Pausa para um Assassinato

Right from the first scene, not one decision by any character made any sense. Instead of creating suspense, each new plot twist forced me to ask: "Why would anyone do that?" It felt like a bad Agatha Christie novel, where every character had the common sense of Inspector Clouseau.

Worse still, the characters didn't seem motivated by love, duty, guilt, fear, self-preservation, their careers or anything (except maybe ennui). So when their laughably silly plans go awry, the characters don't seem to really care, and neither does the audience. When a major reveal happens in a murder movie, one kind of expects a stronger reaction from the main character than saying, "I'm too old for this." So by the end of the movie, I didn't really care what happened to any of them.

This gets two stars rather than one because some of the actors are good looking.

The deadliest hit-man in Europe is actually a woman and sings contralto. The toughest secret agent detailed to stop her is a guitar virtuoso. If you can swallow that and watch the rest of it as a straight thriller, you have a mental age of four. Tops.

In fact, this is a hilarious send-up of three different genres all at once: Hitchcockian cat-and-mouse thriller, Agatha Christie whodunnit and Italian giallo. Perhaps the director (quite rightly) doubted that the producers would allow him to make three different films in this vein, so he lumped all three together. Which I suppose makes the whole even funnier.

The script goes out of its way to invent the most bizarre situations and then sabotage them in the most outlandish ways possible. Witness the outrageous murder method employed in the opening sequence, or the episode where the killer uses poison to fulfill her contract, only to realise she is a breath away from having a mass murder on her CV. All characters behave like children in a playground sand pit, set to gorgeous strands of Handel's Messiah. And the film looks ravishing, too, in the best 70s fashion, both outdoors and in.

Bound to be a flop at the box-office (way, way too tongue-in-cheek for the popcorn-munching crowd), but should become a cult classic if there's any justice in this world.

This movie is one of the reasons why I signed up @ IMDb . This movie has stolen 90 minutes of my life and I want them back.

To prevent others to watch this movie I will now list a few points why I do not like this movie

First of all , it has a weak plot. There are thousand movies about female assassins but If you are shooting a movie about this topic , the screenplay should well implemented. But here's the reason why this could not work : the screenplay is awful! The story is very predictable and therefore boring, why did I watched it anyway? I don't know. Maybe I like the actor Tchéky Karyo ( Dobermann ) but he was the only who sticks out in this "movie".

i don't if the french movie producers got different logic from other countries' movie producers. i don't even understand how this slow crawling screenplay would be approved into real production. the casting was not bad, but the scenario, the plot, the storyline of this screenplay were just too boring to the extreme. i wonder if the production team had felt asleep during the shooting. this is a absolutely deadbeat french movie, tried so hard to have some classy touch with sublime religious music and songs praising the lord while murders were executed behind the scene. what we got is a beautiful french actress mimic a singer with beautiful costumes and make-up. the dialog boring, the acting deadbeat, the directing Zzzzz snooze off the director's chair, all the production team couldn't help yawning all the time with sleepy tears from yawning. the murders, the conspiracy, the cat, the allergy, the sparkling wine or champagne, the heavenly songs.... so what it was all about? I COULDN'T CARE LESS, because i am more interested in watching the ants doing their daily chores along my backyard's patio concrete slabs.

I went to see this movie without knowing what to expect. Just knew actor Tcheky Karyo from several action movies and the series Missing.

I liked the acting in this overall, and Melanie Laurent was a nice surprise.

Perhaps some viewers find it a little slow at times, but it's a fine little thriller, and when you like thrillers (besides French there is also some English and even Dutch language in it) you will not be disappointed.

The scenery/setting is nice as well.

Maybe not a must see, but it's not a waste of time for sure.

For Dutch film fans, it's on Netflix.