Although its premise didn't look too promising, "El año de la garrapata" is quite an entertaining and surprisingly well directed film. Lately teen comedies have been more full of bathroom jokes than of intelligent humor, and that's why my expectations were pretty low. However, I was pleasantly surprised.Although the film presents an unbelievable and certainly not recommendable lifestyle (be a bloodsucker to your parents as long as you can) it does so in quite an amusing way. The cast is very good too, specially Félix Gomez, María Vázquez and Víctor Clavijo, the three of them extremely promising rising stars. Verónica Sánchez has been better both in cinema ("Al sur de Granada") and TV ("Los Serrano"), but here she looks rather absent-minded. Javier Veiga is a victim of miscasting, and he does as much as he can with his disagreeable character. The only thing I can say is that I was amused all throughout the film. Maybe it's not high cinema, but it's a more than acceptable summer movie.Overall rating: 7/10