Reviews

This is probably the most uninvolving film I've ever seen. I watched it because I have a soft spot for Leon (everything else Besson has done has been just awful, in my opinion, with the exception of the script for Wasabi) and Jean Reno. It's a testament to just how bad this film is that Reno, one of the most charismatic and effortlessly affable actors (admittedly he's just starting out here) can't make this film, or the moments in which he is on screen, watchable.

It's all very film-schooly: black and white, no dialogue, people doing things for no apparent reason, people chasing each other while in turn being chased by a shaky camera. And, predictably, none of it is entertaining.

It's not a "French Mad Max" as some people have claimed (actually, I think they mean "Mad Max 2") - that is a superficial comparison based only on the fact that both films have a post-apocalyptic setting, and is just the kind of comment you'd expect from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. Mad Max 2 was pulsating, Mad Max 2 was exciting, Mad Max 2 was worth your time - Le Dernier Combat is none of these.

I know it's supposed to be cool to like arty black-and-white French films and equally cool to say you saw something in them that other people did not (or you managed to sit through it without feeling drowsy), which is why I wouldn't trust anyone who claims to like Le Dernier Combat, because I see nothing of worth in it whatsoever; it asks for so much and gives nothing back. I found myself drifting from it after about five minutes and it never did anything to regain my full attention. Anyone who can sit through it undistracted isn't human, or, at the very most, is psychotic. (Actually, they're probably just trying to seem "cool").

Napoleon Dynamite is a serious contender for Most Boring Film Ever. It's only noteworthy scene is a dance routine that lasts about 1 minute - and i can only assume that's what all the fuss is about because the other 80-however-many were pure DULL tripe.

I'm supposed to write 10 lines in order for this comment to be published, but NP is so forgettable, I can hardly think of anything else to say on it.

Anyone who makes a "case" for this being a worthwhile film are merely trying to seem intelligent, and failing. Probably the most unedifying experience of my life.

Anyone who says they like this film either has zero taste or they are trying to seem "cool". The basic "idea" of the film - that there a bunch of kids living on their own in a town due to a hurricane killing or driving out all of adults (a concept i only realised from a plot outline and not from the film itself) is a good one, but it is completely squandered. There is no discernible story and no worthwhile characters. It feels like the outtakes of one of those "alternative" 90s MTV videos - 90 minutes of outtakes, pieced together by editing and nothing else. It's a film made by a bunch of disaffected twenty-somethings about other disaffected twenty-somethings who sit in their gardens/kitchens/streets and do very little at all. And when it's really in trouble it resorts to shock tactics like children shooting cats, swearing, and having sex with an obese woman. These are neither shocking, nor tactful, however, and although they sound quirky and worth watching the film for, they really aren't.

Gummo is an utter endurance test. I wanted to switch it off after 15 minutes, and that feeling did not go away. It's not a "style over substance" film, as this film has no style whatsoever.

It may well "make more sense" after repeat watchings, but if it does I will never know as there was nothing here to warrant even thinking about this film again, let alone rewatching it.