The Return of James Battle (2004)

Very well executed

Such a frustrating disappointment

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Atomik Circus is a crazy mix of comedy, musical, sci-fi and horror which, despite some great effects and a good deal of imagination, ultimately fails due to a poorly developed script and some bad pacing. The movie takes so long in introducing its offbeat characters that an hour passes before anything very interesting happens; by then, there isn't enough time left to develop a decent plot or even fit in a satisfying ending.Jason Flemyng play James Battle, a stuntman who is jailed when a disastrous motorcycle jump results in the destruction of the Sam Paradiso bar, owned by Bosco, influential citizen of Skotlett, a backwater town inhabited mostly by weirdos—but also by Concia (Vanessa Paradis), Bosco's daughter and girlfriend of James.Enter sleazy impresario Alan Chiasse (Benoit Poelvoorde) who pretends to be interested in promoting Concia's musical career, but who is really only interested in getting into her pants. As Alan is trying his best to seduce Concia, James is doing his utmost to reach his woman, having busted out of prison.When James finally arrives at Skotlett, he not only finds his girl being pawed at by sleaze-bag Alan, but he also discovers that the town is under attack from face sucking tentacled creatures from another dimension.The film only really gets going at this point, and it is here that we witness some great CGI monsters and lashings of gore, as the Lovecraftian beasts dismember and decapitate the helpless inhabitants of Skotlett. If the first 60 minutes had contained some of this crazy OTT action, I would have no hesitation in recommending Atomik Circus to fans of bizarre cinema; however, no amount of gore in the closing moments can make up for the tedious and disjointed first hour.And the ending is just downright bizarre....

maybe later i'll chill out and be able to judge more objectively - but with a fresh impression of just seen movie - it is definitely the worst i have ever seen. and such an impression worths sharing. any plot doesn't exist at all acting appearances are absent. including that of Vanessa Paradis - the one actress who could rise expectations. as a fiction movie, it does not meet expectations of spectacularity (do i spell right?) it makes farce of all genres, referred to it: nor horror, neither sci-fi, comedy nor adventure. the film is not one of them, rather a grotesque of itself.may be for one exception of musical appearance of an original singer - and that's what gives to 'atomik circus' not a negative evaluation or 1(awful) but 2/10

Not the usual movie, it belongs to this kind of movie that you love or hate. I belong to the first category.Definitivly worth a try. Someones rightfully mentioned bad taste - been a long time i have not heard about that movie - and while the two movies are rather different, they both belongs to the comedy/horror genre.I found myself laughing a lot watching the movie, and being surprised every here and there by references i would have not expected to found (i'm not going to spoil but there are many). Benoit is just excellent as an abusing impresario and despite i found Vanessa acting not as good, she shines as a singer and the overall ambiance and story had hooked enough to come here to comment about it.While i think this movie deserve a notation around 7-8 i gave him a 10 to balance the love/hate effect that lead many to gave it a 1.

In a nutshell - yet another french movie that has no clue as to what humor is and in frustration just exaggerates every possible thing to the point where it gets old and sh***y in less that 0.4 seconds. From a comment on IMDb I actually got the impression that similarly done movies in the 80's were actually a zhanra of its own. Spare me the explanation, please! It was one of the 5 movies I saw at the Horror Film Festival in San Sebastian this year and it was definitely the worst one. You basically just want it to end as soon as possible because it's actually just to annoying to watch. No sense or grasp of logical event timing in the movie at all, just throwing bits by bits of more and more crazy and crappy stuff at the viewer, just bad. Recommend - to people you don't like very much or if you want to impress someone with your bad taste in movies. 2/10