Who payed the critics

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Cairo Nest Of Spies was a wonderful surprise when I met Agent Hubert Bonisseur De La Bath aka "0SS 117" for the very first time in spring 2006 in french theaters. A refreshing take on spy movies and spoofs at the same time and the breakthrought performance of the future academy award winner Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo and Director Michel Hazanavicius.It was a breath of fresh air in both those kind of movies and in the 21th century french movie scene full of boring, predictable and uninteresting flicks.So I was expecting nothing less than the same kind of feel good movie with Rio Ne Repond Plus and what a letdown it was when I discovered it a few months ago...What made the first movie so great is that the character ended up sympathetic and you would root for him instead of hating his racist behaviors of french colonialist.It was more a testament to the Muslim culture than anything. But here the many racist jokes towards asians (called "chinese"), Germans but mainly Jewish and Israel are just plain awful and unacceptable.Why ? Cause the movie is not in Israel, China or Germany unlike the first one in Cairo, Egypt.So you can't see how great Israel is as a country and Jewish people and their culture.They can't defend themselves against the main character stupid behaviors and awful racism here...And don't tell me I have no humor at all, I grew up with those racist jokes that are supposed to downplay any ethnicity and color of skin but here it's anything but "funny".The fact that he keeps insisting to insult Jewish and Israel people (a country where they are a lot of christians and muslims as well living here, in their parliament too), should rejoice any anti Jewish people and is an awful propaganda for more racism towards this great country and people.By turning a racist but finally not that racist and charming character from the first movie into an absolute unfunny and disguting piece of a "human" being in this sequel, Michel Hazanavicius shot a ball into both of his feet and ruined it forever.Do like me and buy the original adventure In Cairo, Nest Of Spies and watch it again. That's the only OSS 117 I want to remember and it's a classic of french humor forever.

I am yet to see The Artist, the film that conquered the Academy preferences and received the Oscar for the Best Film, as well as the Best Actor award for Jean Dujardin. I had recorded however about one year ago one of the previous films made by director Michel Hazanavicius with Dujardin in the principal role as well. Now I included it in the holidays season viewing package, and it was one of the most pleasant and holiday-suited choice that I made.Lost in Rio (the English title) or Rio ne répond plus happens in the 1960s, when most of the novels of Jean Bruce were written. Bruce's hero Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath was a replica of James Bond, one of the many created in the decades after the apparition of the novels of Jan Fleming, but he had a French touch and Gallic humor, which is the focus of the interpretation of director Hazanavicius. At no moment does he try to be politically correct, actually under the cover of making a film about the 60s he allows to himself to mock and exaggerate stereotypes of French, German and Israelis, Nazis and Nazi-hunters, macho men and babe-shaped women. The result is pretty funny.Do not invest too much into probing the credibility of the story, sit, relax and prepare for a few good laughs. If you follow this path there are good chances to enjoy this film. Jean Dujardin is certainly a great actor, and watching his work is a delight. An eyebrow, a faint smile or an hysterical laugh can sustain a full gag. He is in good company. I remember some of the French comedies of the 60s and they were really good, not only because they were blessing by actors such as Louis de Funes, Fernandel and Bourvil, but also because they allowed themselves to be crazy and ignore the social conventions. Everything was fair game for laughing. Films like this one, even if they do not hit gold as The Artist contain the promise of starting to build another significant lot of comedies in the French cinema.

This film is a great test to see if your friends have a sense of humor, because no intelligent comedy fan could enjoy this. Don't let the excuses that it's "silly" humor fool you; I love silly humor, and I truly love racial and edgy humor, and this film fails at both.The writing is simply uninspired and feels like a rushed room full of executives wrote it rather than anyone who's ever worked as a comedy writer. The last joke of the movie is such a stinker it sums up the whole film. Bad jokes and lazy writing disguised with charm and good acting.I saw this film in a theater full of fans who wanted desperately to love it, but an hour in the crowd went permanently silent as the onslaught of forced humor weighed on us all. Many jokes seemed like they would have been funny 40 years ago but today are so hackneyed and simplistic it's just uncomfortable and intellectually insulting.To put it simply, if you found this movie hilarious, I'm willing to bet my life that you never make other people laugh.

OSS 117 is a french secret agent, a very very french one. His new mission is to exchange a microfilm for money with an ex Nazi in Brazil. for this mission, he will have to team up with a Jewish sexy secret agent and the hippie son of the ex-Nazi. Whatever...The story is not that interesting, this is a parody of 007, a fine one. here, the hero is stupid and old fashioned, but sure to be the opposite. every single line he says is full of anachronism and ignorance, he has no idea of what he's dealing with and he's kind of childish. But he's the best french agent. Hubert Bonisseur de labathe is our own french Austin Power, for a more mature audience. Here, the laugh comes from the gap between the world OSS thinks he lives in and the real world, and the fact that, even facing the real world, he never changes his mind. The first episode was great, funny and thrilling, a complete absurd spy movie. this one is funnier, because now, we now the main character is a complete idiot, but he always gets what he wants, even if quite don't understand how.