Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Bazil (Dany Boon) is a child-like character who doesn’t have much luck with weapons. A mine killed his father and many years later, a bullet accidentally lodges in his brain and can not be removed. On release from hospital, he finds that he is without a job or a home. Fortunately he is taken in by a group of outsiders who live in a salvage yard and survive by reinventing other people’s rubbish. While collecting junk one day, Bazil notices two huge buildings across the road from each other with the logos of the weapon manufacturers who caused his hardships. He decides to take revenge and, with the help of his wacky friends, he manages to trick the chiefs of each weapons business to attack the other.
Although the premise of this highly imaginative French film is deadly serious, there aren’t actually many serious moments. What else would you expect from the director who created Delicatessen, Amelie and The City of Lost Children? Jean-Pierre Jeunet has created a magical Ali Baba’s cave and filled it with unique odd-ball characters, each with a speciality. Mama Chow (Yolande Moreau) looks after her adopted family: Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle) picks locks; Elastic Girl (Julie Ferrier) is a contortionist; Buster (Dominique Pinon) can shoot out of a cannon; Calculator (Marie-Julie Baup) counts everything; Tiny Pete (Michel Cremades) is the artist and Remington (Omar Sy) continually quotes proverbs.
It’s the good guys versus the bad guys – the marginal people living on the fringes of society against the big guns who make millions from selling weapons. While the comedy attacks weapon manufacturers, it is really only a subtext to the hilarious shenanigans that keep the audience entertained. Everything about this film is engaging – the actors, the set with all the inventive knickknacks and riotous antics.
Lezly Herbert
