Les Parrains
2005 Comedy / Crime / Thriller
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Credits
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Summary
In 1980, four crooks - Max, Lucien, Serge and Henri - fail to pull off
a daring jewel robbery. Max ends up in prison whilst his three
partners in crime escape and settle into humdrum, semi-respectable
lives. Twenty-five years after the robbery, Lucien, Serge and
Henri are summoned to the offices of Max’s solicitor to attend the
reading of his will. It appears that, before his arrest, Max
managed to hide the stolen booty, and this he has bequeathed to his
three friends and his son, Rémy. The ex-crooks will
only receive their share of the inheritance once they have given
Rémy’s his. Unfortunately, shortly after Lucien, Serge and
Henri have made Rémy’s acquaintance, the suitcase containing his
share is destroyed. Having failed to trick Rémy with a
substitute suitcase, the three friends allow him to talk them into
carrying out another heist planned by his father. However, things
aren’t quite what they seem...Review
On paper, Les Parrains looks
like a sure-fire hit. An updated version of the parody thriller
which was massively popular in the 1960s, a cast featuring three of
French cinema’s biggest personalities - Gérard Darmon,
Gérard Lanvin and Jacques Villeret - and a budget which most
French film directors can only dream of... What could possibly go
wrong?Despite its impressive production values, Les Parrains is really just a poor man's version of Les Tontons flingueurs, a pale immitation of the classic films it pays homage to. The main problem is that the film tries too hard to please and ends being rather predictable, uneven and characterless. The implausible plot twists add complexity without any intellectual payback, which greatly diminishes the film's appeal. There are a handful of very good jokes, but given the calibre of its lead performers, it merits far more. At least Gérard Darmon manages to extort some decent laughs from the lacklustre material he is given. (But then again, he could reduce an audience of comatose nuns to hysterics just by reading out the Maastricht Treaty.) As in his earlier film, Le Boulet (2002), director Frédéric Forestier appears to be more concerned with visual impact than with narrative substance and character. As a result, the film looks stylish and has some respectable action sequences, but the storyline and the characters are just too ridiculous to hold any credibility. Les Parrains is mildly entertaining, but it is to be regretted that Jacques Villeret is so under-used in this, one of his last films before his untimely death. © James Travers 2007 Write a review for this film... |
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