Visitors Review

(2012-05-21 13:50)

More classic Jeunet

Many people will dismiss this film as "more of the same". But when "the same" is a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, that's more than OK, in fact it's an exercise in creative film making. Here Jeunet uses his quirky signature style to tell the tale of Bazil whose father was killed by a land mine and who himself has a bullet lodged in his head from a freak accident. With the help of a bunch of misfits, he seeks revenge on the arms dealers and manufacturers with hilarious results.This is not "Amelie" - I don't think Jeunet will ever surpass that - but it's a well made, fun film that you just can't help but watch. Much of the comedy comes and goes in split seconds, so keep your eyes open wide.Danny Boon is wonderful as Bazil and he is supported by the usually zany assortment of Jeunet loonies- who maybe aren't so loony after all. There's alot of logic and truth hidden in all of them.I have the Canadian DVD issue which has been around since September and it is an absolutely beautiful widescreen print that does justice to Jeunet's muted color schemes. You may like or hate this movie, but once you start you'll keep watching just to see what Jeunet will do next.

(2012-05-20 17:25)

Micmacs

This review is from: Micmacs (DVD) Delightful visual treasure with a message, as only Jean-Pierre Jeunet can deliver. Like a collaboration between Fellini and Chaplin.

NutritionNut (2012-05-19 23:20)

Facinating

This is a wonderful, charming, eccentric, fun film. It is definitely different from the average over produced American blockbuster. The characters are funny looking and actually have personalities -- no plastic supermodels in this film. The good guys become a family, band together, and win in the end (and not for personal gain). Some of the stunts are preposterous, but that goes for most of Hollywood, too, so just suspend your disbelief -- like you do normally.I've no idea why this exhausted the critics. Maybe they've been sitting on their brains too long and eating too much popcorn. Those carbs will kill your energy.

cwg-766-325342 (2012-05-19 08:08)

Marvelous!

One of the most entertaining films I've seen in years.At first a bit confusing, but once you get in the proper frame of mindjust brilliant. The fantastic cast of characters, the intricate andwell executed plan, and the amazing effects all work together to createa wonderful and happy movie.My wife and I watch a film together every morning. I'm pretty good atfinding unusual things for us to watch. This one was an exceptionalfind.I'll be looking for the other films by Jeunet. If they are half as goodas this one they will be far better than 90% of the rest.I especially liked the contortionist...and the calculator.

(2012-05-18 00:52)

Very French humor

I really liked this movie, very charming .. and the special effects and photography so well done. But it is very French in its humor, its gestures; probably does not appeal to a broad US audience. Just let go and enjoy it.

(2012-05-17 06:07)

One of the best movies I've seen in a long time.

This review is from: Micmacs (DVD) Funny movie. Good clean fun if you like loveable eccentrics. Hollywood is out of ideas, which is why we see endless remakes. Foreign films provide much needed relief for people like me that love movies but want a fresh story every now and then.Amazon Prime continues to amaze me with fast delivery. They guarantee two day delivery but I often have my orders the next day before I leave for work!

Art Snob (2012-05-15 01:22)

A Jeunet masterpiece -- may be his best yet

I saw 21 films at the 2009 Toronto Film Fest, and while many of themwere good, this one was the best by a wide margin. If you've liked anyof Jeunet's movies in the past, you can put this one down as a surething (provided that your favorite isn't ALIEN RESURRECTION). All ofthe Jeunet elements you love -- colorful, quirky characters (in thiscase, a whole gang of them), other-worldliness, incredible colorschemes, chain reactions, etc. -- in a new concoction that doesn't feelrepetitive or derivative in the slightest. As a sympathetic characterwith a gift for physical comedy, leading man Dany Boon can hold acandle to Chaplin and Keaton. It's simply a masterpiece ... the kind offilm that will keep me coming back to this festival forever.

(2012-05-14 14:18)

A real charmer

This film is a tour de force of casting and directing. The locations and the shot compositions are key elements in conveying the spirit of the film, and the ingenuity of the characters in implementing their schemes of revenge is delightful. The disc I viewed includes extensive behind-the-scenes coverage of the film's shooting. I was surprised that the film company apparently did not obtain control of the streets in which it shot and had to cope with casual onlookers as best it could. Maybe this is the French way. Also, I'm not sure whether the lady contortionist's flexibility is a convincingly seamless use of CGI or is real.

(2012-05-14 02:45)

Mic is macked to death...

Not only am I a big fan of French film, I am also a big fan of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Suffice to say, I was really excited about this movie. Sadly, while the tone of the film was certainly in line with what I expected from this modern master of cinematic enjoyment (yes, I said it), I must admit that this film failed to do much of anything for me. It is loud and charismatic and a carnival of sorts, but in the end it just seems like a hodgepodge of mediocrity.Saying that makes me very sad.Don't get me wrong; I love the macabre and the absurd, which are two things that Jean-Pierre Jeunet understands and it is precisely why I love him so much. I mean, I don't have to explain to anyone my adoration of `Amelie', and that is considered by many to be one of his lesser works; so know that I love him THAT much. That said; while `Micmacs' certainly is entertaining and it has that whole `absurd' quality that I love so much, it fails to balance it out with anything substantial. At least `Amelie' knew how to create an absurdity that teetered on emotional complexity; something that felt human and lived in and truly cherished. `Micmacs' feels slightly underdeveloped; like a gimmick tossed on a plate for minimal effect.The film follows a bunch of freaks as they embark on a mission to turn two major players in arms dealing against one another and create major problems for them; all the while helping one particular freak exact semi-revenge on the company responsible for his father's death and the company who produced the bullet that haphazardly found its way into his skull.Get all that?I like the story. It has so much promise, and in the capable hands of Jeunet I'd expect it to be embellished to perfection, but it wasn't. It was just a silly mess that never seemed to go anywhere important, and then when they did try and make some sort of poignant point about arms dealing (that whole ending) it came across manipulative and out of bounds with the rest of the film.I still have faith in Jeunet. Every director is allowed a misstep here and there. Even the greats have had their fair share of failed projects.At least Raphael Beau's score is effectively awesome.

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain (2012-05-13 11:35)

Micmacs (2009)

Jeunet is back with his magically enchanting trademark style. He's gotthe visuals down, with the help of cinematographer Tetsuo Nagata, whoturns every yellow into a sunset gold. The film may have strong themesabout weapons manufacture and the arms trade, but it's done in thestyle of a children's story. A children's story heist film. We can seeJeunet's silent movie influenced slapstick run riot, as Boon's toessteal his cardboard shelter away from him. It's a joyous film toexperience, with cartoon like interludes of grin evoking madness. Itmight be too uneven for some, or too whimsical for others, but if youare looking for style AND substance, you can't go wrong.

Biggest_Loser (2012-05-08 20:05)

It is mostly because of Boon's performance that Micmacs, for much of its duration, is a wildly funny film

When he was little Bazil (Dany Boon) was left without his parentsbecause his father was killed by a landmine in the late 1970s and hismother was committed, presumably due to the trauma. In the present,Bazil is a video store clerk able who has watched films like The BigSleep so often that he is able to recite all the lines. One evening hehears a disturbance outside and a bullet is fired straight into hisskull, leaving him in a coma. When he wakes up after a long period hediscovers that all the stuff he owned is gone and that he has beenreplaced at the video store. He is left with no choice but to sleep onthe streets and to try and make money by busking. By chance though,Bazil meets Placard (Jean-Pierre Marielle), a former criminal who hasspent time in gaol and who knows who is responsible for the bullet.Placard offers him shelter within a junkyard where a family of freaksare living. They include a writer named Remington (Omar Sy), Fracasse(Dominique Pinon) who wants to update his world record for being ahuman cannonball, Calculette (Marie-Julie Baup), the daughter of aseamstress who can discover measurements in the blink of an eye, LaMôme Caoutchouc (Julie Ferrier), an extremely flexible woman who livesin a fridge, Petit Pierre (Michel Crémadès) who makes gadgets and toysand Tambouille (Yolande Moreau) who looks over the group like they areher children. It is with their help that Bazil is able to sabotage thework of two rival arms dealers.The imagination of director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has allowed films suchas Amelie and A Very Long Engagement to resonate with audiences becauseof the considerable charm and visual flair with which they wereskilfully made. Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) is a bizarre andregularly hilarious film but the same quirkiness that worked sosuccessfully for Amelie is in overdrive here and it comes at theexpense of a fully developed narrative. The bulk of the film isdedicated towards Bazil interrupting the arms dealers, meaning thatmuch of the narrative is like a series of admittedly funny sketches.There is not a lot of logic to be found here as numerous scenes onlyexist for the sake of being odd. In one moment Bazil is shown watchingtwo sex workers performing. He then decides to hire them personally toperform in an open window so that they will distract a security guardthat Bazil needs to bypass. There are also a number of running gagsthroughout the film, such as billboards and posters for the movieitself shown in certain scenes, as well as an arms dealer who likes tocollect things from dead celebrities, such as Mussolini's eyeballs andWinston Churchill's nail clipper. This brand of humour carries the filma long way, perhaps more than it really deserves to. Beneath theweirdness is Jeunet's rather simplistic message to arms dealers, thatthey should be publicly shamed for the blood on their hands. To hiscredit, Jeunet is brave enough to attack the current French PresidentNicholas Sarkozy by showing a picture of him in the film shaking handswith an arms dealer, suggesting that he is accepting of weaponsmanufacturing.Given the wackiness and humour of most of the characters through thefilm, it is a shame that the plot does not inspire to do more withthem. The freaks really only seem to exist in the movie for the sake oftheir eccentricities and do not develop by themselves or with eachother in any particularly significant way at all. They are very muchlike the French equivalent of the group from Oceans 11, each with theirown set of skills or quirks for the heist. Despite the limitations ofhis dialogue, Boon is a joy as Bazil because he is extremely adept atthe physical comedy, able to pull all kinds of funny faces and performmime acts too. In one of the film's cleverest gags, he stands on oneside of a pillar as a woman sings on the other and he mimes, pretendingto use her voice to earn some money. Yet regardless of the hilarity oflittle moments like this, it is still disappointing that the charactersare constricted to just being weird or odd for the sake of certainscenes.It is mostly because of Boon's performance that Micmacs, for much ofits duration, is a wildly funny film. Yet given the transparency ofJeunet's antagonism towards arms dealers and the extremely thin plot,this is a highly watchable but slightly disappointing effort. Thecharacters are limited to being odd, simply so that they can beinterspersed into these crazy sequences, whether they make sense ornot. It is because of this that Bazil's adventure is certainly not assatisfying or as completely fulfilling as some might be expecting fromthis director.

valleyjohn (2012-05-08 05:51)

A cross between Mr Bean and Marcel Marceau.

The French are not renowned for their comedy films and if Micmacs isanything to go by they still have a little way to go but this movie isnot terrible , in fact at times , it's quite good. Danny Boon is a bitlike a cross between Mr Bean and Marcel Marceau. His performance reliesa lot on mime and facial expressions and he is certainly an interestingactor. The story starts of very promisingly. Bazil accidentallystumbles across the people who were responsible for making the minethat killed his father and maker of the bullet that remains lodged inhis own head. The problem is the revenge process gets a little bitsilly and slapstick. The characters are interesting but i couldn't helpbut feel i was watching a children's movie , despite a few adultscenes. I would have much preferred if this had been a bit moregrittier. This isn't a film i can particularly recommend unless your afan of French films or you like this genre.

(2012-04-29 21:30)

Micmacs takes unrealism to the absurd and preposterous

this is simply everything I want in a movie. It's charming, it's whimsical, it's a win for the good guys, it's creating a family out of unrelated, odd people that works (much better than most families that are related work,) it's lovely - I felt good when I left the theater and this is the one movie from this year that I'm buying.Don't get me wrong, I loved "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Girl Who Played With Fire" - outstanding movies in every possible way - but I'm not going to buy them and watch them again. So, this is not a review by someone who has to have cute and sweet in her movies. But it is a review by a real movie buff, and a movie buff who has some standards - as in, if you can't entertain me, I won't watch your movie! Mic Mac's entertained, it entranced, and at the end I left feeling that the world is a place where decent, caring relationships can happen, and that sometimes, just sometimes, the bad guys get theirs. That's a perfectly reasonable, even desirable, way to leave the theater. I refuse to accept that a requirement for a good movie is that it is full of sturm und drang - that's just baloney sixties thinking - and also "I'm too cool to like fun stuff that isn't obscene and/or stupid or both" thinking. As an adult I find that it's very difficult to find movies to enjoy. Usually movie makers can't find their way through the maze of amusing - bosoms and bottoms - or blowing up something every 10 minutes. This movie maker can make a movie. I am grateful whenever I find one who can. I strongly recommend it.

paulrhopkins (2012-04-29 12:17)

An entertaining evening at the Cinema

A film that I throughly enjoyed. To name 2 -slapstick and mime-itcovered many elements in film making. Easy on the eye and althoughthere was a message, the film succeeded in laughing at itself. Withregard to getting a message across, perhaps Michael Moore could learnsomething.It has a fantastic cast. None I am that famililar with, but who cares,they all played their parts with enthusiasm. As for the scenes, they where quite clever and although the endsequence flying out of Paris is something to behold that is only one ofmany interesting moments.

dbborroughs (2012-04-29 09:23)

Sweet

This is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's tale of a man and his adopted family ofcrazies (the director described them as a version of Snow White and theSeven Dwarfs at a Tribeca film festival Q&A) who take on the themunition companies that were responsible for the mine that killed hisfather and bullet that is in his head. Its a sweet little film thatrambles around for about two hours before having a more or less happilyever after ending. I enjoyed the film a great deal (I enjoyed listeningto the director speak before and after the film more), however the filmnever builds to any sort of grand conclusion. Sure the ending is happy,but it kind of leaves you wondering if thats it. I know I, and severalpeople around me at the Tribeca film festival were wondering why Jeunetlikes to watch the last 10 minutes with audiences since it didn'tprovoke much of anything, no laughs, no applause just a sense of thatsnice. Don't get me wrong, its worth seeing with wonderful characters, afew great set pieces and lots of in jokes (there are bill boards forthe film in the film), its just more a diversion than anything else.

elan4444 (2012-04-28 20:14)

Fabulous, amazingly clever

This is a very ingenious movie! Micmacs keeps up a rapid pace of unfolding action which leads to a well-thought-out conclusion, not too sappy and not too serious. There's an underlying message delivered with the humor, and this won't be Pres. Sarkozy's favorite film! Go to see this film! Jeunet imbues the film with a wonderful sense of human resilience.

UncleTantra (2012-04-27 21:47)

Micmac, paddywack, give the man an award

Here's the plot: as a kid, this guy's father was killed in North Africaby a landmine made by one armaments manufacturer. His poor widowedmother tries her best to raise him, and does, but in relative poverty.Then, as a young man, he is shot in the head with a bullet made byanother armaments manufacturer. Recovering, and living on the streetsas a result of carrying the bullet around with him in his brain, readyto kill him at any minute, in a moment of seeming realization hedecides that his purpose in this possibly-short life is to take REVENGEon these armaments manufacturers, and in so doing put an end to thembeing able to supply weapons of war forever.You can visualize the plot in your head. After all, you've seenvariants of this "angry vigilante takes matters into his own hands andexacts justice" on screen a hundred times. OK, maybe a couple of dozentimes. In the in-your-head version, you were probably expecting someonelike Steven Seagall or Sylvester Stallone playing the young man, ifthey hadn't gotten so old and fat and all, and if their box officeappeal hadn't tanked. You're probably imagining all the gloriousmayhem, death, and carnage -- with lots of explosions thrown in, ofcourse, because it's about arms dealers, after all.Now imagine this plot written and filmed by the guy who made "Amélie"and "Delicatessen" and "The City Of Lost Children." As a kind of quirkysurrealist comedy. That's "Micmacs à tire-larigot," by Jean-PierreJeunet, released in the US as "Micmacs." Because it's a Jeunet film,and his films pretty much define "ensemble casts," he has rounded upthe usual suspects, and supplemented them with Danny Boon in the leadand André Dussollier as one of the arms dealers. Because it's a Jeunetfilm, expect amazing but subtle visuals. "Amélie," after all, was themost CGI-maniuplated film in history when it was released. There washardly a single frame that had not had its colors changed and otherthings done to it to put on screen the vision Jeunet saw in *his* head.My bet is that "Micmacs" beats "Amélie's" record.And it's a hoot. In a quirky, French way, that is. Danny Boon istremendous, aided in his plot by an incredibly sweet group of misfitsand a lot of recycled junk. Not to be missed if you're a fan ofJeunet's work.

Sheikh_Kamal_El_Voldemort (2012-04-27 15:17)

Unlike the Other Reviewers, I am Not a Studio Plant.

Wide-angle shot of trees on a horizon, from a distance; our maincharacters enter on the right of the horizon and walk, slowly acrossthe horizon. 2 minutes later they leave the far left of the horizon.Granted the trees and horizon are all very autumnal and stormy.If this sounds like the recipe for a deep experience, then this thefilm for you.If this sounds like some tosser arty director accomplishing hispersonal dream, at the expense of your Saturday night, then don't touchthis film with a bargepole.Personally, I fall on the second side of this fence.Happily tho, you can fast forward these scenes, and the little fellasskip across the horizons, roads, beaches and battlefields, in a muchmore enjoyable manner. And the whole turgid, navel gazing nonsense isover in about 20mins; leaving plenty of time to watch Starsky and Hutchagain.

writers_reign (2012-04-24 21:59)

Arms And The Mantra

Clearly not everyone's dish of the'. Apart from myself and companionthe multiplex screening - on a Saturday - was empty. Depending on yourtaste/point of view the selling points will be the stellar cast -Yolande Moreau, Dominic Pinon, Andre Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle,Danny Boon - or director (and co-writer) Jeunet. The latter will findMicMacs closer in overall feel to Delicatessen and especially City OfLost Children than Amelie and A Very Long Engagement. This is a Jeunetwith a serious point to make albeit he opts for satire rather than outand out drama to do so. The target is arms-dealing and many peoplewould agree it is a trade that can stand attacking. The David who takeson not one but two Goliaths is Danny Boon, an innocent victim twiceover and he is abetted by a rag-bag of eccentrics who live outsidesociety and live by scavenging. It's a movie of images and wackyperformances and if that's for you then so is this.

(2012-04-24 10:29)

Think Charley Chaplain goes to City Of Lost Children

One of the most charming and funniest films in recent years. for lovers of whimsy of all ages. Poop on realism, relax and go with the flow and hoot with delight. Be prepared to fall in love with this cast of characters...you deserve something that feels this good!