Micmacs (Micmacs à tire-larigot) (2010)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Cynthia S

  
  It's no secret that I am not the biggest French movie fan, but this one I found rather entertaining. A little strange, at times. The French sure do have a different sort of sense of humor. All in all, though, this movie rang alot of of my quirky bells...which kept me watching.… More
  It's no secret that I am not the biggest French movie fan, but this one I found rather entertaining. A little strange, at times. The French sure do have a different sort of sense of humor. All in all, though, this movie rang alot of of my quirky bells...which kept me watching. Not too shabby.

• Jim H

  
  A man who has been shot and his motley group of friends pit arms manufacturers against one another. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is probably most famous in the States for <i>Amelie</i>, has a few signatures that you can see in every one of his films. First, each character is… More
  A man who has been shot and his motley group of friends pit arms manufacturers against one another. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is probably most famous in the States for <i>Amelie</i>, has a few signatures that you can see in every one of his films. First, each character is almost always given an extensive backstory so that there are never minor characters just like, in life, there are never minor people. Second, the characters and situations are usually remarkably inventive and cleverly constructed. In <i>Micmacs</i> he's one for two. The main character is given five minutes of backstory, and his team of cohorts are given almost none, but the ploys they devise to catch the arms dealers are almost always delightfully carried. Watching a Jeunet character solve a problem is almost like watching a good magician. Other critics have discussed the political message embedded in the film. One positive review, by Ty Burr, states, "<i>Micmacs</i> is the equivalent of a circus troupe setting up a tent in a war zone: You're entertained, even delighted, but after a while you suspect there are more serious matters at hand," but a negative review calls it "shallow." I saw the politics as tangential to the central, character-driven concern, and though I sympathize with both of those points, it didn't ruin the film for me by either bogging me down with a message or having the message so separate from the plot that the final moment seems like a departure. Dominique Pinon is remarkable, a effervescent character actor, but the lead, Dany Boon, plays Bazil too cluelessly. Bazil doesn't seem like a clever guy when we first meet him, so when the plot makes his character perform clever ploys, it seems strange. Overall, <i>Micmacs</i> is bound to be a disappointment for Jeunet fans, but it is nonetheless a solid, entertaining spectacle.

• Dean M

  
  This French film is amusing vigilante story and breezy fun. With one notable expection, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films are rich, textured and enjoyably eccentric affairs, and have deservedly earned him favourable comparisons with the likes of Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton. But… More
  This French film is amusing vigilante story and breezy fun. With one notable expection, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's films are rich, textured and enjoyably eccentric affairs, and have deservedly earned him favourable comparisons with the likes of Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton. But Jeunet's style and vision, which reached its apex in <i>Amélie</i>, offers more consistent results than either of those filmmakers. The result plays out like Amélie's little life-improving schemes, albeit with a revenge motive and a team of conspirators. Lacking the vast resources of their quarry, Bazil and Co. prove to be genius improvisers - in one case performing a heist with a household alarm clock, a human cannonball and a gold fish bowl full of wasps. It's impressively inventive and entertainingly convoluted stuff. But while virtually every frame creaks with inspiration, you can't help but come away feeling there's something missing. Perhaps it's to do with being so conditioned to expect a pay-off for every set-up. The extensive film-referencing comes, to a great degree, out of the fact that the pre-brainwound Bazil is a movie nut. A more significant issue is Bazil himself. Whereas Amélie had at its heart a lovable, luminous brunette imp, here we have a large, blank-faced man of few words. And he's nowhere near as engaging. Dany Boon is a big deal in his homeland, but his appeal is yet to travel. We get that Bazil is shellshocked, but it does rather seem like Boon's coasting or, at least, failing to find the heart of his character while he's too busy playing on the surface. You may not be surprised to find that Boon started out as a mime.

• Alice S

  
  A bit of a mess. Lots of intrigue and espionage (fitting for a movie entitled <i>Non-Stop Shenanigans</i>), but it's all a little too much fun and confusing for the political message embedded within. As such, the thesis on irresponsible tactics of war is as shallow… More
  A bit of a mess. Lots of intrigue and espionage (fitting for a movie entitled <i>Non-Stop Shenanigans</i>), but it's all a little too much fun and confusing for the political message embedded within. As such, the thesis on irresponsible tactics of war is as shallow as the one in <i>The Girl In the Cafe</i>. However, the colors and soundtrack are delightful as I've come to expect of Jeunet, of course.

• Spencer S

  
  The brilliance of Jeunet's directing is that he places ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Not only does the main character's father die from testing land mines, but he is in turn shot by a stray bullet. Bazil (Boon) becomes a homeless wretch, and is adopted by a… More
  The brilliance of Jeunet's directing is that he places ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Not only does the main character's father die from testing land mines, but he is in turn shot by a stray bullet. Bazil (Boon) becomes a homeless wretch, and is adopted by a quirky clan of salvage yard inventors and creators. The characters themselves are overly odd, their pitfalls in life overpowering the storyline at times. Still, you can't help but be amazed at the contortionist sneaking into war lord's residences, a human calculator measuring out everything from the distance to shoot a cannon to the head sizes of her friends, and an animated Dominique Pinon (one of Jeunet's favorites) trying to get himself back into the Guiness Book of World Records by any means necessary. The cast and storyline are endearing and at times sentimental, much like the director's previous work. Your enjoyment is clinched by your tastes, and for me, this was a treat. Not his strongest work, but definitely worth watching.

• Drew S

  
  Bog-standard Jeunet: outlandish characters, a plot dancing wildly on the edge of coincidence, and with something significant to say at the end of all the quirk. It seems almost shameful that a film can feel rote simply by virtue of feeling too different, but would anyone really have… More
  Bog-standard Jeunet: outlandish characters, a plot dancing wildly on the edge of coincidence, and with something significant to say at the end of all the quirk. It seems almost shameful that a film can feel rote simply by virtue of feeling too different, but would anyone really have expected anything else at this point in the game from the man behind one of France's hugest hits? Amelie was ahead of the pack, and now that everyone know that its kind of madcap entropy is what sells, films like Micmacs are going to keep cheapening it until the genre's dead on its feet. This is not to begrudge Micmacs its virtues, as I enjoyed its head-spinningly indirect challenge to the arms industry and the giddy way it unifies all of its seemingly disparate elements, but if you've seen any of Jeunet's work there's really nothing in here that will rock your world. Fun and totally inessential. Also, why are all of his films so fucking yellow?

• Saskia D

  
  One of the lesser Jeunets, if you ask me. I expected more of it..

• Steve K

  
  Full on Jeunetian whimsy, nearly undercutting some serious thoughts about weapons manufacturing.

• ♥˩ƳИИ &

  
  Cast: Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon, Michel Crémadès Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Summary: French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet takes a satirical look at the global arms trade with this… More
  Cast: Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon, Michel Crémadès Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Summary: French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet takes a satirical look at the global arms trade with this foreign-language comedy starring Dany Boon as Bazil, who rallies his friends to take down weapons manufacturers responsible for his father's death. Bazil also discovers a dump into an underground haven for cool tools and sculptures crafted from discarded junk. My Thoughts: "This was my first time seeing a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and I am impressed enough to want to see more from him. Very creative characters. A great group of odd misfits. Their lovable and quirky, every one of them. I loved all the creations by Tiny Pete.The film is visually artistic. It is fun and will make you for sure laugh. A charming film I think anyone will enjoy."

• Mark W

  
  Director Jean-Pierre Juenet certainly has an idiosyncratic style and if your familiar with, and enjoyed, his other films "Delicatessen" and "Amelie" then you will find plenty to enjoy here. As it's - in his own words - a cross between the two. Bazil (Dany… More
  Director Jean-Pierre Juenet certainly has an idiosyncratic style and if your familiar with, and enjoyed, his other films "Delicatessen" and "Amelie" then you will find plenty to enjoy here. As it's - in his own words - a cross between the two. Bazil (Dany Boon) is film buff who luckily works as a video store clerk. Unluckily though, he witnesses a shooting one evening which leaves him with a stray bullet lodged in his head. After surviving the incident and learning that the symbol on the bullet is also the same symbol that was on the landmine that killed his father years ago, he sets about to bring down the arms dealers responsible and enlists the help of a group of former circus performers, inventors and all round social misfits to aide his revenge. Jeunet's usual visual flair and eccentric oddball characters are ever present as is, his knack for finding art in the every-day. There are very few directors working today with the vision and inventiveness that Juenet consistantly shows (the Coens being notable others). As close as your likely to get to a live-action cartoon, ranging from human cannonballs to a bowl full of wasps dangling precariously above it's target with an alarm clock ticking, waiting to send it on it's way. Very inventive and creative throughout but it suffers from being poorly paced and not entirely keeping you engaged and as Juenet would like to claim that it's a mix of both "Delicatessen" and "Amelie", it unfortunately lacks the surreal darkness of the former and the beauty and charm of the latter. However, if you view this on it's own merit, without comparison, you may well be less critical, as it's still a fine addition to Juenet's wonderful work and a very enjoyable and entertaining watch.

• Alexis N

  
  This was the most amazing movie I've seen in awhile. It was really good. All the charm of Amelie. I don't want to be one of those people who keeps referring to Amelie, like it's Jean-Pierre's best movie, but it is and I would have said it was till I saw this. It… More
  This was the most amazing movie I've seen in awhile. It was really good. All the charm of Amelie. I don't want to be one of those people who keeps referring to Amelie, like it's Jean-Pierre's best movie, but it is and I would have said it was till I saw this. It has a great story and it's told in a really wonderful way. I wish there were real Micmacs (not the tribe of native americans, because we already have those) doing good things in the world by getting the "bad" guys. I just loved this movie so so so much.

• Gordon A

  
  An acquired taste perhaps but if you know Jeunet' s style you'll know what to expect. Personally I love his creative visual style even if I don't quite understand all the gallic humour. Boon overdoes the comedic gurning a bit for my taste too.

• Greg S

  
  A homeless man with a bullet in his brain teams up with a group of misfits (a contortionist, a man who builds gadgets from scrap iron, a human cannonball) to set two arms dealers at war, YOJIMBO style. There's a lot going on in this film---tributes to silent slapstick comedy,… More
  A homeless man with a bullet in his brain teams up with a group of misfits (a contortionist, a man who builds gadgets from scrap iron, a human cannonball) to set two arms dealers at war, YOJIMBO style. There's a lot going on in this film---tributes to silent slapstick comedy, intricate scams and capers, quirky characters, fantasy interludes inside the main character's head---but it's missing a center; you end up admiring the stagings rather than rooting for the characters. More laughs would have helped immensely.

• Nate Z

  
  So what exactly does Micmacs even mean? A cursory search online brings me a few definitions: 1) a Native American Algonquian group living in Canada and upper New England, 2) the Algonquian language of the Micmac. That doesn't exactly clear things up, especially considering that… More
  So what exactly does Micmacs even mean? A cursory search online brings me a few definitions: 1) a Native American Algonquian group living in Canada and upper New England, 2) the Algonquian language of the Micmac. That doesn't exactly clear things up, especially considering that Mimacs is a French movie by the famed filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet. An interview with the director has him explaining that the title is French slang for a mixture. That seems appropriate since the film is a mélange of the director's other works, high on inventiveness and visual whimsy. Except the one thing Jeunet strangely left out this time was a reason to care amidst the high-powered shenanigans. Bazil (Danny Boon) is a bit down on his luck. A landmine killed his father when Bazil was a child. He drifted through life, got a job at a video store, and then got a bullet in his brain thanks to a drive-by shootout. The doctors decided to leave the stray bullet inside or else Bazil will become catatonic. Bazil eventually is adopted by a batch of homeless misfits living in a junkyard. They accept Bazil and encourage him to seek vengeance against the warring arms dealers responsible for the land mind and stray bullet. Bazil and his colorful new family plot to antagonize the arms company CEOs. They come up with crazy schemes to then frame on the rival CEOs to escalate tensions. Bazil and crew intend to expose these men and their corporate crimes to the world. Micmacs succeeds where Rian Johnson's Brother's Bloom dangerously came close, and by that I mean that Micmacs overdoses on whimsy and I pronounced it clinically dead about an hour in. It's too much; it's just too much. Jeunet has always created movies that existed in rich, idiosyncratic worlds but those worlds always felt lush and lively and bursting with wonder. What saves a movie from whimsy is an emotional connection to the proceedings. 2001's Amelie is a perfect example of cinematic "magic realism" but it's also a moving and emotionally rewarding love story that transcends the plucky heroine. 2004's A Very Long Engagement was a rapturous, old-fashioned love story with flights of fancy. Now, after a long six-year absence, Jeunet seems to have lost touch with the heart. There is no real emotional entry point for Micmacs. The protagonist is pretty much a blank. Yeah, you want him to get justice and you pull for the underdogs, but at no point did I care whatsoever for any character. Most of the junkyard characters are just ideas, walking-talking heist components (the human cannonball, the girl whose brain is good at math, the toy maker). Several characters barely exist except for their specific roles in Bazil's schemes. There's a romantic angle with the female contortionist (Julie Ferrier) and Bazil, but that comes off as less a function of the narrative and more of a desperate "Well, who else is gonna get together?" necessity. Jeunet has put together a movie that is all surface and no polish. Sure, the movie is intermittently entertaining and has plenty of imagination, but Micmacs is without a doubt the least involving and least accomplished film from a man responsible for a fantastic output. The tone of the film seems to hew to something like a silent movie, which might explain why all the older members in my audience were constantly giggling while I just occasionally snickered under my breath. The comedy never rises above the chuckle level. There's plenty of controlled wackiness, nothing gets too out of hand or edgy despite the fact that the plot revolves around getting vengeance on arms dealers. I was expecting something a little darker than the cutesy oddballs that I got. The best and darkest moment in the film is when we see that one of the arms dealers collects body parts of dead celebrities (Marilyn Monroe's molar, Mussolini's eyeball). It's an interesting quirk that actually reveals something about the dark heart of the antagonist. There should be more moments like this. The bullet in Bazil's brain is barely referenced. I have no issues with whimsy when it doesn't overwhelm the narrative, and that's the problem with Micmacs. The story is merely the vehicle for the inventive hijinks. The story is suffocated by whimsy and visual energy, therefore there's no room for character development. All that inventiveness takes center stage. If playfulness is all you seek in a movie, then Micmacs will likely satisfy. Jeunet still makes movies that nobody else does, but he's fallen fall short of his own lofty standards. The movie moves along so quickly that it seems like every character just naturally intuits what must be done next, like they all have the screenplay in hand just off camera. Bazil is so quickly adopted by the junkyard gang. He so quickly discovers who is responsible for his life's troubles. The schemes are so quickly thrown together. They aren't even that complicated, mostly distracting and framing. The movie just feels like a spinning plate that has to keep moving or else everything will just break. I suppose Jeunet and his longtime co-writing collaborator Guillaume Laurant are trying to keep things busy so people won't notice that they don't genuinely care what happens. This being a Jeunet film, of course it's spectacular from a technical standpoint. Every frame of a Jeunet film can be used as a mural. His compositions delight the eye and the colorful cinematography by Tetsuo Negata (Splice) makes Paris seem like a dream city. The production design looks like it was taken directly from the Steampunk Architectural Digest magazine. You'll never have to worry about the visual aesthetics or ingenuity of a Jeunet film. But there are plenty of artists that can master technical craft (you can find them in the world of commercials) but it takes something much more to marry technical precision in the service story and character. Micmacs is a strange film not because of plot, character, tone, or energy, but because Jeunet spent six years in absence and returned with a film that's got plenty of style but no heart inside all that artifice. Nate's Grade: B-

• William D

  
  "Micmacs," from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France's Terry Gilliam), has dazzling visual style but little to no story. After the novelty of the quirky, 1940s-style art direction wore off, which took about a half-hour, I was overwhelmed with boredom. The main character is an… More
  "Micmacs," from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France's Terry Gilliam), has dazzling visual style but little to no story. After the novelty of the quirky, 1940s-style art direction wore off, which took about a half-hour, I was overwhelmed with boredom. The main character is an impoverished sad sack who almost never speaks. The character appears to have been modeled on Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. But Jeunet captures only the look of the Tramp, not the deep heart of the character. In "Micmacs," Jeunet many times displays openly a great love for classic American movies. There is one sweet sequence, for example, where the sad sack perfectly lip synchs every line of dialogue while watching an old Humphrey Bogart movie on DVD. But Jeunet here demonstrates little understanding that an essential part of what made these movies work so well was the story. The best Bogart movies didn't just look great! The sad sack, played affectingly but superficially by Dany Boon (yes, he spells it with one N), has an animus against arms manufacturers for reasons I won't reveal. So when he (ludicrously) stumbles on a murder attempt by arms manufacturers, he seeks to take them down. He falls in with a quirky group of misfits who appear to be refugees from a traveling circus, and they become his misfit army. The only folks I could see getting substantial pleasure out of "Micmacs" are those with serious interest in art direction and set decoration. But even for them, their impulse will probably be to turn down the sound so as not to let the inane story take away from the visual pleasure. Crazy people such as myself who care about the stories in movies will no doubt be seriously disappointed by this film.

• Luke B

  
  Jeunet is back with his magically enchanting trademark style. He's got the visuals down, with the help of cinematographer Tetsuo Nagata, who turns every yellow into a sunset gold. The film may have strong themes about weapons manufacture and the arms trade, but it's done in… More
  Jeunet is back with his magically enchanting trademark style. He's got the visuals down, with the help of cinematographer Tetsuo Nagata, who turns every yellow into a sunset gold. The film may have strong themes about weapons manufacture and the arms trade, but it's done in the style of a children's story. A children's story heist film. We can see Jeunet's silent movie influenced slapstick run riot, as Boon's toes steal his cardboard shelter away from him. It's a joyous film to experience, with cartoon like interludes of grin evoking madness. It might be too uneven for some, or too whimsical for others, but if you are looking for style AND substance, you can't go wrong.

• Aaron N

  
  Placard: Salvaged Gear! A funny thing happened. A few weeks ago I watched Yojimbo, the Kurosawa film about a samurai playing two rival gangs against each other. In this film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the lead character does a similar thing, playing two different people, who have… More
  Placard: Salvaged Gear! A funny thing happened. A few weeks ago I watched Yojimbo, the Kurosawa film about a samurai playing two rival gangs against each other. In this film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the lead character does a similar thing, playing two different people, who have effected his life for the worse, against each other. I think this is neat to point out, because it's somewhat of a peculiar coincidence, which is what most of Jeunet's films are based around anyway. In this film, Dany Boon stars as Bazil. As a boy, his father was killed by a landmine. Years later, Bazil was working in a video store, only to observe a shooting that resulted in a bullet lodged in his head. While Bazil managed to survive, he unfortunately lost both his home and his job. With nowhere left to go, Bazil is adopted by a crew of unique people living in a junk yard, where they make a fine enough living for themselves. These people includes a contortionist, a human cannonball, an inventor, a master thief, and a human calculator, among others. While Bazil may have some problems in his life, he does have a plan. The sources of both the death of his father and the bullet in his head are two weapons manufacturers that happen to have large buildings in France right across the street from each other. The two men who run these businesses are bitter rivals; and with the help of Bazil and his friends, there may be an end in sight for this rivalry. Director Jeunet, who previously made Amelie, The City of Lost Children, and A Very Long Engagement, once again manages to show off his trademark visual senses. The way he uses effects is always a treat. A lot of great world creation is going on here and it all blends well with the quirky nature of the story and characters. Having things like a contortionist and a human cannonball all work there way into having neat payoffs; and it is all made better by wonderful cinematography. The story manages to be a lot of fun. As I've said, it takes an old plot seen a few times in different films and treats it with a neat freshness, especially in the way it develops the villains and adds in the heist film aspect, as our heroes work to sabotage them. The one fault I feel this film has, comes in the form of Bazil. While he is certainly endearing and we'd like to see him succeed, there is never much of a character developed for him, especially given that everyone around him is much more interesting. Still, the lesser aspects hardly pulled me out of the film, as the freshness portrayed here makes much of this film more worthwhile. Its a lot of fun, full of imagination, greatly made, and wonderful to look at. Bazil: Mom always told me to avoid twisted girls.

• xGary X

  
  When a video store clerk whose father was killed by a landmine is accidentally shot in the head, he sets about revenging himself upon the weapons maufacturers whom he holds responsible. There's a lot to admire about French culture; the cuisine, the literature, the chic fashions.… More
  When a video store clerk whose father was killed by a landmine is accidentally shot in the head, he sets about revenging himself upon the weapons maufacturers whom he holds responsible. There's a lot to admire about French culture; the cuisine, the literature, the chic fashions. Their comedy however has been stuck in a public convenience since the 1920s. Unfortunately Jeunet's new film is very much in this tradition, which means Micmacs rather than being a sophisticated heist style exercise in wit in the mold of Ocean's Eleven or The Sting, it's more like a Road Runner cartoon acted out by a troupe of mimes. The overall feel of the film reminded me a lot of Life Is Beautiful, a horribly misjudged marriage of juvenile humour and commentary on war and death. Jeunet's trademark visual invention although still evident takes a backseat to Vaudevillian gurning and falling over, and even a potentially clever conclusion is ruined because of his over used and rather patronizing here's-what's-happening-in-their-heads-because-the-audience-are-clearly-far-too-stupid-to-understand-it thought bubble device. Clearly still an accomplished film visually by a skilled film maker, Micmacs failed miserably to entertain me because it's about as funny as...well, French comedy.

• Anthony L

  
  Whoo hoo, Jeunet is back! Micmacs is beautiful, inventive, funny, all the things you expect from a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. Now, it's no masterpiece like delicatessen, it's not as imaginative as City of lost children and it's not as beautiful as Amelie, but when you… More
  Whoo hoo, Jeunet is back! Micmacs is beautiful, inventive, funny, all the things you expect from a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. Now, it's no masterpiece like delicatessen, it's not as imaginative as City of lost children and it's not as beautiful as Amelie, but when you set such a high standard as Jeunet has, this will often be the case. Don't worry though, this is a brilliant film, highly enjoyable and immensely satisfying, a real treat of a film!

• Ross C

  
  A fun, family movie about a man who seeks revenge on two arms companies by turning them against each other. It's Mission Impossible action in overly-elaborate slapstick style with all of Jeunet's trademark details.

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