Bons baisers de Hong-Kong

Among all the poor Charlots movies which were made in the seventies ," Bons Baisers de Hong Kong" is a notch or two above the usual level (which is close to zero,mind you).

It's somewhat better than the "Bidasses" coarse comedies which were probably the nadir of the French cinema of the era.

"Bons Baisers de Hong Kong" was made by Yvan Chiffre ,a stunt man.The film possesses a sense of space and an accelerated tempo helps.

It was intended as a spoof on James Bond flicks ("From Russia with love" French title is "Bons Baisers de Russie" ) complete with M. and Miss Moneypenny who appear in the flesh .As does queen Elizabeth II:but it's only a look-alike!

I grew up with French cinema and comedy. One of the main things to understand about French films is that you truly can't translate them. Most of the humor is in the language and the nuance in the words chosen. Movies like "La Chèvre" and "Les Compères" got remade in the US, but lost all the finesse of their humor in the English slapstick execution.

That said, this film is nothing like that. Honestly, the script is awful and terribly lacking in comedy. It's an amalgamation of trying to fit together too many different part and end up an incoherent mess.

Even Phil nods to the audience at the end saying "Did you get any of this? I sure didn't..."

The better works of Les Charlots are mostly the Claude Zidi films, "Le Grand Bazar" being one of my favorites, which even today still remains very funny.

This ridiculous James Bond spoof comes courtesy of Les Charlots, a French comedy quartet that was popular in the 1970s. This film is so over-the-top and scattered that I think I need to break this review down to three elements:

The Good: Bernard Lee and Lois Maxwell (M and Moneypenny in the Bond series) have a short cameo at the start of the film.

There is a gun-barrel sequence where James Bond is shot!

The stunts are simply spectacular (the film was directed by a stuntman).

There is a great deal of location shooting in London, Spain and Hong Kong.

Gerard and Jean-Guy(two of Les Charlots) are appropriately dashing as French secret agents.

The Bad: An actor made up as Richard Nixon comments on the story occasionally.

Every English-speaking actor is dubbed in French with a dreadful accent

The 1970s fashions are just awful.

The Kung Fu sequences (there are a lot of them) are nothing special.

The Ugly: Clifton James (Sheriff Pepper in the Bond films) is an American agent/detective and is horribly bad.

Mickey Rooney as the main villain should be ashamed of himself for his overacting and hamming it up.

There is a stunt that almost goes bad where a dog is almost crushed under a car. Ugh.

Overall, a must if you want to see every James Bond spoof known to man. Otherwise, you have been warned. I give it 3 secret agent out of 10(For the gun-barrel sequence, M and Moneypenny and the illegal use of the James Bond theme as well as for two of the four Charlots). Oh yeah, there are also references to Clockwork Orange, The Marx Brothers and Mad Magazine.

One of the super hit English films that hit India in the early Eighties. Yup, I saw this movie in English in a cinema hall in the early Eighties. But there is no information on the availability of this movie in English. Matter of fact many a Les Charlots movie was released in English in India.

I saw this movie several times and will like to see this movie again, the first time I see this movie in France in 1976. I really love it and I will like to have the pleasure and opportunities to see this movie again but I can't find it here in the US. And I am looking also to find the music, but Kazaa did not have it. If anybody knows where I can have this movie and also where I can download the music, please let me know. This is a real funny and good movie. Thanks.