Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

ScoobyMint Disappointment for a huge fan!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

ElMaruecan82 Well the seventies marked quite a weird start for Louis de Funès, with "The Troop on Vacation" and "The Orchestra Man" but I could stand the musical and its avalanche of kitschy and psychedelic effects, I even gave it a good review. I'm not sure where I stand exactly with the fourth of the "Troops" series. I know what I hate and I didn't dislike it, to say that I loved it would be an overstatement though.Obviously, Jean Girault's film doesn't take itself seriously even as a comedy so any attempt to rationalize it would be sillier than the silliest gags (and God knows there were). But there's one thing the film "takes seriously" and it's the deep bond it created between the six members of the troop, the popularity of these guys and apparently, that was more sufficient than any possible plot. I give it the credit for at least trying to do without a plot and sometimes succeeding. After all, what kind of plot could they come up with? In fact, there was such a feeling of completeness when the previous film ended, when Ludovic Cruchot (Louis de Funès) got married with the aristocratic Josepha (Claude Gensac) that I don't think any writer could have come up with something that would justify another sequel. Children? Marital life? Another nudist camp situation? Drugs? They wouldn't exist in that planet. But it's true since the first opus, we never really saw the troop together, it has always centered on De Funès, Galabru and the rest of the time, in a ratio that I would evaluate at 70%, 25% and 5%. Now, it's not perfectly balanced but it's a good 40%, 35% and 25%, and what was the best way to bring our popular gendarmes together? Simply to set them apart at the start.At the beginning, Cruchot is seen in a rather unusual situation, asleep on his desk, he's immediately awakened by the superior officer who informs the whole troop that they're being discharged, in other words, they're asked to leave and their replacements are so impressively (e)motionless they tower over the taller gendarmes. Our lousy six leave the office in civilian clothes, followed by their wives. And six months later, we meet Cruchot trying to fit within his new aristocratic costume. I was reminded of Captain Haddock lamentably trying to stay on horse or keep a monocle when he inherited the Moulinsart castle. The sequence is an excuse for a series of great gags, some of the best visual gags from a De Funès film, but you can tell they're running out of ideas once it involves a red paint over a car and Gensac screaming all over the place. Thankfully, Gerber (Galabru) pays a visit to Cruchot, announcing him that poor Fougasse is amnesic, so they decide to take one last trip to cure him. You know there's something really lacking in the inspiration closet when you have to rely on amnesia, but even that last gasp of inspiration behind Jacques Wilfrid's typewriter provided many great moments, some that even worked on a self-referential effect, so weird that I hesitated many times between calling the film 'lousy' or 'genius'. There is some genius in the way the film sacrifices any bit of credibility for the sake of laughs, fun and nostalgia, with Cruchot showing archive footage from the previous film to Gerber, or when he asks Fougasse if he remembers him by mimicking the grimaces that made him famous.Indeed, you can't tell where De Funès started and Cruchot ended. The approach culminates with the gendarmes playfully singing the theme of the movie, in the car or walking or bouncing all over the way, there are more shots of the six men together in that film than the first three combined. As for the iconic march, Funès insisted to have the theme played many times but the whole self-awareness of the film provided a surreal dimension, especially when they were trying to avoid the "real" gendarmes. They even meet the driving nurse and she asks them how come they always meet in every film, this is not even a figure of speech, film means film. The wink De Funès gave him at the end proves that it's all of a big joke and that's how we should embrace it. That the fight involves a crazy missile and children should dissipate any remaining doubt.The film loses its way more than once, making the hippie, sheep and nun part longer than needed but overall, it is is perhaps the last hurrah of the Troop series with the six original members, one last time before they would take Louis de Funès again to a sorry ride into the Sci-fi genre, nine years later. But the film proves one thing that if there's a director who contributed to De Funès' legacy, it's Gérard Oury, the next movie the actor would play were "The Orchestra Man", "Delusions of Grandeurs" and "The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" and they allowed his talent to be expressed in different situations, the Gendarme film is good entertainment, but there was more De Funès had to prove to consolidate his legend.

sergey-dio Louis De Funes, of course, is a wonderful actor. Especially for those who like classic comedies. I do, so I collecting his movies for a couple of years. Many can say that Gendarmes is commercial series, and it's not showing the true talent of Louis de Funes, I will not agree with it. Maybe Gendarmes in New York and Gendarmes and Gendarmettes is not a great movies, but they have their good parts too. Of course, it's not the same to the Funes's greatest hit Oscar, but it costs it's price! It's truly the best part of the Gendarmes Series! De Funes and others doing their best there. Many can say that Gendarmes from Sent-Tropes is much better, but it's not. Because there is many great jokes but not much of an action. So, I think that's it's the golden middle of the series. This movie is a wonderful piece of constant action and great jokes. Jokes there aren't the same as in modern pictures, maybe sometimes they aren't funny at all, but if you look at the people who jokes(gendarmes) - you'll see what I mean. So, for me it was a good movie in my childhood and now...it became classic!

dbdumonteil Now that Cruchot is married with Josepha,now that he is rich ,now that he has got nothing to do but rest in his missus's desirable mansion,what is left for him to do? Retirement is not his cup of tea and he feels nostalgic for the good old time when he was a gendarme and he had fun with his colleagues and his superior Gerber (Michel Galabru).He finds back his old pals,and they come back to work,in an unofficial capacity.Their good humor will come back again too.Of course Sister Marie-Benedicte (and mother superior)character is featured ,but Cruchot's daughter ,Nicole ,is absent for the first time in the series.She will never appear afterward.

haquenin and one of De Funes' funniest ever. The fourth movie in the Gendarme series, this story finds the boys in forced retirement from the cushy police job at St. Tropez because they've become too old. When the Adjutant (Galabru) comes to visit De Funes to reminisce about old times, they discover that one of their old group (Fougasse) has had a head injury, has amnesia and is in an institution. They decide to get the old gang back and save him. But to save him, they decide to kidnap him and don their old Gendarme uniforms so they can bring back his memory of who he is. That's where the fun starts, because soon they are pursued by real Gendarmes for impersonating false Gendarmes. It's silly fun but very funny, thanks to brilliant performances by De Funes and Galabru.Throughout the film, there are too many funny moments with De Funes to mention. In the early scenes, I died laughing when De Funes, now a rich man for having married into wealth, punches out his maid repeatedly in the face. De Funes' outlandish comedic rages have often been compared to the manic temper of Donald Duck. In another scene, De Funes is at his absolute best when mumbling incredible gibberish when he and his false Gendarmes get stoned on marijuana in a hippie commune, where they are forced to hide from the real Gendarmes pursuing them. But one of the very best scenes of De Funes in any movie is when the false Gendarmes arrive upon a traffic accident and can't help themselves; they must don their old uniforms and become cops again if only for a few moments. In this scene, De Funes uses a police whistle to clear the accident from the road and, from the sounds he makes, you can actually understand what words in cop language his cadence implies. It's unforgettable. The man was a genius and there will never be another.