Bis (2015)
Directed by Dominique Farrugia

Film Review

It's Back to the Future for writer-director Dominique Farrugia with his fifth film, which sees comic stars Kad Merad and Franck Dubosc transported back to the 1980s and an opportunity to relive their adolescent past and perhaps alter the course of their mediocre lives for the better.  If the plot sounds more than vaguely familiar, it's probably because it's a virtual retread of Noémie Lvovsky's Camille redouble (2012) - albeit in a far more juvenile and laddish vein - and before this film there were many others (too many too enumerate) which employed the same time travelling concept, with and without the inestimable talents of Michael J. Fox.  Bis doesn't go out of its way to conceal this fact, nor does it appear remotely embarrassed by the fact that it is a derivative rehash.  As its title implies ('bis' being the French word for 'encore'), it positively celebrates the fact that it is replaying old, well-worn material, cashing in before the European Union passes a law to outlaw such blatant plagiarism.

This 'buddy movie with a gimmicky time shift' farce is something of a comedown after Dominique Farrugia's previous (albeit middling) comedies, which include two fairly watchable rom-coms - Delphine 1, Yvan 0 (1996) and L'Amour, c'est mieux à deux (2010), but the casting of two bankable comic actors in the lead roles ensured it was never going to bomb at the box office.  In fact Bis was one of the most popular French comedies of 2015, although its audience of 1.5 million is way down on what similar over-hyped comedies attracted in France in previous years, suggesting that the zany time travel concept is starting to wear a bit thin.  The script is essentially just a cut-and-paste job, with ideas lifted in part or wholesale from other films, something which the film's authors (who include Mathieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, the team who brought us the hit comedy Le Prénom in 2012) cunningly allude to in the film's funniest scene, where Merard and Dubosc attempt to pitch the plots of future box office hits (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, Les Visiteurs, etc.) to a film producer.

There's no shortage of gags revolving around the lack of hi-tech gadgets (mobile phones, computers, etc.) that we now consider essential to our daily lives but which were totally absent from the 1980s (which makes you wonder what people used to do with their time before Facebook and Twitter were invented).  The tacky fads and fashions of the 80s also come in for some astute ribbing but for the most part the humour is pretty lowbrow, the film's authors all too happy to rely on the chemistry between the two leads rather than bother to put any creativity or thought into the script.  Bis is complacent, imitative and predictable to a fault and unless you're a diehard fan of Kad Merad and Franck Dubosc it soon becomes wearisome.  Surely this must be the last gasp for the time-shifted comedy?

Film Synopsis

Éric and Patrice have been the best of friends since high school.  Over the years that followed, they travelled very different roads.  Éric opted for the life of the unattached hedonist, whilst his friend settled down to become a dutiful husband and father.  After a night out on the town, the two friends suddenly find themselves back in 1986, when they were both 17.  For both of them, it is a heaven-sent opportunity to start their adult lives all over again and maybe take a different path...