Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Nice effects though.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

So I just watched "with a Friend like Harry" from 2000. So is it good, I say oui. This movie is slow in its build up to the suspenseful second half of the film. It is mildly humorous at times, while being quite disturbing at other times. Look movies like this you don't want to talk too much about, it is after all a suspense pic. So what I can ponder openly is the deeper meaning behind the ending, if there is one. I picked up something deeply psychological, though I could have been mistaken, but perhaps we are all a little Harry in some ways? Watch and maybe you will understand what I am getting at. So that's all I can say is if you like slightly cerebral, fresh and original, suspense flicks, that are in french then you will love this one. If you can deal with the subtitles (and everything else applies) it is a really good movie and you can't go wrong with it. if you like concise reviews of interesting films please read my other reviews at http://raouldukeatthemovies.blogspot.com/

In a motorway bathroom, two motorists are drying their hands at the washbasins. One turns and stares at the other. He holds him in his gaze for a long, long time. The second motorist notices, and turns to face the other. He matches his gaze, but the first man does not flinch. Finally, he speaks: "We know each other." From the moment we meet him, we realise there is something not quite right about Harry. This film is peppered with deliciously tense moments like that opening encounter. Harry recites a poem, Harry buys a car, Harry turns up for a visit, and every time little hand-grenades of appropriacy and etiquette go off. And as time passes, it is more than social propriety that is breached.Harry, He's Here to Help is exquisitely observed. Every parent will empathise with the opening car journey with three cranky kids. Put-upon Dad Michel (Laurent Lucas), after the car journey from hell, has the parents from hell to deal with. The parenting of young children is portrayed authentically, as is a long-term marriage gone rancid. Harry (a very scary Sergi López) may be signalling pathology with his crisply ironed shirts, clueless girlfriend, and inability to listen, but who can blame Michel and Claire (Mathilde Seigner) for missing the signs when they have so much more to contend with in their lives, matters for which Harry offers temporary respite. As Claire says, they are quite simply exhausted.In the second half of the film the plot accelerates, and the character portraiture suffers slightly. Michel's younger brother seems to say exactly, and only, the wrong things. He serves merely to push Harry's buttons. Interestingly, a slightly surreal note creeps in, signalled by Michel's obsession with eggs. Harry drives so fast the car seems to take flight - then turns up, apparently from a crash, without a mark on him, his perfectly ironed shirt still crease free. Are we now in Michels' dream? Or one of his stories? Harry is still a visceral threat, and is dealt with in the only way that can set Michel free.Tense, scary and absurd in all the right places, this film evokes Hitchcock, Sexy Beast, Kitano and other lofty references, while remaining a unique, primarily visual and hence visceral piece. Highly recommended.

In high school (Lycee), Michel wrote impressive poetry and memorable stories for the school magazine. He looked to be destined for a serious literary career, and Harry hero worshiped him, idolized him. Harry wanted, more than anything else, to be Michel's best friend and help him in his literary career.And Michel barely knew that Harry existed.We first see Michel many years later. He is in an un-air-conditioned automobile in the French countryside on a very hot day. His wife is hot and cranky; his three small girls are even hotter and crankier. Michel is stuck in a job, teaching French to Japanese, that does not have a lot of prospect of advancement. He has not written in years and years. He is feeling overwhelmed and trapped by a number of things.Harry recognizes Michel at a highway rest stop and introduces himself. Harry was so far outside Michel circle in high school that Michel does not remember him.Harry's obsession with gaining Michel's friendship returns, and Harry is determined to do anything that he can to help Michel.And Harry succeeds. He removes some distractions from Michel's life. He jump starts Michel's writing, and it looks as if Michel will continue to write. Finally, he helps Michel to understand how much his wife and his children really mean to him.What more can a friend do? Please don't let me mislead you. This is a horror movie. Some people find it funny, but I don't.A number of people who have commented on this film think that Harry is a projection of what Michel would like to be, or that Harry is a projection of Michel's dark side. Or maybe, that Harry is the Devil. I don't buy any of this, and I have written this review to suggest a different interpretation. One could easily make a film in which Harry is a projection of Michel's darkest impulses, and it might even be a more interesting film than this one, but that is a different film.I think Harry is a very real person who is just trying to resolve old issues left over from high school. Left over issues from high school are quite creepy enough. There is no need to involve deep repressed desires or the Devil.

I guess we've all once met someone who said that he knows you from I don't know where, while you absolutely can't remember the person's name or where you know him/her from. With "Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien" or "Harry Is Here to Help" the makers have based their story on exact such a situation.When on a hot summers day, Michel and his family go on a trip to visit his parents in the south of France, they stop at a gas station near the highway. In the restroom, a man asks Michel if he doesn't recognize him anymore. He says he's Harry and that he once went to the same school as Michel. He suggests they have a drink, so he and his girlfriend follow Michel and his family to their summer house. So far nothing special, but when Harry is able to quote from memory a poem Michel wrote in school, Michel is very surprised. Harry appears to think that Michel is one of the greatest writers ever and can't understand why Michel doesn't write anymore. Harry tells him that he should start again, but that he has to get rid of all the "nuissances" (his wife, his kids, his parents,...) that will prevent him from writing excellent stories. When Michel hesitates, it's Harry who'll "help" him...What I really liked about this movie was the dark humor, although I'm convinced that many people will not. Laughing with for instance murder, isn't exactly to everybody's taste, but personally I really liked it. And yet the entire movie didn't always convince me. Especially in the beginning it was never able to fully grab me. Only when the killing started, it had me completely in its power. I would say that the quality is quite good, but not excellent. The acting is OK, without excelling, I liked the humor and the story is nice (but only at its best in the end). Overall I would reward this movie with a 6.5/10. If you want to see a great dark European comedy, than I suggest you watch the Danish movie "De Grønne slagtere" (aka "The Green Butchers"). It's a lot better, but also a lot darker than this one.