Coupez !

Not normally too interested in remakes of films in other languages, but Artist director Hazanavicius being involved got me interested, and glad it did. There's a huge amount of fun to be had here - it is as much comedy as horror - with a great cast & director enjoying playing with the B movie concept of it all.

The opening chunk drops you right into the film being shot in a disused building, deliberately wrong-footing the viewer (also leaves you wondering why the French characters are all using Japanese names), only for the later two thirds of the film to show what we had been watching and put it all into context. It's a nice way to approach it and felt quite satisfying (to me, anyway). It may not be genius, but it is fun - make a good pizza night bit of viewing on a weekend.

One of those films where you soon realise and appreciate the 'one take' aspect but once the 'scene' had been completed, it really takes-off big time.

I couldn't stop laughing - giggles and the belly sort - when all is made clear. The only language I have is English (at a push) so the subtitles were imperative. All the actors threw themselves whole-heartedly into the mayhem with the initial commissioning to the rehearsals then the actual filming of the film all made glorious sense!

Goodness knows how long it took.

Getting passed the first 30mins turns into another movie entirely and the viewer is amply rewarded.

I saw this during a sneak preview, so I had no idea what this movie was about. It was lots of fun.

It starts off bad. Really bad. Like they tried to go for "so bad it's good" but then failed at that. If it weren't for the fact that I was sitting in the middle of a row with people on either side I would have just left.

But after half an hour, there's a change of pace, and yet another 'what am I watching' moment, but then it all starts making sense, and it becomes really funny and easy to watch.

I must admit that I did not have the greatest expectations for this because it is a remake of a Japanese film - One Cut of the Dead - so recent and with such quality. Still, in order not to have too many spare hours in my day, I decided to watch it. The story doesn't change much. A production team shoots a movie about zombies and then they start being attacked by zombies but... that's also part of the movie. Anyone who has seen the original knows that this ends up working well, being basically a comedy - with meaning and social messages included - about doing a lot with little in cinema. The film seeks to bring something new to the table, by using the original film, making it part of the same universe, which ends up encapsulating some of the novelties and more comical scenes of this remake, but still fails, as it replicates too many scenes that are not the film within the film, which ends up making little sense (for example, the director's motivations, his career, the various behind-the-scenes conversations...).

As in the original (which I loved much more on a rewatch), the first act is weird and doesn't work that well, but that's where the fun begins. The range of actors - which even includes the same actress playing the same character as in the original! - does an excellent job and it is clear that this is also a more expensive production than the Japanese one (which makes us wonder if it will go against the spirit of the original...?).

I confess that I don't quite understand why a renowned director - like Michel Hazanavicius - decides to make a remake of an acclaimed film that is only five years old. However, the truth is that Final Cut is quite funny. I would say just as or even funnier than the original. It is, even so - and despite trying some innovation by incorporating the first film into its universe - too close to the original in 80% of the scenes, so the advantage has to be given to the film that gave us something innovative.

This could have been quite a funny spoof on all things zombie, if only it were just twenty minutes or so shorter! It all centres around a production team making a (very) cheap and cheerful film full of fake limbs, tomato ketchup and singularly bad acting. Acting rivalries and romantic affairs are causing director "Rémi" (Romain Duris) no end of problems as the money and time start running out. Just when things look like they could get little worse, it appears that they have managed to awaken a few "real" zombies and so things become seriously perilous (and messy) for all concerned. The latter part of the movie seems to have two functions - to explain just why the first half hour was so terrible and to then suggest that with some Japanese creative intervention - they all take on Japanese names and get some of their funding - the film gets magically better. Sadly, it labours that joke just once too often. The parody elements run out of steam and it becomes rather a puerile and unfunny slapstick-style enterprise with some bad actors portraying other truly bad actors. The last ten minutes of continuous filming of their filming of the fight against the axe-wielding undead is still quite funny, but by then I was starting to shift in my chair. It does have it's funny moments - but just nowhere near enough of them.