Hollywoo

Read it here: http://squeerelist.blogspot.com/2013/06/hollywoo-2011.html

Jennifer Marshall is Hollywood's It Girl starring in the over-publicized TV show L.A. Couples. Jeanne is her French dubbing artist whose career depends on Marshall's fame. When Jennifer decides to retire after her co-star and boyfriend cheats on her, Jeanne feels like her own career is over. She flies to LA to meet Jennifer and try to make her reconsider... It's a funny and fresh movie displaying the views of the French on Hollywood and its excessive way of life. The main actors are very popular French comedians (Florence Foresti & Jamel Debbouze) and I think you'll find this movie funny if you already know Foresti's work. It may not be a good movie for someone who is not into contemporary French culture. The cast is very eclectic and you'll find American, French, Canadian actors and more. Hollywoo may not end up in my Top 10 Comedies but I spent an enjoyable moment watching it. You should definitely give it a try and share your opinion with me!

1 reason to watch: if you have any interest in French comedians

Hollywoo is probably not a movie to watch with your grandparent. In this movie, get ready to watch a dodgy love movie, see cringe-worthy jokes, find a predictable ending and absurd relationships. It was not good. However, if you are an English student learning french, it has a good range of difficult vocabulary to learn. As a whole, this movie has a cringe factor of 11/10, sad jokes and about 10 minutes too long. To be fair, the acting was well done and I liked the concept of switching back and forth between English and french. So, i would rate this movie a 6/10 because it is definitely not the best movie I've seen, but not the worst by far.

The plot was clear from the beginning, but some parts of the movie did not seem that important and were not so funny either. I have watch a couple of French movies but this one was not up to those standards. It seemed like you had seen almost all of the scenes before in other movies, but some were new. The new ones were the funniest scenes because you did not know what to expect. Some areas of the movie were great. However, some were just dumb and very cringe. The main female character was descent, but she was sometimes just annoying to listen to and her actions were infuriating. She seemed like a person I have met before but I do not really think that her personality matched everything about the movie. The main male character was actually funnier than her. He made the movie better and more interesting. I really liked that there were subtitles, because it made it easier to understand everything they were saying in French and also made it easier to know when they were talking French and when they were talking English. Basically, the movie was mostly entertaining but there were some parts that were just boring and cringe worthy.

I can understand why this movie was not a big success. It plays on the idea of a dual culture. Florence Foresti and Jamel Debouze are constantly switching between broken English and french and making fun of a lot of American stereotypes and on the way French people speak English. After having lived for a while in the US, I found myself laughing a lot just because I got the reference. They might be super witty but it was enough for me. Foresti was playing her usual character (the one in her stand up comedy) so it was funny if you already like that exuberant character. Jamel played a character that I think he never played before: a kind of Arsene Lupin of this century and I think it was a surprising element of this movie. To conclude, I would say that it's the kind of movie that would mostly appeal to people knowing a bit of both French and American culture and speaking both language helps too.

I have personally never watched a french movie meaning it didn't have any movie to compete with but i was amused but kind of disappointed. I watched this movie in french class and it was a good choice as we aren't fluent in french so the subtitles and English scenes were helpful.The plot was clear and a some scenes were funny mainly because it was cringe-worthy but generally had some good scenes. The characters were weird some in a good way and some in a bad way. All in all i still would recommend this movie as it is still entertaining and appropriate for people who know french, studying french or someone interested in the language.