(2012-04-22 10:15:10)

The Latest Favorite

This review is from: Micmacs (DVD) I have been a fan of the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet since I first saw "Delicatessen" and "City of Lost Children" years ago. I confess I fail to understand what his detractors find to hold against his work. "Micmacs" did little business in American theaters. It played so briefly in my town that I missed it entirely and had to wait for the DVD release to see it at all. I rented it, and was delighted with its wacky inventiveness, and the great detail work which I associate with Jeunet. I bought it at once.

dbborroughs

(2012-04-22 00:26:32)

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.

(2012-04-11 21:42:06)

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.

(2012-04-11 11:13:18)

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.

Sheikh_Kamal_El_Voldemort

(2012-04-10 19:11:05)

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.

tedg

(2012-04-10 04:32:39)

A Very Short Engagement Span

This is so very frustrating. Here we have a genius at cinematic space,a gentle, quirky imagination and the skill to know how to start astory. He has made one of the most essential films I know. But he justdoes not know how to actually tell a story. I mean the qualities wherewe are engaged, suspended. I mean where we are engrossed intransformations of different kinds and we feel something has happenedin us. I saw this close to "The Next Tree Days" and the contrast inengagement is startling.The man also has bad intuitions about the degree of moralizing we willtolerate. Perhaps this works in France; the French are a preachy lot.But Jeunet's films are made for an international audience. The poorstorytelling, the out-of-the-story moralizing and the distractingcontortionist kept me from liking this. But the opening is so extraordinary that I will recommend the filmbased on the first quarter. This is a swift, economical journey, onethat is rich and nuanced. It has all the folding baggage that seems essential today: our man hasa childhood that forces him to live in his imagination. We see him asan adult merged with films... he works in a video store and while heenters films, they enter him — literally enter his brain. What followsis a brief wandering through performances without a narrative until heenter's one of Jeunet's by now familiar metaphors for the subconscious.Here, objects, personalities, film devices and it seems even storyelements are recycled.It also has Jeunet's masterful environments and behaviors: includinghis best framing and lighting tricks. It is just hypnotizing. Theactors we meet engage us deeply, at least at first.See it for this first part.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

(2012-04-04 10:19:03)

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.

(2012-04-03 15:35:18)

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.

(2012-03-26 05:22:18)

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!

barnthebarn

(2012-03-25 09:30:57)

Visually grand, mentally transfixing

When you think of revenge movies you generally picture a guy with a guntaking a swift and direct action against everyone who has ever wrongedhim. Guns are a theme here but not because our lead character, Bazil,uses one to fight injustice but because two prominent French armsdealers are responsible for his predicament. Bazil's father was killedby a landmine and Bazil himself is unwittingly shot by a stray bulletduring a drive by shooting. Though he survives, the bullet remains inhis brain causing him regular discomfort and meaning that he might dieat any moment. This adds an underlying tension to the fairly subtlestory as Bazil, out of work with nowhere to live, finds comfort with agroup of fascinating sideshow style vagabonds who eventually become hisallies in his battle against the greed, murder and manipulation ofpowerful arms dealers. Aside from a truly riveting series of sly, witty and purposeful acts bythis band of revengers, the film is also striking in its beauty withevery scene presenting an intense array of colours fusing withincredibly intricate and detailed backdrops. These prevail particularlywith the 'sideshow' who recycle scrap in to wonderful creations freshfrom a fifties cartoon short. At one point Bazil sees a segment of anold cartoon where a character shoots another in the head. This depictsthe correlation between the real world here and an animatedfantasy-land with the epic and extremely clever revenge plan played outin much the same way that Sylvester chases Tweetie Pie or Wyle E.Coyotestalks Road Runner. The films only fault is that sometimes is all almost too imaginative,barely allowing the mind to recollect what has happened before twentyor so other things occur, each steeped in a tranquil haze teasing theviewer's eyes like a mirrored tunnel encompassing a silent disco.Wonderfully indulgent movie, a treat for the eyes, ears, nose and mind.

musicfreeek

(2012-03-18 23:46:09)

Extraordinary movie with totally crazy ideas

I can really recommend this movie to all people who like fantasticstory lines and ideas like you might know them from Terry Gillamsmovies. Micmacs has tons of very unusual ideas, surprising actions andquirky fantasies. It also features many strong, funny characters withdifferent habits and styles. And it is a comedy about a very sad topic,which I think is the greatest art about this movie. Moveover it hassome nice ideas about presentation, cutting and effects and it comeswith a nice, slight score. If you like the movies of Terry Gilliam, youmight also like this movie here. And by the way: It is in the typicalstyle of this director.

Lee Eisenberg

(2012-03-18 09:44:50)

arms and dangerously cool

Jean-Pierre Jeunet previously spun tales of the bizarre in"Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children" before going mainstreamwith "Amelie" and "A Very Long Engagement" (he also directed "Alien:Resurrection", but that's a different story). He returns to the bizarreand adds a geopolitical twist with "Micmacs ГѓВ  tire-larigot" (simply"Micmacs" in English). Dany Boon plays a man who moves in with a groupof misfits and then goes on a quest to get revenge on the weaponsmanufacturers whose products killed his father and then left a bulletlodged in his head. His new friends each have talents that help hisscheme at various stages.This movie has the same sort of feel as "Inglourious Basterds" in thesense of going after those who have caused death and destruction,almost to the extent that the scheme might come across as a terroristplot, as if to induce an orgasm. And I love it! Literally every scenehas something new and clever. It is quite simply a fun movie, and onewith a political theme at that. Definitely one that I would recommendfor an Oscar. Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon plays Fracasse, who spendshis life trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records.PS: the French title means "non-stop shenanigans"

manish rathore

(2012-03-18 16:01:36)

this movie is not among his best but a must watch for Jean Pierre Junette fan..

After a long interval of six years,Jean Pearre Jeunet has brought ushis new movie Micmac which is embellished with his as usual weirdlyinventive imagination of real world, his trademark visual style whichmakes his movie adorably beautiful and the melodious soundtrack.Micmacs is a story about a orphan basil who has a bullet in his headand the reason for him being a orphan and bullet in his head is the twoweapon manufacturer companies which are run by very vicious and immoralpeoples.The story is about vengeance of Basil from this two companieswho had destroyed his life and in his revenge which turned out for meto be one of the most clever,wild and comic revenge plan,i have everseen in a movie,he is accompanied by his underdog friends who areproficient in their own unique qualities and live together in a cavelike home,repair second-hand household equipments.The movie isbasically a satire on the weapon manufacturer companies who do illegalarm dealings just to make more profits and are responsible for millionsof death and casualties over the whole world.But instead of beingthought-provoking and efficacious the movie sticks to its style all thetime which makes it emotionally less involving for the audience butvery funny and comic ride.The movie had lots of funny and wild momentsthat kept me entertained all the time.All the characters were strange and weird but very lovable that canonly be emerged from the mind of Jean Pierre Junette.The sober andinnocent character of Basil(David Boon) had the striking resemblance toCharlie Chaplin.a contortionist girl(Anna Ferrie) who is as flexible aselastic and also the love interest of basil.a calculator girl(MarieJulie Baup) who has exceptional ability to calculate anything.Tiny Pete(Michel Cremades) is an artist with a shy and cheerful facewho can convert a junk into useful things.Tambouille(Yolande Moreau) isthe leader of the family.We cannot imagine a Jean Pierre movie withoutDominique Pinon in it and he was amazing as always in the very funnyrole of francaisse,a human-cannonball.Cinematography was stunning,the exquisite use of colors made the movievery easy and beautiful to watch.the art direction in the movie wasalso splendid which makes the movie visually attractive. The weakness of the movie was its dialogues which were not touching andstriking but remained funny all the time.More emphasis should be givento plot development,instead of relying completely on style and visuals.Jean Pierre Junette is one of my favorite director and i always enjoyedhis work.The best thing about the Junette's work is that even if hismovie is based on real and present world,it never seemed like one.Likehis other works,Micmacs is also full of weird and strange imagination,but this time it was lesser surrealistic and more realistic .However,Micmacs is not among his best creation,movie remained comic and funnyall the time without any striking quality in it but movie surely isenjoyable and entertaining and worth a watch from everyone who lovesJean Pierre Junette movies and his world of beautiful and strangeimagination.

(2012-03-17 23:10:33)

new opus of jeunet

I just like the universe of jeunet, so funny - and the blu ray is really terrific on picture quality

paulrhopkins

(2012-03-11 05:06:36)

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.

akkoziol

(2012-03-10 21:05:45)

Jeunet delivers in spades! Fans of Delicatessen will love this!

When I first caught Delicatessen at an indie theater back in the early90s, I was in love with Jeunet's style, stories, and charactercrafting. In A Very Long Engagement, we saw a departure from the usualJeunet we knew and loved but in Micmacs we have a return to the veryrich character assortment and outrageous scenes we're used to seeing inmovies like Delicatessen, Amelie, and City of Lost Children. I willrefrain from calling the characters quirky since I think Jeunet cringesevery time he hears it. I know I do. I will say that he makes ALL thecharacters surrounding the main character hyper developed but not in anunrealistic, annoying, or unbelievable way: Think the Scaphandrier inCity of Lost Children or The Glass Man in Amelie. They're not quirky somuch as they hyper-unique and have an interesting back story that lendswell to the overall feel of the film.So the premise in a nutshell is Bazil's dad gets blown up by a minemade by an arms maker when he's a little boy. Later, as an adult, he islater accidentally shot in the head and finds that the bullet casing isby a competing arms maker. With the bullet lodged in his brain and itcould cause him to die at any moment, he decides to seek revenge forhis fathers death....but not without the help of the "Micmacs of theSlide Whistle." The Micmacs are an adopted "family" who, with mamaTambouille (played wonderfully by Yolande Moreau from Amelie), liveunder an underpass in a cobbled-together "recycled" home and eachperson has their own unique talents in the vein of an A-Team meets theThree Stooges mash-up. Similar to the rag-tag bunch in Delicatessen,the Micmacs volunteer themselves to help Bazil bring down both armscompanies.As others have said, the ending of the movie is just great beyond wordsand will have you laughing your butt off and rooting for the Micmacs.The plot develops a bit slower than some of Jeunet's other funnierfilms but take it in stride as I feel Jeunet is not trying to hype orcreate unrealistic expectations for you with Micmacs. Watch thetheaters this coming June for the American debut of this great film.You will not be disappointed. Bravo Jeunet.

(2012-03-08 04:22:13)

Micmacs

This review is from: Micmacs [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) Funny movie...I had misordered the Blu-Ray version, so this particular DVD was returned, but reordered the strictly DVD version and loved it. Saw it on Starz first, then wanted a copy for our own pleasure.

perkypops

(2012-03-07 15:12:09)

A wonderful piece of cinema, brilliantly done

The opening sequence of back story and plot setting is a work of art inhow to begin a good film. Get your audience involved and the rest, asthey say, is just a question of how you keep them involved. This filmcould have been made anywhere but because it is French it is done withsuch finesse. There are so many moments of sheer brilliance, incharacterisation, observation, humour, and sheer good fun, it isdifficult to pick out my favourite moment, and, as I don't want tospoil the story I am not going to try. I will simply suggest thatanyone who likes the image of underdogs battling against over-dogs willenjoy this so much they will, like me, see it all over again.Forget the subtitles they simply do not get in the way of anything, andinstead just revel in a film with bucket loads of charm, brilliance,brightness, energy, and all the vim of a freshly opened bottle of bestchampagne.Wholeheartedly recommended with a thoroughly deserved maximum score.

ruiresende84

(2012-03-06 01:03:59)

cannon ball seduction.

Whatever Jeunet and his team does, i'll want to see. The guy has aunique set of talents that few or no other filmmaker living has. He possesses a unique imagination, which invests and builds each of thecinematic worlds he proposes. Those worlds are quirky, always bizarre,like a Victorian freak show, but where you identify with the freak.This is invested into the characters, and their actions. Here it isalso applied to the physical world. The refuge of out team of odd superheroes is a set you can clearly understand Jeunet spent a lot of timeon. You approach it from the exterior as a mere texture of garbage andundefined objects. Inside it's much bigger than what it looks from theoutside, and it seduces. The tricks, the retro gadgets of the inventor.All great. A great sense of space. Spatiality. People in the space.Action where you entangle the camera, the space, and the actor in themiddle of them. Jeunet is great at this.The theme doesn't matter. It's an ordinary story about some cartoon badguys been taught a lesson by the pure hearted handicapped guys. There'san implicit simple moral lesson (guns are bad, peace is great). We'veseen it, with more or less variations, on hundreds of other films.That's a pity. Not because now we have another film like that. I mean,this one is better than most, more cinematic, better executed, withsome really great things to it. But this is Jeunet, the fact that hetook vacations and gave us this, means that we lost a new grandachievement like we know he can give us. Or maybe he does theSoderbergh thing, and uses the commercial success of this one to raisemoney for a good one. But i think even his good films always raisedenough money to justify the next one. So this film serves no purpose.It's still great as a time filler. I wish every Sunday afternoon filmwas like this. But there's nothing more to it. And it could have.My opinion: 4/5http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

purrrpuss

(2012-03-05 18:43:52)

Fantasy revenge story

With a story arc very similar to the director's earlier film 'Amelie',Micmacs is a tour de force in fantasy made real. There's heaps ofcharm, plenty of improbable scenarios and a cast of colourfulcharacters. Perfect for a rainy day diversion. Surprisingly, this filmhas a serious message, one that is too serious even for documentariesto deal with successfully. I got the message and was thankful for it.Professional critics don't like it though because it appears to crossthe serious/comic genre definitions. This is a very clever andbeautifully filmed movie and one that I can imagine revisiting manytimes in the future. That makes it a classic for me. It has much depthdespite the glaring plot holes. I loved it.