An unsuccessful football manager tries to impress an aristocratic, successful one, with the objective of selling him the passes of two unpromising African players. At the same time, their wives get bored out of their skulls and their children get romantically involved. Hilarity ensues? No, not really, but there are worse ways to lose 1 1/2 hours of one's life.
This is a remake of the classic 1947 movie "O Leão da Estrela" but with a twist only discernible to Portuguese viewers: "O Leão" is a Sporting Clube de Portugal supporter and "O Lampião" is a Sport Lisboa e Benfica supporter (Benfica and Sporting being two of the major Portuguese football/soccer teams).
Other minor differences include a general updating of the football scene from the mid forties to more recent years, the main character being a football manager, as opposed to just a supporter in the '47 version, and the inclusion of a new subplot about a team of security guards.
The plot is not original or especially funny, the acting is adequate for a light comedy about football, although subpar. Even Herman José, the star of this movie and one of the greatest comedians in the history of Portuguese television, is mostly uninspired, well below his other works as "O Tal Canal" and "Herman Enciclopédia".
In short, this suffers from the remake curse: if you want to see a good comedy with the same general themes, try the original "O Leão da Estrela" instead.
