Les Anges Gardiens (1995)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1995
	Director: Jean-Marie Poiré (Le père Noël est une ordure, L'opération Corned Beef)
	Actors: Gérard Depardieu (36, Quai des Orfevres), Christian Clavier (Les Visiteurs), Eva Grimaldi
	Country: F
	Genre: Comedy, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 18.12.2016, 42" TV
Synopsis: Nightclub owner Antoine Carco (Depardieu) travels to Hong-Kong to rescue the son of a former gangster friend who called him just before dying. There he places the son for a while in the hands of Father Tarain (Clavier).
Review: Director of many French hits I have known in my youth, Jean-Marie Poiré was responsible in 1982 for Le père Noël est une ordure and was hitting the jackpot in the 90's with three successful movies in a raw: L'opération Corned Beef (1991), Les Visiteurs (1993) and Les Anges Gardiens (1995). With those movies he proved to be the king of the French Action Comedy thanks to ultra-dynamic stories, a fast pace well put in images with a nervous editing, with no doubt learned from American 80's examples but adapted in his own style. I hadn't seen the movie in 20 years and was impressed by how the story unfold: it takes some 30 minutes of Action before we first see the second half of the Comedy couple with the character of the Father Tarain (Clavier playing a bit too much like in Les Visiteurs), and some 30 more before we meet the Guardian Angels of the title! But this is not a bad thing, as it spreads new possibilities for humour along the whole movie, and the rhythm doesn't slow down as it does in most other comedies. And if that was not enough to keep you awake, you get to see gorgeous babes like Eva Herzigova in the shortest apparels all along as well. The gags are easy and not very subtle but delivered at such a pace and without slowing down that the whole thing is quite funny. Some details will always make me laugh like the haircut of Clavier with always a spike of hair that can't get brushed. Depardieu and Clavier form a great opposite couple and their respective Angels are deliciously extreme. I am not a big fan of French comedies but I have to admit I like this one tanks to his energetic qualities and maybe some nostalgia.
Rating: 7 /10