Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

djansen24 This is a very funny film by any country's standards. It DOES assume you know something about French geographic stereotypes, but if you have a French buddy by your side (or you have an Aunt who used to live there like I did), then they can clarify it to you really quick. Here's my quick lesson: Southern France - Rich, pastoral, civilized, good...Northern France - the boonies. Of course, that's the prevailing stereotype played for laughs, but the laughs come not from the truth of it, but because of the opposite. And then it gets even more fun and freewheeling. If French is not your mother tongue, the English subtitles do a good job it translating not just standard French, but country accents and slang. You see that there is a difference between the way people talk in different regions. The set-up of the movie is funny and the end pay-off is very satisfying. The characters are all memorable and warm. There is no bad guy, just people who grow to care about each other. In the end, it is about embracing people for who they are as much as it is about standing up for yourself. And it is sooooooo nice to finally see a modern continental European movie without a gratuitous sex scene. The continent could learn quite a bit about filming innocence and whimsy and not always depicting gritty realism. This movie is a great comedy!

kereader I studied Spanish for five years and have a deep, unrelenting bias to all foreign films that are not Spanish. I did not go into this French comedy – translated to Welcome to the Sticks – with very much hope that it was going to be a good film.I could not have been any more incorrect.Welcome to the Sticks is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, foreign or domestic. It's about a guy – Philippe – who tries to con his way into getting a better job in warm, sunny southern France by pretending he's handicapped, gets caught, and is punished by being sent to The North. Everyone knows that The North is full of lazy, uneducated people and freezing weather and just absolute awfulness all around. Philippe is not excited, and his wife, Julie, is furious. She refuses to move with him and instead stays at home with their son. Philippe has to travel back on the weekends to visit his family.But when Philippe arrives in The North, he discovers that it's nothing like the rumors he's heard; everyone is super friendly and everything is beautiful. The only problem is, they speak in a dialect that is almost impossible to understand. Hilarity ensues and the story continues, and Philippe lies to his wife and tells her that everything is terrible in The North, which actually helps to strengthen their marriage.This was an incredibly cute film. The person who wrote the commentary even made the dialect come through in written English words, which was a little frustrating at first but helped English-only speakers to better understand the story. I would highly recommend this movie, and I kind of wonder if there could ever be an English equivalent to it – I think it would be almost impossible to do, which makes this movie especially unique, in my opinion. I give this film nine out of ten stars, and you should definitely choose this as your next Friday night rental.

karinebdc As a French person (from the south) I thought that this film is SO bad, SO poor, The only bit that made me laugh was the bit with "Michel Galabru".. Now, this guy is a true and excellent french actor.. However, Dany Boon and Kad Merad (whom I've never heard of before) were so bad, my god!! It is not surprising that France is going through such a bad time at the moment as it is populated with millions of manipulated morons having no more than 8 years old mental age!! Also, it is said that the film cost 11 million Euros!! But how the hell they spent such an enormous amount of money?? The film is just a very cheap 80s style film.. I guess the actors got a real fat salary out of this!!

TallGuy Finally we went to see this movie on the (not-so) big screen of a local art-house cinema. I definitely enjoyed it, but it's nothing truly special. The humour ranged from predictable to quite funny, avoiding boredom. Some slightly deeper themes were touched on lightly. The actors were decent, especially the two male leads, but largely restricted to typecast roles. While at first the jokes about the prejudices and clichés within France are funny enough, I would have preferred a slightly more subtle treatment. On the positive side, the movie has no delusions of grandeur, it tells its simple story in a nice straight forward way. I guess some of its enormous success in France stems from the fact that for once we don't have Parisians as main characters but everyday people from 'France profonde'.All in all, more a pleasant rosé, nice to drink but not really lasting, than a premier cru.