John Brooks So this film starts out as clearly displaying its intent to be a film noir. The intrigue hits hard, the dialog and scenes are dense with an opaque atmosphere, there's tough guy talk and demeanor all over in each scene...and then, it switches right into all-out comedy. It appears the earlier bulk of the film was merely serving as an introduction then to a sort of ode to friendship and lightheartedness... but then the film towards the end goes back to its initial intrigue which seemed lost in the mix and made unimportant. It's not clear what the film is saying, and worse yet, it's not clear what the film...is. There are good scenes to be enjoyed, sure, but - what is this film really, as a whole ? Difficult to say. It would be difficult to summarize to someone as a plot as the film delves into various totally separate units, like it's some kind of collection of sketches and fun ideas to act out. One of the last scenes with the half-deaf Delafoy father and all the shooting occurring in the house is hilarious, and the wacky sound samples used to mimic the shots in itself are a funny concept. Ventura's brutal uncompromising character is fun to watch, but all in all there's not enough in the plot for the actors to be more than comic book rubber-quality characters and for the viewer to care at all for them, making the plot irrelevant and all the attention drawn to the purely entertaining fiber of the comedy. There's no substance to it, it's all about just having fun, and nothing else. Even a comedy should have something to sensitize the viewer, and some kind of message towards the end.

Bertrand GRONDIN 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.

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

joelroussel 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.