Iznogoud (2005) - film review

Many years ago, at the beating heart of a great civilisation was a city of unrivalled splendour, governed by the all-loved and all-loving Calife Haroun El Poussah.  The Calife’s sole enemy is his vizir - the ambitious, scheming and thoroughly bad Iznogoud.  For years, Iznogoud has coveted the Calife’s power and resented his sickeningly yukky niceness.  Enough is enough!   Iznogoud has decided that it’s time for a change.  The Calife will die and he, the great, the wise, the thoroughly despicable Iznagoud, will take his place and an era of tyranny and oppression will commence!  Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds...

Patrick Braoudé’s flair for zany, well-observed comedy seems to have given way to sloppy self-indulgence in recent years.  After the disappointing Deuxième vie (2000), his latest directorial offering is this inept and painfully tedious adaptation of the well-known comic book stories by René Goscinny and Jean Tabary.  The film not only lacks the charm and humour of the original Iznogoud stories, it’s also excessively silly (in a way that is irksome and vulgar rather than engaging) and completely lacking in merit in just about every department – except possibly set and costume design (which elevate kitsch to a fine art).

Within the first five minutes it’s patently evident that the film (a grotesque pot pourri of pantomime, Bollywood and facile new wave comedy) is targeted exclusively at empty-headed, burger-chomping, alco-pop swigging adolescents who have no more discrimination for entertainment than they have for food and drink.   This is the cinematic equivalent of junk food - reconstituted tat, badly prepared, mildly toxic, and guaranteed to induce a serious bout of vomiting if consumed by anyone who is not inured to this kind of juvenile neurone-mutilating trash.

In one of his last roles before his early death, Jacques Villeret makes a valiant but pretty well doomed attempt at dragging the production out of the festering abyss of mediocrity into which it seems to be well and truly super-glued.  His co-star, Michaël Youn, does nothing to endear himself to his audience; as ever, his complacent, insipid brand of comedy (which consists mainly of an endless spectacle of snarls and grimaces to camera) shows a breathtaking lack of talent and originality.  As for the rest – you wonder what gives them the right to parade in front of a camera and inflict this kind of gratuitous tedium on an unsuspecting audience.

François Truffaut once famously said there is no such thing as a bad film, only bad directors.  If there is one film that absolutely proves him wrong, this is it.  Patrick Braoudé is capable of much better than this.   Iznogoud is exactly what it says on the tin.  Is-no-good.  An equally appropriate title would have been: Bloudiy Ouhrfoul. - but that would probably have been a bit too subtle.

© James Travers 2008 Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?