Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Fantastic!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

As with the great directors, their films are to be compared to, well... their own films!. The mind of jean Pierre Jeunet has created worlds that that range from fairy tale (Amelie), post- apocalyptic (Delicatessin), science fiction (City of Lost Children) and put new twists on the war torn romance (A Very Long Engagement). These spaces of story telling are therefore protected from otherworldly logic, but encased in bits and pieces of sweet snippets, humorous entanglement and just plain oddness. We've come to expect this from our collector of such things as expressed on the big screen for our delight.His effort here is a bit in conflict with these endeavors. The reality of homelessness isn't that funny. The pain of a mother losing her daughters in a fun house is not something to mention in passing and the creation of "non-stop shenanigans" pieced together to make a point about the harms of war mongers seems to put the style in contrast with the substance. The visuals are entertaining and the vignettes almost all work but in the end the projected romance between our "Basil" and the annoying contortionist fails to illuminate the heart as the past romances in the other films mentioned above.I still enjoyed the film and the concluding "exposure" of our evil doers, but the Seven Dwarfs, as usually fun, kooky and endearing as past Jeunet inhabitants, could have skipped the circus act romance to wrap up the bow around our Snow White.

So it's a fairy tale - but not one for (young) children - unless parents want to get into a discussion of what land mines do to people.Heavy duty documentaries make little impact - I think the gentleness and total lack of reality here is an antidote for the dead serious issue at the center. This reminds me a bit of Dr. Strangelove characters: yes, over the top but - so it's not as if the reality isn't perhaps more absurd. Not too heavy handed in my view - the audience doesn't really need to struggle to understand and that's okay.A bit Chaplinesque, as well. And an underdog story - common in the movies, but then all story lines are repeated, with different characters and context, and the question is - is it done well? Since in real life, the underdogs get slammed, it's nice to see them win in an engaging film.

people's lives get ruined by war and the means by which war is fought. you'd have to be pretty deeply into warmongering to disagree with this films message. i can be somewhat ambiguous about war, especially when people start making claims about the "good war" or "necessary conflict". but i thought the statement here was realistic and straight forward. even people who believe in a military can't say war doesn't ruin lives.even though that is a timely comment and one of serious conviction, this film also proves it's ripe for farce and social satire. this film is ingeniously funny and also charming and not just simply a heavy handed thought provoking experience.as a matter of fact the intended result seems to be more about fantasy and whimsy rather than burdening or depressing the viewer. it's almost impossible to keep a straight face or take anything too seriously here. too cute and there is a lot of simple innocence.outstanding contemporary cinema. but i wouldn't expect any less from the filmmaker who brought us the masterpiece 'City of the Lost Children'. maybe not on a par with that great film, but a delightful and fun fantasy/comedy and some of the best cinema around today.

This is a quirky French comedy (with subtitles) that, when it came out, attracted a few good reviews. On the strength of these I decided to watch it when it came up on TV recently. I have to say I wasn't totally blown away by it, but there are some nice touches and there are parts I actually found genuinely funny! But more of my thoughts later, here's a brief summary first (summary haters and those that don't wish to know anything about the plot please help the gang sort that junk while I write the next paragraph).When Bazil was young, his father was killed whilst clearing mines in North Africa. Amongst his effects returned to the family was a photo of the mine that killed him, and Bazil never forgot the logo embossed into the mine casing. Now grown up, he has a job at a video store. One evening a shoot-out occurs in the street outside and Bazil is accidentally hit in the head by a stray bullet. The surgeon decides it's too risky to remove the bullet and so Bazil leaves hospital only to find he is evicted from his apartment and his job has been given to someone else. He is given one of the bullet casings from the shootout, it has a different logo to the mine that killed his father but, again, Bazil commits it to memory. He now lives on the streets of Paris making a living busking. He is eventually taken in by a group of misfits who live in a junk yard. They make a living by recycling and selling things other people have thrown out. Lead by Tambouille, they include a contortionist, La Môme Caoutchouc, who Bazil has a bit of a thing for. Going about his job of collecting useful things to mend, Bazil comes across two buildings opposite each other. They bear the logos of the two companies that made the weapons that ruined his life. He decides to get revenge on the leaders of these two companies, Nicolas Thibault de Fenouillet and François Marconi. He ropes in his new found friends and this is where all the fun begins… I'll leave it there so as not to enrage the Spoiler Police any more than necessary.This is a very well made film with some really clever and inventive set pieces. It is visually very quirky, but in a nice way, and has a pretty decent soundtrack. Decent performances all round, particularly from; Dany Boon as Bazil, André Dussollier as Nicolas Thibault de Fenouillet, Nicolas Marié as François Marconi, Jean-Pierre Marielle as Placard, Yolande Moreau as Tambouille and Julie Ferrier as La Môme Caoutchouc.At the beginning I loved the quirky comedy, almost reminiscent of the great Jacques Tati (but not quite). Unfortunately it couldn't sustain its early promise and ended up falling pretty flat in the middle third. It seemed to pick up a bit towards the end, but by then, I'm afraid, it had lost a lot of its magic (for me). I somehow expected better from the director of the likes of Delicatessen (1991) and Amelie (2001), but sadly it didn't match up to its early promise. It's still quite an enjoyable film with some moments I found really funny and so I'll recommend it for one viewing, at least.My score: 6.2/10