Atomik Circus - Le retour de James Bataille (2004)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Directors:

Didier Poiraud
Thierry Poiraud

Writers:

Jean-Phillippe Dugand (writer)
Marie Garrel Weiss (writer)

Release Date:

21 July 2004 (Belgium)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Horror | Music | Sci-Fi

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Car Obsession | Career Opportunity | Alien | Violence

Cast

Vanessa Paradis	...	Concia
Jason Flemyng	...	James Bataille
Benoît Poelvoorde	...	Allan Chiasse
Jean-Pierre Marielle	...	Bosco
Venantino Venantini	...	Matt Kelso
Vincent Tavier	...	Chef Brody
Bouli Lanners	...	Chip
Jacky Lambert	...	Dips
Dominique Bettenfeld	...	Peter Cheval
Mar Sodupe	...	Kitty
Vincent Belorgey	...	Boon / Ricardo Bello-Radio Skotlett
Daniel Cohen	...	Peintre
Gaëtan Chataigner	...	Un membre des Perros Negros
Federico Pellegrini	...	Un membre des Perros Negros / Le narrateur
Stéphane Louvain	...	Un membre des Perros Negros

Also Known As:

Le retour de James Bataille (France) (working title)
The Return of James Battle (USA)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

France | Germany | UK

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Germany:16 | France:-12 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

MMC Independent

Trivia:

Initially, the role of Bosco should have been played by Jean Yanne who began to work on the movie. But when he died in May 2003, the directors asked Jean-Pierre Marielle to take the role, and he accepted, partly because Jean Yanne was one of his friends.

wonderful insanity

Energetic and frequently mind-blowing excursion into manic cinema, this is a thoroughly enjoyable cross-genre science fiction tale – starts out as a love story between a backwoods wannabe rock starlet Concia (Vanessa Paradis, who has a face worth staring at for decades - damn you Johnny Depp!!) and a down-on-his-luck motorcycle stunt performer James (Brit actor Jason Flemyng); but her dad (respected French actor Jean-Pierre Marielle; aka the murdered professor from DA VINCI CODE) frames him for an accident and he goes to jail; but he escapes to try and be reunited with her. Meanwhile, face-sucking aliens land and begin decimating the populace, while in James' absence a chauvinistic entrepreneur claiming to be big in the music business tries to woo Concia with promises of stardom, while all manner of strange and warped townspeople have various activities and agendas of their own. It all explodes into an immense action climax. Filmed with hyper energy, most of its low budget spent on pretty convincing CGI effects for the aliens (I mean, they even have a mechanical dog instead of a real dog!), it's a thoroughly wonderful cinematic insanity, with something astonishing, humorous, disturbing, or very appealing at every turn.