Mais qui a tué Pamela Rose?

(If you want to see this movie, you might not want to read my comment, which contains spoilers).

"Mais qui a tué Pamela Rose" is the natural product of two men who have been watching too many American "whodunit". Hey, come on, we all have seen so many of those... and we like it, don't we? What's better than a "film noir"? That's probably what Kad and Olivier thought too; so they made a parody of these movies for us - and a rather good one. The peculiar thing about this movie is that the authors went to the very end of their idea. Along with all the murder and inquiry plot, they took from American "whodunit"... America. Hey, what if we all were American? So, they took natural sets and landscape of France and pretended them to be some Middle West place called Borsnville. Of course, they transformed them a little, and some sets are actually convincing (I think of the restaurants scenes, and the Motel). The characters are American too. Americans from the depth of America, characters taken straight out of some dark road movie. (the strip-teaser, the sheriff, the radio guy...).

Kad and Olivier have made what no one else has done before: on purpose, they have recreated a unique America, one made with heart by admirers who pretend they only know it from the outside, from movies. For instance, the name of the secondary characters are uncongruous common names, English words that just stick out from films when we see them over here: Mr Donuts, Dan Nuggets... and Riper has a recommendation from... Stevie Wonder! Another example of that is the "FBI University"... I really don't think such a thing exists!

In this extraordinary set evolve characters who want so badly to be American, who truly seem to believe they are. Jean-Pierre Rouve is great -and subtle- as this sheriff who feels that he might be homosexual... Darmont is impressive as a leather figure with santiag boots (I never thought I'd see him clad like that!). And, of course, Kad and Olivier -almost convincing in FBI agents!- are such as they always are: funny.

Well, time is to talk about the most important thing: the movie itself, its rhythm, its humour. If you like Kad and Olivier's sense of humour, you won't be disappointed. From the very first minute (a dedication to Christopher Colombus, the lad who "invented" America) to the last it is there, made of very seriously pronounced nonsense and silly drifts in classical situations -I like it because it is more of a language humour than a visual one. The first thirty minutes of the movie are hilarious, like this scene where Kad deals with Colombian drug dealers, or Olivier teaching in the FBI University. The second part of the movie is too slow with many punch lines just not up to our expectations. But overall, one has a very good time with this rather subtle parody: a good plot, good actors, and the precious feeling it's not been seen before.

This is a french comedy i wanted to see very much because the brains behind it (Kad & Olivier) are funny and cool and also because the idea is highly original : in order to pay a tribute to American shows, the duo wanted to get the feeling of those production while making the movie in France ! So they had to find locations, props, frames that could feel American. This effort seems nearly achieved as we totally forget it's french in France.

However the big problem here is that the movie is a bit dull, slow and lacks energy. Unlike the infamous ZAZ movies, this one doesn't know how to pull the criminal investigation and loses itself in too much gags and too much convolution… At the end, the movie is just crazy to be crazy. For example, the health quest for the cop partner slows everything.

In conclusion, the effort made in production is a bit lost in a weak story. In that light, i think that their sequel is much better than this one !

Great, funny, 1000000 degree, a great movies to forget trouble of the day! Kad & O are equal to themselve, a very good comedie, the support roles ares great, but who killed Pamela Rose? go to see it , it's so funny! a french comic's bomb in this sade smelly neo fascist world , hope everyone will go and enjoy it.

I only went to see this film because it was partly filmed at my halls of residence in Paris... I was expecting the worst, but it was actually very funny. Full of good visual jokes and bad translations - the crime scene tape is marked 'Yellow scotch of the police', and the police phone 'Service apres Vannes' (a suburb where it was filmed). Semi-improvised dialogue and some very funny supporting characters mean that this (unlike a lot of French films) is genuinely funny.

I watched this film totally by accident on a TV channel and I was mesmerized by how funny it was. The whole thing was so surreal (everybody in the US speaking French for example). I just have to share this one bit with you. The two FBI agents are in the car and one says something like "We can go faster" and he takes out of his pocket an audio tape on which he has recorded the sound of the engine of a Ferrari cabrio he was previously on. He puts the tape in the tape recorder and just because of the Ferrari sound the car he is currently driving went faster.

I was laughing my head off and it was one of the funniest and most unexpected things that I ve seen in a movie.And guess what this movie is full of such moments.

As luck would have it I had rented "Dodgeball" the day before...and there really is no comparison to the pacing and the quality of the jokes. This little French movie is simply amazing in my book (and I didn't even watch the first 30 mins or so that the reviewer said were even funnier,lol) Probably it is hard to find (I watched it under the English title "Bullit and Ripper") but the Greek translation was actually of the original French title displayed above.