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....

Story revolves around an escaped, die-hard romantic stuntman, a small-town singer, a sleazy businessman, a slow-witted villager who hurts his dog so he can hear it sing, and oh yeah, an alien invasion. Honestly this sounds like a pretty sweet flick. But for some reason, it just doesn't succeed in any particular area.

Atomik Circus features some good acting, especially by the dude who was the lead in Man Bites Dog, Benoit Poelvoorde. He was actually pretty memorable as the sleazy businessman who ends up suffering from an alien bite. Also, I had no clue Jason Flemyng could speak French. He didn't have really long lines, so maybe he just jumped on board because it seemed like an easy and fun role....that was probably it.

The movie had a weird vibe that reminded me of the movie Undead. Probably because it had a similar style, especially with the blood and gore. Atomik Circus had a real cooky vibe that felt like it was trying too hard to amuse the viewer. At times I was amused, by the over-the-top violence, but never really by anything jokey. The dude with the missing face, that completely fell flat.

Atomik Circus is a weird flick, and I can see many people enjoying it, and many people hating it. I'm in the middle ground because there were some good things about it, but overall it just kinda felt like a jumbled mess. Definitely a unique genre hybrid though, that's for sure. 5.5 outta 10

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.

A former comment spoke about a jambalaya about this movie, and I think it summarizes well this UFO (Unidentified Filmed Object). The acting is wonderful and it holds the entire movie: Marielle, Flemyng, Paradis, Poolevoerde, Venantino Venantini (unexpected in this part)and also Bouli Flanners(the fat chip cop)and all the third knives of this drama. From the funny-sex-gore movies lovers, It will be very delightful. Even if some shots switching from one genre to the other (from the Belgian-french surreal movie to the Italian Z to the US Cajun gore wonder through the Spanish funny and colored fantasy) inside the same movie are not perfect and need several seconds of adaptation, this masterpiece of nonsense needs to be seen at least once, twice etc...

finally, the shooting is perfect and unexpected.

Enjoy your watching this...thing.

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.