A Brilliant Conflict

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Not Gérard Oury's best film. By a long-shot. The same thing can be said for Coluche. Not that he's bad in this one, but the story line just get thinner and thinner as the minutes pass. Imagine: an international intrigue with terrorists threatening to blow up the presidents of the most powerful countries. No it's not an action movie, it's a comedy! And it actually starts pretty well. From Mexico, to the Alps, to Paris. (It was good to see an old Air Canada DC-10 --I think it was-- at the airport). There's actually some good laughs in the first half of the movie. Coluche reminded me of Pierre Richard in so many movies where is confronted with "loufoques" situations. But the only bright spot in the 2nd half is Lucien the monkey. That says a lot! We're then stuck with a catastrophe ending. It looks like Oury didn't really no how to finish this one.Seen at home, in Toronto, on April 22nd, 2005.68/100 (**) The first half would probably get an extra star, the second half only would be stuck with only one star.