The Great Spy Chase

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Audience Member The opening scene of “Les barbouzes” looked promising enough: the tongue-in-cheek introduction of several alleged top spies by a highly ironic voiceover (which I always love in movies), including a presentation of the mission they are about to embark on, illustrated by some impressive action in a train. As soon as the big fish they’re after is dead, though, one begins to wonder what else there will be to fill this movie with. And indeed, all we will get from that moment on is a cat-and-mouse game between several parties who are all after the valuable military patents the dead man has left to his wife (Mireille Darc), a silly gold-digger who doesn’t see why she can’t just sell them to the highest bidder. The funniest of all, in my opinion, is the American O’Brien (Jess Hahn) who is the most tenacious of all and won’t take no for an answer, regardless of the humiliations he has to swallow. He plays his role with a great deal of verve. One might say the same thing of the other actors, who are all spies trying to get the jump on each other. Admittedly, it is amusing to see how all the well-known spy stereotypes are used to produce something entertaining here. We get the impersonations and disguises (complete with false beards and moustaches), the monitoring equipment, the explosives, the scorpions-in-bed, the creepy Asians displaying their martial arts skills, etc. The problem is that these jokes (which are no more than mildy funny anyway) just keep dragging on without any markable intermissions. It is as if the makers of “Les barbouzes” forgot one needs a bit more than this to produce a really good comedy. As a crime parody, this film is not bad at all, but it tends to be too conceited and full of itself. After all, there is a difference between funny and really funny. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member Un des meilleurs Audiard/Lautner avec les plus grands des acteurs français. Ce film n'a pas pris une ride et fait toujours autant rire ! Des répliques cultes toujours... "Un barbu c'est un barbu, trois barbus c'est des barbouzes" "il pensait pas galipettes, il pensait tradition..." "un missile qui passe, un champignon qui monte, le temple d'Angkor au dessus de Billancourt, je me marre de tout j'ai des goûts simples" Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Grand classique, un peu en dessous des Tontons flingueurs Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Meme lignee que les tontons flingueurs. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/02/23 Full Review Audience Member le trio est de retour :p Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member un régal de retrouver la bande à Audiart, même si certaines ficelles (et l'humour) sont parfois trop grosses. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Great Spy Chase

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