Dead Weight (2002)

It is the story of two types: Moltes a criminal in prison and Reggio one of the guards. Crazy adventures happen when following a winner ticket to Africa, they competes in a rally and are chased by the Turk, a sworn enemy of Moltes.

Directors:

Alain Berbérian, Frédéric Forestier

Writers:

Alexandre Coquelle (as Matt Alexander), Manuel Delilez

Stars:

Gérard Lanvin, Benoît Poelvoorde, José Garcia

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gérard Lanvin	...	Moltès
Benoît Poelvoorde	...	Francis Reggio
José Garcia	...	Mustapha Amel alias "Le Turc"
Djimon Hounsou	...	Det. Youssouf
Rossy de Palma	...	Pauline Reggio
Jean Benguigui	...	Saddam
Gary Tiplady	...	Le géant / The Giant
Gérard Darmon	...	Kowalski
Stomy Bugsy	...	Malian #1
Marco Prince	...	Malian #2
Omar Sy	...	Malian #3 (as Omar)
Nicolas Anelka	...	Nicolas, the soccer player
Jacky Lambert
Renaud Rutten
Innocent Mboumgou

Storyline

It is the story of two types: Moltes a criminal in prison and Reggio one of the guards. Crazy adventures happen when following a winner ticket to Africa, they competes in a rally and are chased by the Turk, a sworn enemy of Moltes.

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Plot Keywords:

2000s | electronic eavesdropping | france | mali | sahara | 

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Taglines:

Fransk, fart og humor, der overhaler "Taxi" indenom![Denmark]

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Genres:

Adventure | Action | Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some crude sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Warner Bros France (French)

Country:

France UK

Language:

French

Release Date:

10 April 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

Ball and Chain

Filming Locations:

Avenue Marceau, Paris 8, Paris, France

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$17,006,200

Company Credits

Production Co:

France 2 Cinéma, France 3 Cinéma, La Petite Reine

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The man at the airport reading the newspaper with Moltes' picture on the back is the Production Manager, Jean-Marc Deschamps

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Goofs

When the silver Peugeot is being driven parallel to the rogue Ferris wheel, the main character is seen honking the horn by hammering on the centre of the steering wheel. This model of car's horn is on the end of the indicator stalk, not on the wheel itself.

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Connections

References The Usual Suspects (1995)

User Reviews

It's not Benoît Poelvoorde who is the millstone but the movie itself!

Launched in the Spring 2002 in France, "le boulet" was hugely successful (more than 3 million of spectators in the French theaters). Why? This success remains both mysterious and unexplainable because Alain Berbérian's movie's got every conceivable fault, every fault imaginable so that you can name it: the perfect load of rubbish. It consists on an uninspired and hackneyed script with threadbare topics. Dialogs that aren't very worked and a poor directing that emphasizes too much on special effects.

But above all, "le boulet" is a bad movie because it borrows mostly elements or sequences from a lot of French movies. Thus, you find traces of "la cité de la peur" (1994) made by the same director, always Berbérian. But you also think about "la soif de l'or" (1993) and "la grande vadrouille" (1966) both made by Gérard Oury. Even the duo of characters with opposed disposition (here, we deal with the frail Poelvoorde and the heartless Lanvin) and who are however compelled to work together isn't original. Indeed, this comic device had been already used (and brilliantly) by Francis Veber. You only have to watch "la chèvre" (1981) or "les fugitifs" (1986) to realize it.

With this poor movie that looks hollow, we deal with a very serious situation: it would appear that French comedy is declining...