Le boulet (2002)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Directors:

Alain Berbérian
Frédéric Forestier

Writers:

Matt Alexander (writer)
Alexandre Coquelle (writer)

Release Date:

10 April 2002 (Belgium)

Genre:

Adventure | Action | Comedy

Tagline:

Fransk, fart og humor, der overhaler "Taxi" indenom![Denmark]

Plot Keywords:

Lottery Winner | Fugitive | Desert | Speed | Big Wheel

Cast

Gérard Lanvin	...	Moltès
Benoît Poelvoorde	...	Francis Reggio
José Garcia	...	Mustapha Amel alias "Le Turc"
Djimon Hounsou	...	Det. Youssouf
Rossy de Palma	...	Pauline Reggio
Jean Benguigui	...	Saddam
Gary Tiplady	...	Le géant / The Giant
Gérard Darmon	...	Kowalski
Stomy Bugsy	...	Malian #1
Marco Prince	...	Malian #2
Omar Sy	...	Malian #3 (as Omar)
Nicolas Anelka	...	Nicolas, the soccer player
Jacky Lambert
Renaud Rutten
Innocent Mboumgou

Also Known As:

Dead Weight (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some crude sexual content.

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

France | UK

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB | USA:PG-13 | France:Unrated | South Korea:12 | Denmark:11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Philippines:R-13 | Spain:13 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Erfoud, Morocco

Company:

France 2 Cinéma

Trivia:

The man at the airport reading the newspaper with Moltes' picture on the back is the Production Manager, Jean-Marc Deschamps

Movie Connections:

References The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

It's not Benoît Poelvoorde who is the millstone but the movie itself!

Launched in the Spring 2002 in France, "le boulet" was hugely successful (more than 3 million of spectators in the French theaters). Why? This success remains both mysterious and unexplainable because Alain Berbérian's movie's got every conceivable fault, every fault imaginable so that you can name it: the perfect load of rubbish. It consists on an uninspired and hackneyed script with threadbare topics. Dialogs that aren't very worked and a poor directing that emphasizes too much on special effects.

But above all, "le boulet" is a bad movie because it borrows mostly elements or sequences from a lot of French movies. Thus, you find traces of "la cité de la peur" (1994) made by the same director, always Berbérian. But you also think about "la soif de l'or" (1993) and "la grande vadrouille" (1966) both made by Gérard Oury. Even the duo of characters with opposed disposition (here, we deal with the frail Poelvoorde and the heartless Lanvin) and who are however compelled to work together isn't original. Indeed, this comic device had been already used (and brilliantly) by Francis Veber. You only have to watch "la chèvre" (1981) or "les fugitifs" (1986) to realize it.

With this poor movie that looks hollow, we deal with a very serious situation: it would appear that French comedy is declining...