Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Just so...so bad

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This movie inspired the less successful "Buddy Buddy" which starred the Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon team. However, the original is better for many reasons here.Hit-man comes to Montpellier, France to recoup a failed assassination attempt of a witness about to tell all about the Mob. However, a depressed businessman who is about to lose his wife gets in the way, and trouble ensues...Great rendering by the late actor Lino Ventura (who did tough guys role throughout his career and had a fan base in Quebec, shot a couple of movies in Montreal...) and late poet/singer/actor Jacques Brel as the depressed Francois Pignon (who is a staple character to Francis Veber's many scripts, if we can remember "Le Diner De Cons" and other movies).Well written and real twists along the way. No matter this hit-man called this guy "annoying" (translated from the title in slang French: "L'Emmerdeur"). But this original still prevails from the failed remakes that followed (to all due respect to the original "Odd Couple" of Matthau and Lemmon).

I liked this film, not really belly laugh funny, but the situation comedy that Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel get themselves into, can be very humorous. Ventura plays an assassin who is trying to do a job, however he gets caught up with Brel's annoying and suicidal hypochondriac, foiling his attempts, by trying to commit suicide in the room next door to the room Ventura is in to do the hit. This causes the police to be called to the hotel. When they arrive however, Ventura persuades them that Brel is a friend and he will look after him and get him back on his feet. He decides to get rid of Brel, so that he can continue on his original task, but then ends up helping him to settle the score with his wife, who has left Brel for a rich medical doctor and that is when the real fun starts...!

This is one of those films that is so funny, it makes you (well me anyway) smile just to remember it.The essential storyline is of a professional hitman and a guy that he finds he can not get rid of. (The English translation of the title is pain-in-the-behind.)This is black comedy done to perfection with a brilliant gradual build-up. It starts straight-faced so, if you do not know what you are watching, it could be any old thriller. Gradually the gags come in until it reaches a manic pace.The two stars are the completely deadpan Lino Ventura and the songwriter Jacques Brel.It is sadly under-rated and hard-to-find. Seek it out!

This film essentially is a study of characters between a loser (Jacques Brel) and a hit man (Lino Ventura).This film, like many French comedies, has a Hollywood counterpart, "Buddy Buddy", with Walther Mathau and Jack Lemmon. Although not bad, the remake is nevertheless deceptive, as we were expecting much more from a movie in which the two principal characters are played by such great actors.