Movie Review

OSS 117 (2008)

Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman | May 16, 2008

Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman is a film critic for EW

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EW's GRADE

Details Limited Release: May 09, 2008; Rated: Unrated; Length: 95 Minutes; Genres: Action/Adventure, Comedy; With: Jean Dujardin

POLICE FARCE Jean Dujardin (right) is a kind of Jacques Bond in the understated French spy-movie satire OSS 117

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Drolly understated French comedy OSS 117 spoofs the superagents of the Bond era (it's set in 1955), but its hero isn't a broad nitwit. As played by Jean Dujardin, with an egocentric leer that suggests Sacha Baron Cohen impersonating Sean Connery, he's a very subtle nitwit who is so glad to be living the espionage life that he couldn't care less about a crisis involving radical Cairo Muslims, Nazis, and a chicken farm. There are more chuckles than laughs, but the film does a witty job of replicating the hermetic, overlit shot language of '60s studio movies. B

Originally posted May 16, 2008 Published in issue #992-993 May 23, 2008 Order article reprints

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