Shut Up! AKA Tais-Toi!

In the last twenty years or so, French cinema has broken out of the stereotype of pretension and high art and really started to excel in two big genres – crime and comedy - and ‘Tais-Toi!’ is the perfect culmination of that journey. In Diner Aux Cons, Francis Veber showed he writes great idiots - wonderful, heart-warming, innocent idiots who shine a light on the rest of humanity’s cynicism and pretension - and Gerard Depardieu as Quentin is probably his sweetest idiot yet. Combining the warmth, heart and broad comedy of the best of any Hollywood 80’s buddy movie with the ultra-cool slick violence of the modern French crime thriller, ‘Tais-Toi!’ is a joyous series of traditional high-octane set-pieces of heists, contract killings, prison breaks and car-chases intercut with the warmest and funniest ‘odd couple’ buddies since De Niro and Grodin in Midnight Run. An absolute joy.

Great film, laughed til I cried, really worth watching, be brilliant for a night in with friends to have a good giggle.

Reasonably funny and very watchable crime caper with Dupardieu as the wise fool who bonds with the initially silent Jean Reno. I watch many foreign films but the staccato rate of the sub titles had me floundering until I realised it was best to just watch and forget about the words, the plot was pretty obvious anyway. At times it reminded me of a rather better vesion of a Mr. Bean film.

Honestly, I totally LOVE finding films like this. Took a chance on a film starring one actor I adore (Jean Renot) and one I'm quite ambivalent about (Gerard Depardieu) and found one of THE. FUNNIEST. FILMS. EVER! This is soil your pants hilarious. Renot has proven to me a million times how funny he is, but Oh Mon Dieu, Depardieu! The genius of this plot is heart-warming. Renot is a selfish, hard-nosed criminal taking extreme measures to avoid justice and enemies alike. Depardieu is the most total imbecile on the face of the earth. No-one can stand to be in his company for two minutes. And, you guessed it, the two end up entwined together like doomed lovers. Depardieu and Renot's facial expressions alone left me speechless with laughter. The reactions of the characters to each other and the way they bumble through events together is just sublime. It's all totally ridiculous, but has been staged to be completely plausible. No extreme slapstick or outrageous gurning for laughs. It's just straight up first class situation humour. Honestly, even subtitles don't dampen the humour. Two superb actors (Depardieu is now a firm favourite - it's that good) showing perfect clowning skills. You won't believe it, but even watching Renot roll his eyes at Depardieu's antics still makes me laugh just thinking about it. There aren't enough expletives to describe how funny this film is. Please don't let ANYONE re-make this in English thinking they can make it funnier. You just CAN'T!

This is great, even without Sean Bean (but I hear he can't speak French anyway). A buddy action crime caper, cross-dressing and two of France's leading actors = sploosh super fun time. It's like entering the Dangerzone without your robot pants.