Les bronzés font du ski

Not much more to say, watch this movie that is a lot more subtle than you could imagine (not just the ordinary farce), and if you want to be accepted easily in France, learn 2 or 3 of the punchlines, you can be sure you'll make friends!!! Everyone knows them here!!!!

Follow-up to smash hit "Les Bronzés" with virtually the same cast and director. This time of course the setting is not a tropic Club Med place but a winter-sports resort in the French Alps.

Except for a rather annoying 'seventies' disco-style soundtrack, movie hasn't dated at all. Among the many hilarious highlights there is the local "wine" tasting scene and the encounter in a remote cabin with some horny Italians.

Almost everyone involved went on to become a major star in French cinema, as Christian Clavier ("Les Visiteurs" and recently Napoleon Bonaparte in a prestigious TV-series) and Gerard Jugnot (lead in the 2005 Oscarnominated "Les Choristes"). But also director Patrice Leconte became one of France's most respected directors (Le mari de la Coiffeusse,Ridicule,"Les Grands Ducs", etc...).

If you like this try also the crazy "Le Péré Noel est une Ordure", made a few years later and again with virtually the same cast.

What struck me as being strange in this movie is that from the Beginning to the End it feels like the opening of a comedy film, in the sense that the rapid juxtapositions accompanied by the.jumpy Pop songs were rather fitting of a quick, typical film introduction.

But here the "introduction" never ends, only when the credits start rolling.

This is to say what? This is to say that the film is, basically, one prolonged sketch. Or, if you will, an accumulation of sketches.

And it is a solid, relatively funny, creative, and slightly charming sketch.

But it is not substantially more.

Nevertheless, I did quite enjoy the alpine, snowy setting, the cast, and the overtly French touch of it.

It is an excellent movie!! A French monument! For English speakers, you can find the DVD with English subs on amazon.co.uk. Most of the actors are part of the French comedy group called "Le Splendid", and they're all simply awesome. This movie is a sequel of "Les Bronzes" which in my opinion is not worth watching. It's good but it's far below the laughing fest that is "Les Bronzes font du ski". The dialogues are perfect and the situations are just hilarious. A group of friends who met in a Club Med for single people reunite to go ski together. When they decide to do a helicopter drop at the top of a ski resort things start to go wrong...but it gets real funny for us! I'm French but I hope foreigners will get a chance to watch it since it was a huge success in France along with "Le Pere Noel est une Ordure" (also available on amazon uk)made by the same "Splendid" group.

This one is even better than the first "Les Bronzés". The director has traded the Club Med for the French Alps. But the cast, luckily, is the same. There is some hilarious scenes, especially in the second half. One example: the food and drinks at the peasants' house in the mountain. Far from an intellectual movie, it's one that jokes about some French ways of doing thing or seeing life. Not one of Leconte's best, but still good. One thing's for sure though, the soundtrack is passé! Great way to spend a Sunday night at home.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on February 26th, 2006.

76/100 (**½)