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Les Tontons Flingueurs More at IMDbPro »Les tontons flingueurs (original title)

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11 reviews in total

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26 out of 29 people found the following review useful:
Who's afraid of Lino Ventura?, 28 April 2005

Author: virchow from Zurich, Switzerland

For a number of years now they have fed us movies about the adventures of mutant superheroes (o.k., I admit I have seen and enjoyed one or two of them). This was preceded by the surreal Schwarzenegger-Stallone-Van Damme-decade (also called the eighties), with action-flick actors whose muscle mass far exceeded their acting skills. Before that, there was Dirty Harry and a wild selection of anti-heroes of all sizes, shapes and colors. But when, exactly, was it, that real men disappeared from the screen? The event that caused the extinction of such dinosaurs as Lino Ventura, Jean Gabin, Lee Marvin, Humphrey Bogart and the like must have been the counter-culture of the sixties. But what a loss it caused. We had movie-stars who were real, gentlemanly (sometimes), cool, human and funny as well as ugly but sexy and we went and replaced them with a bunch of guys in a mask and cape (and I don't mean Zorro).

Luckily we all have our VCRs and DVD players and blockbuster and amazon and are able to enjoy movies like Les Tontons Flinguers, one of the funniest, coolest and yet silliest movies of all time. Every actor a character, every dialogue a gem, every scene a revelation about how to make it look easy. Go see this film before you even contemplate to watch Spiderman III!

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22 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
The greatest firework..., 7 December 1998

Author: Ant-Roy from L.F.E.P, France

What is so special about this movie ? Its density... It lasts about two hours, and you don't have any time to breathe, because of the intelligence, and the spirit of every quote. It is a shame that there are no exemples of quotes from it on this site, it would make you laugh just to read them. Under the appearance of a classic dark detective movie, it is one of the funniest comedy ever made. The only thing is that, to keep the atmosfear, you ought to see it in original version (french). But, for Audiard and his humor, for Launtner and his inspired direction, and, most of all, for the actors (especially Bernard Blier) everybody in the whole world must see it at least once. One of the greatest french movies ever made (and God knows the quality of the french cinema) !

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15 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
You don't have to be French!, 24 July 2008

Author: discreetcharmofthevagina from United States

It seems like everyone makes a big deal about having to speak french, understand older french slang, etc. in order to enjoy this movie. I know about ten words of French, and still found this movie hilarious.

To assert that the dialogue is the central virtue of the film does the actors a HUGE disservice, in addition to limiting comedy to merely spoken jokes and gags. Lino Ventura is a great comedic presence, which may strike many as odd, taking into account his more well-known "serious" roles in films like Francesco Rosi's "Cadaveri eccellenti," and Jean-Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows." He is a very underrated, and often over-looked actor who could play comedy just as well as he could play seldom-speaking leaders of the French resistance.

Although I could certainly understand a knowledge of French culture and language certainly enhancing some of the nuances of the dialogue, do not be swayed away from this great film by the words of others declaring it is "too French." It is a classic comedy that transcends language barriers, and certainly serves as a great light-hearted companion piece to the many distinctive French gangster films of the era. Perhaps even surpassing many of them in sheer entertainment value.

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19 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
A master piece / chef d'oeuvre!!!, 27 September 1999

Author: Strato59 from NYC/PARIS

Les Tontons flingueurs is a real master piece! Audiard was a genius writing in "green language" (la langue verte, slang from 50's/60's full of sharp metaphor) its really irresistible.... Unfortunately this movie cannot be translated, too bad it deserve at least 10 oscars! for acting / senario / directing / etc... JP nyc

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12 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Un film "cult", 29 August 2005

Author: Bertrand GRONDIN from France

It was one of the greatest french comedies.

Dialogs were from Michel AUDIARD, but you must listen them in French.

It's theses dialogs which have made the notoriety of this movie. Five great actors are these "Monsieur GANGSTER" (Lino Ventura, Francis Blanche, Robert Dalban, Bernard Blier and Jean Lefebvre).

The greatest scene is when these five gangsters are drinking alcohol in the kitchen.

It's one of the funniest movies I've seen. If you don't speak french, it's more difficult to understand dialogs because translation is often different that original language.

Forty year later, I love always this film "cult".

Excuse me for my poor English.

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5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Simply love it !!!!!!!, 2 May 2008

Author: ensor_ostende-1 from France

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

OK, is not an easy movie to understand, if your not familiar to old french slang, the real argot if you see what I mean... yet, this is an easy movie to understand, since you don't need to be familiar to argot : les tontons flingueurs is a classic OK ? No need of big arguments, no need to summarize the movie to non-frenchspeakers, simply see it in original version (with subtitles or with a french friend) and you'll agree with me !!! This is a movie monument, this deserves to be IMDb's movie number one !!! If you didn't understand me... well, I'm use to it, that's why I sing Nina Simone's song...

Thank you

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11 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
'Uncle', already, 10 April 2004
Author: writers_reign

After the Killer Tomatoes we now have the Killer Uncles (a more or less literal translation of an untranslatable movie). The level of word-play may be guessed at even by non-French speakers when the credits announce it is based on the novel 'To grisbi or not grisbi', which is, in itself, a nod to another novel and classic French movie 'Touchez-pas aux grisbi', with 'grisbi' in both cases being underworld slang for 'loot' in the sense of 'hot' money. Although it has all the trappings of a 'gangster' entry this is actually a comedy of bad manners involving two factions led respectively by Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier. While ex-wrestler Ventura has no problem acting tough Blier, arguably the best actor in the piece by light years and equally at home across the acting spectrum, plays it for laffs so that what we wind up with is a melange. Another French classic. 8/10

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super cult french film noir spoof, 8 May 2012

Author: ericmarseille from France

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A gem, a gem, and again : a gem!

The most "cult" film of the french production, this film never gets old thanks to the fantastic dialogs of the genius Michel Audiard...

The only drawback? French, french and french as can be! to understand fully this film's incredible wit, one has to be able to recognize in full the subtle nuances of french language, from the rudest expressions of gangster speech to the most upscale diplomatic language, with so many intermediate stops that it's impossible to tell!

I wanted to translate a few of these gem dialogs but my review wouldn't be accepted...Too bad, one more treasure that will totally escape the anglo-saxon world...

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1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Killer movie, can bore you to death, 13 April 2012

Author: zufre from Sevilla, Spain

I watched this movie in two sittings. It was so boring that I had to make a pause and continue the following day. The story is very silly. That is usually OK for comedies but silly do not always means funny. And this movie is not funny at all. I like intelligent comedies but this was not the case either. Until about half the movie I was quite puzzled because it seemed to me simple like a bad gangster movie, nothing funny happened. I don't get why it was funny to see the same smacking scene again and again. Some have commented about the use of French language. I guess it all went over my head as I watched it subtitled. I can speak some French but probably not to the level needed to appreciate those subtleties. I would not recommend this movie to anyone.

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7 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Grandiose, 21 March 2004

Author: joelroussel from Paris

I agree with all reviewers of this film, though they don't seem to agree one with the other. The thing is they're all right depending on how you focus on it. The other point is most of the reviewers, if not all of them, are French. And that is the point. You have to be French, otherwise, you'll pass over what makes this film so brilliant. In other words, what would be the point watching "gone with the wind" being deaf and blind? Still, if you are able to catch the delicious subtleness and unbelievable richness of Parisian argot (slang spoken for over 500 years makes it vintage. doesn't it ?), it is definitely a must see. Still, I gave it a 10 -1 rating. 10 because it's worth it, minus 1 because it's French.

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