Les Parasites (1999)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I remember paying for my ticket and sitting in a mostly empty cinema, devoid of any expectation, and what a revelation it was! I laughed throughout, each pun, each line of dialogue perfectly hitting the mark. Now, I'm not saying that this movie is the work of a genius or that it is particularly subtle, because it isn't, but the group of people which made the movie was in a state of grace, they obviously were at the right place at the right time (in their career), working in perfect harmony and bringing a ton of ideas to an otherwise average movie director, the casting is perfect, Oulage Arbour is hilarious, and so is the rest of the cast. All the characters are nuts, excessive, almost caricatures, and yet they somehow feel real and almost endearing. The humor is just spot on, very fast, as if high on cocaine! It's just a blast to see the hero's seemingly simple plan of going to a New Year's Eve party to seal the deal, so to speak, with his would be girlfriend, go down the drain. As expected everything goes wrong and hilarity ensues, well for me anyway. Just give it a try, it just might surprise you!

Either you love, either you hate this movie. Personally I love it ! and I know a lot of person who love it too ! The story is quite simple, the main character is named Oulage and is going to the house party of one of his friend "Brigitte" for the new year's eve. Oulage like Brigitte a lot and the other way too, bu they had never admitted it to each other. Oulage had the intention to say "I love you" to Brigitte during this party and everything seems to be perfectly planed ! Unfortunately for Oulage, things did not worked out exactly how they should have and this is basically it...I have to agree that the story is not that great, but nobody like this movie because of the scenario. The real beauty of this movie is in the dialogs and some of the situations. It is almost mandatory to be a native French to understand the subtleties of the dialogs. It has also a lot of French "social references" that you may need to fully understand some jokes/dialogs.Well, this is to me (and some friends) one of the funniest movie ever and I was surprised to meet some people (I had never talked to before) who turned to be some big fans of this movie and especially the dialogs, just like me.A lot of dialog lines and intonations of the "Brigadier Schmitt" (brilliantly interpreted by Elie Semoune) are still used "in real life" for me and some friends.Give a chance to this movie and don't expect to have a great scenario nor some great pictures, everything is in the dialogs and situations. Nowhere else !

I think that "les parasites" is a hypocritical movie. Worse, it's a movie that doesn't focus on the main topic at all. However, the title of the movie is sufficient enough to draw the attention to the movie. You expect to see a place and a precise time (here it happens to be a New Year's Eve party) turned upside down by a band of parasites. Such a topic would have demanded a caustic and malicious humor.Well, at the end you're far short of the target. This New Year's Eve party is eventually like the ones you know. It means with slight rows from certain guests and without any major incidents. Moreover, you can't really say that they are parasites through and through because they don't mean to spoil a party and we even can't define who they are.Apart from this, "les parasites" is a muddle-headed and unfinished movie. Its screenplay is labored and doesn't avoid a quite important number of stereotypes. Some abortive situations with vain dialogs and, by moments, a crude humor don't save this movie from mediocrity, neither the excessive play of nearly all the actors.