers manning a rocky beach in the Aegean intercept a Turkish boat illegally landing on Greek shores. The boat is carrying members of a magazine photo shoot and claims not to have known the island was out of their legal boundary, provoking a response from the Greek military men that starts out winsomely humorous but threatens to blow up into an international incident. Perakis’ style has definitely gained a lot of glamorous sheen over the last twenty years, and the budget is a lot more impressive as well, making for a hit comedy (highest number of tickets ever sold in Greek movie theatres to that point) that has it all: lots of laughs, lots of skin and even a thin layer of substance to hold it all together.