Atomik Circus - Le retour de James Bataille

Atomik Circus is a crazy mix of comedy, musical, sci-fi and horror which, despite some great effects and a good deal of imagination, ultimately fails due to a poorly developed script and some bad pacing. The movie takes so long in introducing its offbeat characters that an hour passes before anything very interesting happens; by then, there isn't enough time left to develop a decent plot or even fit in a satisfying ending.

Jason Flemyng play James Battle, a stuntman who is jailed when a disastrous motorcycle jump results in the destruction of the Sam Paradiso bar, owned by Bosco, influential citizen of Skotlett, a backwater town inhabited mostly by weirdos—but also by Concia (Vanessa Paradis), Bosco's daughter and girlfriend of James.

Enter sleazy impresario Alan Chiasse (Benoit Poelvoorde) who pretends to be interested in promoting Concia's musical career, but who is really only interested in getting into her pants. As Alan is trying his best to seduce Concia, James is doing his utmost to reach his woman, having busted out of prison.

When James finally arrives at Skotlett, he not only finds his girl being pawed at by sleaze-bag Alan, but he also discovers that the town is under attack from face sucking tentacled creatures from another dimension.

The film only really gets going at this point, and it is here that we witness some great CGI monsters and lashings of gore, as the Lovecraftian beasts dismember and decapitate the helpless inhabitants of Skotlett. If the first 60 minutes had contained some of this crazy OTT action, I would have no hesitation in recommending Atomik Circus to fans of bizarre cinema; however, no amount of gore in the closing moments can make up for the tedious and disjointed first hour.

And the ending is just downright bizarre....

Well the only problem of this movie is the marketing campaign, it has been sold as the latest comedy in town, and it is one of the first gore Z-rated movie in a very long time.

Compare it to Bad Taste, any horror flick from the 50's, or eventually to a Troma movie (there is nothing like lesbian-vampire-sex scene in this one). If you like those things, you'll agree that while this movie does not renew the genre and is only a sort of modern version of those oldies, we haven't seen this kind of things since the mid-eighties.

Amazing that someone financed this stuff in 2004 (but rumors say that producers signed the contract based on the actors and did not read the first drafts...)

10/10 !

An underground French treat. A stuntman is imprisoned for accidental destruction of his fiancée's father's bar. He escapes and searches desperately for his sweetheart. A couple of things get in his way. For a start starfish-like creatures decapitate drunk revellers and face-sucking aliens abound.

This was a trip! A french take on Bayou hospitality and fight for survival had me reeling hysterically whilst the leads had me enraptured. James Fleyming speaking french like a pro! Vanessa Paradis acting naturally and singing cool tunes that created a frenetic ambiance. The jambalayic melting pot of film genres was superb.

Energetic and frequently mind-blowing excursion into manic cinema, this is a thoroughly enjoyable cross-genre science fiction tale – starts out as a love story between a backwoods wannabe rock starlet Concia (Vanessa Paradis, who has a face worth staring at for decades - damn you Johnny Depp!!) and a down-on-his-luck motorcycle stunt performer James (Brit actor Jason Flemyng); but her dad (respected French actor Jean-Pierre Marielle; aka the murdered professor from DA VINCI CODE) frames him for an accident and he goes to jail; but he escapes to try and be reunited with her. Meanwhile, face-sucking aliens land and begin decimating the populace, while in James' absence a chauvinistic entrepreneur claiming to be big in the music business tries to woo Concia with promises of stardom, while all manner of strange and warped townspeople have various activities and agendas of their own. It all explodes into an immense action climax. Filmed with hyper energy, most of its low budget spent on pretty convincing CGI effects for the aliens (I mean, they even have a mechanical dog instead of a real dog!), it's a thoroughly wonderful cinematic insanity, with something astonishing, humorous, disturbing, or very appealing at every turn.

That's a lot of halves! This is just your average sci-fi/musical/comedy/gore/action French film! A very bizarre mix of different things that doesn't completely gel but has some interesting moments. Jason Flyming and Vanessa Paradis (that's Mrs. Johnny Depp to you) star as two lovers who are being kept apart by a angry father in a dusty small town that is getting ready to run their annual talent show competition. Then aliens attack. You can tell the directors were trying to go for that "all out" approach like a Peter Jackson flick, but they never fully succeed. The singing dog is nice though. Benoît Poelvoorde (the hit-man from MAN BITES DOG) co-stars as a sleazy talent agent and perhaps gives the best performance.