Asterix bei den Olympischen Spielen

I used to read the adventures of Asterix when I was younger, and I was always delighted. But, watching this movie made me think differently: has the little 'Gaullois' village given up? the movie seems only made to guarantee commercial success: many famous people (many of whom are known only in France, plus some guest stars), special effects, big marketing, etc... But, in the end, the jokes are not very good, the special effects are sometime ridiculous, the plot is far fetched and the frequent appearance of guest stars doesn't manage to fill this rather empty movie (in fact, it ended getting on my nerves).

I don't know if children will find this movie funny, but it's really difficult for anybody without 'laughing potion' to take real pleasure here. Too bad for Benoit Poolevoerde, who has done his best to save the Titanicus!

The movie has some very good parts, but unfortunately, it has more boring parts. It's big, and it made me wanna fall asleep a lot of times.. If they had cut all he stupid, with no reason, long parts, this would have been a great movie. I know that ASTERIX had always been a great comic. And it's a good reason to made me wanna see the movie. I expected something better for the movie, and so will you. The actors who play Astérix and Panroamix(druid) are different from the last two Astérix movies, and they are terrible. The don't feel like the original Astérix actors, but more like some random actors they picked up, and dressed in the right clothes. The humor is boring, because it's the same stupid "funny" thing all the time. It was pretty funny when Numérobis acted stupid at "Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre", but at this movie it's not.

Of course I was expecting celebrity cameos, but I hopped the movie won't stand only on this. Unfortunately it does it.

At each minute a celebrity face arrives, (french and European celebrities of course) makes a reference and gets out. What about ASTERIX himself ? Well, he's also making a "cameo" since he is not the main character of this movie. And the worst stands at the end of the movie (when the story is finished) when a bunch of sport's stars arrived to show themselves without having nothing to do in the spot line. Sort of "we didn't have time to put you in the story, but you will appear at the end, to increase our credits"...

The good points : The special effects and the set decoration are really great. We understand this picture costs the price of a "STARWARS". Too bad to have spent so much for a tiny joke...

"THE MOST EXPENSIVE FRENCH MOVIE OF ALL TIME !".

What a pride ! :)

This is my first encounter with M. Depardieu as Obelix. I wasn't expecting much: French cinema has a habit on making poor nepotistic films on a regular basis (i.e. members of the typical film family keep scratching each other's back in circles...)

Asterix is both a French institution that has always been written to be understood at several levels by different age groups. The film is good in the sense that it doesn't try to replicate the book, it expands on it but still tries to capture this multi=layered humour. It's not always subtle but it works. A few examples:

• Alain Delon makes an impressive comeback while sending himself up and referencing the films that made his past glory

• Depardieu re-enacts scenes from his marvellous Cyrano, using virtually the same shots and lighting almost 20 years on

• The modernised Ben Hur chariot race is absolutely right for today's audience and manages to capture the spirit of the book while being much more sophisticated.

• The multiple cameos are very funny, especially if you can pick up some of the French dialogues. Others will simply be impressed by who appears on screen...

I also found that the special effects were used to carry humour and a cartoon-like spirit as opposed to being grandiose.

In summary 'The Third Man it ain't, but as thoroughly entertaining family film for all ages, it just works.

The first one looked good but just could not get the humor right. The second one was quite good; close to the sense of humor of Gosciny (and Uderzo as well). So I was hoping for something good. Now the third one is kind of terrible. The visuals are okay (yes you see the CGI but it's not a problem in a funny movie based on comics) but almost everything else... The humor is worse than in the first one, the movie is just too long, the cameo-filled last ten minutes seem to be shot only for the end credits (they just don't make sense in the movie) but somebody must have thought they are funny enough for the movie - they are not. There are strange parts meant to be funny (e.g. the laser sword you could see in the advertisements - if they had to include a star wars joke again then why not make it at least a bit funny?), even the time between intended (forced and overplayed) gags is too long. Alain Delon is moderately funny as Caesar but his part is also overplayed, overly long. The new actor playing Asterix is a, as high as Obelix... b, never as funny/witty-looking as Christian Clavier. So what could go wrong did go wrong with this movie; maybe children will enjoy it but probably it will be too long for them as well.