Asterix & Obelix al servizio di Sua Maestà

There's no point in watching this movie with subtitles. If you don't speak French, you'll miss most of the humor, which consists of bringing together most of the big names in contemporary French cinema and having them speak French with excruciating English accents. The movie is a send-up of the English and their culture, as the French see it - in caricature form.

Other than that, there are a few endearing moments, such as when Obelix falls in love with Miss MacIntosh.

Fabrice Luchini is good as a spiteful Julius Caesar. Depardieu makes Obelix charming, as always.

It's interesting to compare Deneuve's caricature of Queen Elizabeth II here with the somewhat more nuanced one in Palais Royal.

Unexceptional, but pleasant.

This is a very cute adaptation (with updates) of the classic Asterix comics. The version I had only had French audio with subtitles available in English. This wasn't a problem, as one of the running gags of the film is that French actors playing English characters (most notably the impossibly elegant Catherine Deneuve) speak with their French with horrible English accents. The prize for best/worst Frenglish goes to Charlotte Le Bon, who sounds like she's flunking her first semester of French. The jokes are generally cute-but-harmless, notably the 5:00 hot water break that defines life in England at the time of Caesar. There are references to Star Wars and A Clockwork Orange that don't appear in the 1966 source material, and an Indian character who might strike a contemporary audience as uncomfortable. Still, of all the live-action Asterix films, this one seems to best capture the spirit and absurdity of the comics. Very sweet, very fun, and well worth catching on video.

Loved every minute of it, but then again I have loved the comic books since a young boy. Those sneaky Romans only fighting after 5 o clock.

I loved the ribbing the Gauls and British give each other and the tongue in cheek jokes highlighting the differences (well before Allo Allo did them).

This is live action and not a cartoon. The only downside is that there is only English subtitles, which vexes me sorely ! The first few Asterix live action ones were dubbed in English, so why not the one about England for us English fans?

The fourth film adaptation of the famous Asterix comic books is the best one so far. Entertaining and even witty at points, instead of boring and crude like the previous films, the movie is based (quite faithfully) on the 1966 album Asterix in Britain (one of the best of the series), with some bits from Asterix and the Normans. Asterix and Obelix help the Britons resist a Roman invasion by Julius Caesar (in the real history, Julius Caesar made a punitive expedition to Britain in 55 BC; Britain would only fall under Roman rule in 43 AD under emperor Claudius). A lot of the comic situations are based (like in the original albums) on national stereotypes, on how the French and the Englishmen see each other. There is also some mildly risqué humor here (with a Briton initially believing Asterix and Obelix to be a gay couple). Edouard Baer is Asterix. Gerard Depardieu is Obelix (he's fine, and by now, it's difficult to think any other actor playing that role).The veteran Catherine Deneuve has a cameo as the queen of the Britons. Fabrice Luchini is Julius Caesar. Production values are acceptable.

This is not the best of the Asterix series (my favourite is still Asterix & Cleopatra) but it is still quite good and certainly deserves more than an average of 5.3...

Perhaps many viewers failed to see the humour in laughing at themselves.

I thought the film was great fun and so full of funny details that it merits a second viewing to catch all the quick jokes in the background, the signs, etc.

It's certainly much better than the latest Hollywood "comedy" productions that resort to gross depictions of bodily fluids as an inept attempt at humour.

My only reason for not giving this 10 stars is that I don't like the actor portraying Asterix as much as the one who did the first films in the series; I don't find him as entertaining as the original. Still, that didn't stop me from laughing out loud many times through the story.