Film / Garcea și Oltenii

Garcea și Oltenii ("Garcea and the Oltenians") is a 2001 Romanian comedy directed by Sam Irvin. The movie features the Vacanța Mare Group and it combines two of their most famous sketches: "Garcea", about the titular dumb, aggressive, and incompetent cop, and "Leana and Costel", about the titular peasant couple who live in the village of Sadova with their Dysfunctional Family.

The plot concerns a magical stone that was created by seven fictional Dacian tribes; it was stolen by the Romans, but the rider carrying it is shot by an arrow, and the stone falls into a swamp. Two thousand years later, Axinte and Lila are sent by their mother Leana to get some water to cook a rooster that their father Costel stole from their neighbor Mitică. While at the pond, they discover the lost stone and take it with them. However, American satellites have discovered the stone as well. A scientist sends the news to his friends from other countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, and they all head to Sadova.

Unfortunately, Russian terrorist Ival Ivalowsky has also found out about the stone. The Americans send their best agent, David Blonde, to retrieve the stone and annihilate Ival. Meanwhile, Garcea is also sent to Sadova to investigate a case of fraud after one of Axinte's failed wishes, all while the villagers observe the visiting foreigners, using their arrival as an opportunity to take their money. Hilarity Ensues.

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Garcea și Oltenii contains examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Angelica's father being held hostage by Ival is never brought up again.
• Action Girl: Angelica. She's a spy after all.
• All Germans Are Nazis: Implied. It's never stated directly, but the Germans drive in a WWII-era German vehicle, wear Waffen SS uniforms, and carry around M P40s.
• All Part of the Show: For Leana and Costel to get more people to Axinte and Lila's wedding, they decide to invite the "Vacanța Mare group" to perform. During the climax, as Leana, Costel and Axinte perform onstage, Ival and his men interrupt the show and take them hostage. However, Garcea thinks it's just part of the sketch.
• The Alcoholic: Leana and Costel, per usual. At the end Costel wishes for large supplies of alcohol. The Russians counttoo.
• Alliterative Name: Ival Ivalowsky and Gabriel Garcea.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Of all the languages heard in the movie, Romanian and English are the only accurate depictions. Italian is accurate most of the time and German is sometimes, mostly just random German words being shouted. The rest are just gibberish.
• Auction of Evil: Ival is hosting one of this when we first see him.
• Bachelor Auction: During Ival's auction, a female spy named Angelica comes to inform Ival about the stone. The terrorists present at the auction believe she is part of the bid.
• Bad Cop/Incompetent Cop: Who else but Garcea? He forgets his mission as soon as he reaches Sadova.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Axinte's first wish was for money. This wish however backfired on him as the stone gave him ancient coins.
• Big Bad: Ival Ivalowsky, the Russian terrorist.
• Big "NO!": Angelica does one when she saves Garcea
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: In one scene, Garcea tries to hail a cab after he runs out of gas, but fails every time. So he turns to the Director and tells him that if he doesn't give him gas he will leave the movie.
• Brother–Sister Incest: One of Leana's ideas is to marry off Lila to make money from the foreigners. However. nobody wants to marry Lila, so Leana decides to marry her to Axinte.
• Call-Back: Garcea does the same dance the Vacanța Mare group did at the beginning of "Vampirii în Izmene" and sings the same song they performed the dance to.
• Chekhov's Gun: One scene has Lila save Axinte from the African by using a Voodoo Doll. At the climax of the movie,the African provides Lila with Voodoo Dolls of Ival and his men which Lila uses to save her family.
• Creator Cameo: Sam Irvin makes a cameo as a gay truck driver in the scene when Garcea is trying to hail a cab.
• Department of Redundancy Department:
  • When Garcea arrives in the village, he spots Mitică, who pretends to be a blind begger.
    Garcea (to Costel): You know how sorry I feel for blind people? I've heard that some of them can't even see.
  • Mitică describes himself as a "blind man with no sight".
• David vs. Goliath: The Russian who Frankfurt challenges to arm wrestling is really big and muscular, as opposed to Frankfurt, who is small and skinny.
• Dirty Commies: Ival and his men are not directly said to be communist, but it's heavily hinted that they are. They use WWII-era Soviet equipment and communist symbolism. At the auction, Ival tries to sell the bullet that killed JFK and a poster of Lee Harvey Oswald. Ival himself bears a striking resemblance to Che Guevara.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-Universe. When Angelica asks Ival who David is, Ival tells her that David is his arch-nemesis, an evil American agent who murdered many of his men. However, instead of hatred or fear, Angelica takes interest in him.
• Double Agent: David is revealed to be one.
• Hollywood Voodoo: The African practices this kind of rituals.
• Husky Russkie: The Russian who loses the arm wrestling match to Frankfurt.
• Global Ignorance: While discussing the stone, the CIA chief tells his men that it is in Romania.
  Blonde Female Agent: Romania... Where is that, in Canada?
  CIA chief: Who was your Geography teacher? Romania lies in Europe, in France...
• Evil Is Hammy: Ival.
  Ival: I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!
• Fartillery: Done by Costel in order to steal Mitică's rooster.
• Forced into Evil: Angelica only works with Ival because she is holding her father hostage.
• Heel–Face Turn: Angelica does one at the climax of the film.
• I'm a Humanitarian: When the African is first shown, one can see a Cannibal tribe boiling someone in a pot in the background.
• In My Language, That Sounds Like...: In the pub scene, one of the Germans is shouting "Prost!" which means "cheers" in German but "dumb" in Romanian.
  German: Prost!, Prost!
  Costel: Yo Momma's Dumb!
• Large Ham: Garcea and Leana.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The Magic Stone.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Frankfurt's strategy to win against the Russian is to tell him a made-up story about how he is a Martial Arts Master known as "The Merciless Dragon".
• Never Bring A Knifeto A Gun Fight: When David is first introduced he is attacked by 3 ninjas armed with axes and nunchucks. He proceeded to gun them down.
• Not Quite Dead:
  • Garcea believes that David is dead after accidentally running him over with the car. However, he returns at the climax to take the stone.
  • At the climax of the movie it appears that Ival killed Angelica. But it quickly turns out that she survived.
  • Also at the climax it appears that David killed Ival. But at the end we see that Ival is still alive and he also got a piece of the stone.
• Sensual Slavs: Angelica. She is a sexy Russian spy who Garcea falls for.
• Shout-Out:
  • David Blond is an obvious spoof of James Bond.
  • The scene in which Ival's men enter the house, only to fall for Axinte's traps, might remind you of another movie.
• Something Else Also Rises: During the pub scene, the Italians bring some hot chicks with them, which causes one of the German's M P40s to lift up.
• Stink Bomb: Costel's "Oltenian Grenade", that he tries to use against one of the Germans.
• Taking the Bullet: Angelica does this for Garcea at the climax of the movie.
• Take That, Audience!: During the "Vacanța Mare" scene, when Leana Costel and Axinte perform as their actors, Costel asks her why "his" store was closed. Leana replies, "because i didn't had authorization" in a gypsy accent. While the crowd saw how stupid the "joke" is, Garcea laughs hysterically, a jab at the fans who laugh at every damn thing they say.
• Those Wacky Nazis: The Germans, who are implied Nazis, are really silly.
• Vodka Drunkenski: During the pub scene, two of Ival's men enter Lepădușu and order vodka.
• Voodoo Doll: The African practices Voodoo. So naturally he also makes Voodoo Dolls.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: At the climax of the movie after taking the stone David asks Ival how will they escape. Ival then tells David that he has a helicopter ready behind some bushes. After finding out about it David shoots him and takes the helicopter.

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