Double Zéro

I never intended to watch this movie. I went to the mall, but as traffic was very high, I was late. So, the only tickets that I could get where these.

As the movie started, I was beginning to think that I had made a mistake. It looked like a trivial/boring "James Bond"-style movie. But after watching further, I changed my opinion.

I think this movie achieved its aim. It is very funny (in a "French" way, I'm thinking here at "Taxi" and "Tais-toi!") showing how meaningless a lot of "James Bond" style movies are. Even if the action was somehow silly (sometimes even a lot exaggerated), it represented a "comic" look of the "007" movies.

All in all, the movie is a great parody and I really recommend it to anybody who has a strong sense of humor. Whoever loved "Taxi", "Tais-to!" or Louis de Funes movies, will love this one too.

"Double Zero" tells the story of two secret agents, played by the French comedians Eric and Ramzy, who are sent on a mission basically because they are expendable, but of course, they manage to fight heroically against the bad guys, more by chaos than strategy though. The villain is called Le Male, a joke lost in translation because in French it means "male" as well as "evil", and with all the pretty ladies around, the double meaning is important.

The question is: do we really need another James Bond parody after Leslie Nielsen's Naked Gun, Johnny English and Austin Powers? Maybe not, but "Double Zero" is better than I expected and has a couple of funny ideas along the way. I liked the character of d'Auckland, a "sleeper" who is reactivated and eager to prove he can still be a great agent. And the rabbit was brilliant! So, it was okay to rent once.

I'm a big fan of Eric and Ramzy but I can't believe I've spent money on a ticket for this movie. In fact, I'm afraid I've paid twice for this piece of junk: once when I've bought a ticket and once as a taxpayer: I wouldn't be surprised if public fundings to support french art (doh!) were granted to produce it.

Poor jokes, gross humor, I might have smiled once during the whole film. Most expensive smile in my life. If I could set a mark lower than 1, I would have gladly done it.

Don't waste your time watching this movie, buy a copy of "La tour montparnasse infernale" instead !

Eric & Ramzy are usually good in comedy shows in theater and TV, but when it comes to this movie, it's a complete failure, not unlike their previous project La Tour Montparnasse Infernale. Austin-powers wannabe attempt, this movie completely lacks humor and is full of bad, very bad jokes. I don't know what M. Pires had in mind when he shot this flick, but such comedies have already been done in the past, more successfully. Unfortunately for M. Pires, the jokes are difficult to get for foreigners, but not only for them, as even for a French person it is hard to find moments that can be enjoyed and lead the audience to laugh. If you wanna see a good movie in this vein, better watch the Austin Powers series or even Leslie Nielsen films than wasting any time with this clone.

Nope... Not funny enough (a few interesting puns but mostly blend and uninteresting dialogues), not fluent enough (why the horribly approximate dubbing of English-speaking actors "They are clean" --> "Eel son clean" and the added dialogues "Casse-moi la gueule").

On the other hand, a few too many Femmes Fatales ("Raisin, crachoir, lance-roquette") and very misogynistic and homophobic jokes ("Raisin, crachoir, lance-roquette"), possibly second degree but not clearly enough...

Le Male is bad enough and a long way from Asterix.

In a nutshell: Either watch Don't Die Too Hard! (La tour Montparnasse infernale) 2001 or Johnny English (2003).