The first and only time I saw this film I was naively expecting something on the "comic duo" lines oft employed by Francis Veber in such films as "La Chèvre", "Tais-toi", "Les Fugitifs" to name but a few. I was soon to be disappointed as this is only a pale imitation of the preceding. The plot was over zany and far-fetched, and the behaviour of the characters was so stupid as to be annoying ! There was also over-use of special effects ( useless in a film of this kind ) and to boot the whole picture "looked" over-synthetic without natural colours and over dominance of blue and yellow hues. The other thing was that I didn't find the actors funny at all. That this film, in spite of its numerous failings, had a reasonable success at the box office only goes to show that present-day humour in France is slowly descending towards prehistoric levels of vulgarity, unsubtleness and crudity. This film is therefore destined to an audience with very basic and limited humoral appreciation. Thank God we have the older films and the Vebers to remind us that good, clean, witty and intelligent humour did exist in the past.
Review of Dead Weight
