Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

dbdumonteil In his book "I am an impostor", Patrice Leconte wrote that "une Chance Sur Deux" drew more than a million viewers in French theaters when the film was theatrically released. It was however a failure because this film was expensive to make due to its stars: Vanessa Paradis, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, the restless story and its treatment. Critics were hardly tender towards the Leconte 1998 vintage and view the three stars' incredible adventures in an unfavorable light. With hindsight, "une Chance Sur Deux" is sandwiched between two Leconte masterworks: "Ridicule" (1996) and "la Fille Sur la Pont" (1999) and didn't seem to be in the hearts of many Leconte aficionados.However, I'm eager to restore it to favor. Sure, it doesn't match the two aforementioned Leconte works as well as other pearls in his filmography but it has more than good stuff to spend a pleasant time in front of your telly. The starting point could make you guess you're going to watch a reflective piece of work. A young girl Alice is released from prison and is confronted to a serious problem: two men who are retired gangsters claim to be her father. They will have to team up to save their daughter from the clutches of the Russian Maffia, Colombian traffickers and the police.Quite quickly, after having timidly broached the issue of paternity on a humorous tone, Leconte's film takes a lighter direction: to entertain thanks to an unlikely but exciting scenario with stunts, chases interspersed with laughter. I especially dig the moment when Belmondo and Delon oblige a gangster to practice bungee-jumping to help them in their investigation. And amid this flood of unexpected twists and mad adventures shot with a style close from the comic strip, Leconte didn't lose his trademark with witty cues and one of his thematic tastes: the duo of men even if in this domain "une Chance Sur Deux" is much less elaborated than other Leconte films on the same topic like "Tandem" (1987) or "l'Homme Du Train" (2002). One also shouldn't forget some eccentric characters like the cop acted by Michel Aumont.The three stars don't take themselves seriously and it's the position adopted by Leconte to better involve the audience. So, don't be fooled by the lukewarm reception the film garnered about ten years ago and let yourself immersed in this maelstrom of agitation shot with rigor and a conscientious manner.

writers_reign First, the bad news: Vanessa Paradis has announced her intention of returning to the screen. The good news is even she can't ruin this divertissement. Patrice Leconte doesn't like to repeat himself and he clearly decided it was time he climbed aboard the 'Our Man Flint/Matt Helm' bandwagon and laid a spoof thriller on us. The movie is referential to the nth degree because audiences are supposed to have seen or at least be very much aware that Delon and Belmondo enjoyed a mega smash some thirty years ago with 'Borsalino' in which they played Marseilles-based hoods. Those who know and dug the original will feel a frisson when the Borsalino 'theme' strikes up, those who don't won't care either way. The plot, such as it is, hinges on the Paradis character and Oh, how much better it would have been without this Goldie Hawn look-alike and play alike - all big round saucer eyes and the galloping cutes which is calculated to make cases of male arrested development roll over and play dead. Here she plays a car thief just out of the slammer after her dear old mom has gone to the big jump lead in the sky but not before leaving a cassette tapping either Delon or Belmondo as the biological father of Paradis. So, off she goes to find them, via a boosted car which just happens to belong to the Russian mafia who are not best pleased. She locates both Delon and Belmondo who are more or less forced to team up and take on the mafia - that's right, two over-the-hill hard men against god-knows-how-many nasty men. It's not all blowing up casinos and throwing heavies off cliffs cos in between we get lotsa laffs - think Duke Wayne and Bob Mitchum in 'El Dorado' and you're getting there. This is French so even the mayhem is done stylishly. Go see, enjoy. 8/10

taylor9885 You look at the birthdates and you shake your head. Belmondo at 65, Delon at 62--who can take them seriously as action heroes? Even Sean Connery had the sense to retire as Bond before he got too many grey hairs.Oh, there are some nice effects--good to see French producers shelling out for explosions and so forth, but this is a poor effort. Only thing to admire is Vanessa Paradis: her toothy grin and enthusiasm are growing on me, but see her in the far-better La Fille sur le pont.

lyl-1 Excellent duet of two the best French actors (Belmondo & Delon) who never played together before. And normal Russian language (pronunciation) and Russian people (not rough Hollywood stamp, but french humour). It is real light French cinema.